Press the space bar or tap the Generate button and a new palette appears instantly. Lock any swatches you want to keep, then keep shuffling — only the unlocked colors change. You can also switch the harmony mode (random, monochrome, analogous, complementary, or triadic) to control how the colors relate to each other on the color wheel.

Yes. Every swatch has a lock button. Locked colors never change when you shuffle, and in harmony modes the first locked color becomes the anchor for the whole scheme — so you can lock your brand color and generate matching monochrome, analogous, complementary, or triadic companions around it.

Your palette is saved into the page URL as you work, in the form ?colors=aabbcc-ddeeff-... Copy the link from the address bar and send it to a teammate or client — opening the link restores the exact same palette, which they can then tweak, reshuffle, or export themselves.

Anywhere from 3 to 8 colors. Five is the default because it maps neatly onto most design systems: a primary, a secondary, an accent, a background, and a text color. When you increase the count, your existing colors are preserved and only the new slots are generated.

Yes. The CSS export produces a ready-to-paste :root block with --color-1 through --color-n custom properties. The JSON export includes hex, RGB, and HSL values for every swatch, and the PNG export renders a labeled color strip you can drop into mood boards, briefs, or slides.

It is free to use and export without creating an account. Palette generation and harmony math stay in your browser.

Color Palette Generator does not take a file. It works from the base colour and options you choose. If nothing is generated, check that the fields on the page are filled in and, where a link is needed, that the whole link was pasted.

Yes — the default look is deliberately obvious so you can see what the tool does, and most photos read better well below it. If the page has a strength or intensity slider, bring it down until the effect looks like a decision rather than a filter; if it has only style choices or an instruction box, pick a milder style or ask for a subtler look and generate again. Compare against your original before you download.

Color Palette Generator supports free standard use within the published processing allowances. Free downloads are clean — no watermark. No signup is required for standard tool use. Photo effects and AI edits have a web-size limit on Free, with the original-resolution result available through Premium or one credit. Crop, resize, rotate, compress and convert stay full size. Published processing allowances and file limits still apply.

No — Color Palette Generator runs in the browser on desktop and phone. There is nothing to install, no trial to start, and no license to buy before you can see whether it does what you need. Try it on the file you are actually stuck with rather than a sample.

The space bar is ignored while a button, text field or dropdown has focus, so that pressing it still activates that control. Click an empty part of the page first, then press space, or select the Generate my palette button instead.

The link stores only the HEX codes of the colors, not which ones were locked. Everyone who opens it starts with all swatches unlocked, so lock the colors you want to keep before you press the space bar or select Generate my palette again.

Yes. Open the page with ?colors= and then 3 to 8 HEX codes without the # sign, separated by hyphens, for example ?colors=3b82f6-f6af3c-0f172a. Codes that are not valid HEX are skipped, and fewer than three valid codes gives you a fresh random palette.

The generator picks colors by harmony and does not test them against text or backgrounds. Take each color you plan to use for text into the Color Picker tool, which shows its contrast ratio against white and black with an AA or AAA rating.

This generator builds colors from color-wheel rules and does not read images. To pull the dominant colors out of a photo, logo or screenshot, use the Color Picker tool, then bring a color you like back here and lock it to build matching shades.

Analogous gives a calm, related look, Complementary gives strong contrast for buttons and highlights, Monochrome suits a quiet one-hue interface, and Triadic is livelier. Random is best for exploring. Lock your main color, try each mode, and keep the one where the accents stay in support.