There’s lots of color palette tools out there, and it’s hard to know what works best. Chances are you don’t have time to test out the hundreds of color palette tools available, so we’ve done the guesswork for you. Most importantly though, all of these tools are free.
Depending on what your specific needs are, I’ve organized this list into a few categories:
Color Palette Tools For Accessibility
When talking about Color Palette Tools, accessibility comes first. Period. Whatever color palette you choose, make sure it’s friendly to all of your users! This curated list of color palette tools has been designer tested and approved. Let’s get colorful!
#1 Colorable
Need to know how well two colors contrast? This tool gives you the ability to check exactly how well your colors contrast. Generally a contrast score of 4 or above is considered baseline acceptable, but you should still use your judgment. Does this color combo hurt your eyes? Chances are your users will feel the same.
Although this tool is simple, it’s pretty handy to have.
#2 Accessible Color Palette Matrix
Need a more in-depth analysis of color contrast? This tool will give you an overview of what color combinations you should use based on contrast. This is incredibly useful for developing the design language of your user experience.
Not only is contrast important for accessibility, it can make or break the aethstetic aspect of your project.
Color Palette Tools With Expertly Curated Color Palettes
#3 Coolors
If you need ideas and versatility, then this is the tool for you. Coolors has a large database of curated color palettes that you can export and edit. This widely used color picker tool is great for generating ideas and sharing them.
#4 Color Hunt
Color Hunt lets you look through tons of user generated palettes. These curated palettes are simple and balanced when it comes to color. And you can even try your hand at creating color palettes for fun and see who likes them!
#5 My Color Space
This tool is particularly interesting and unique because it generates relational color palettes based off of a single hex code. If you want to see how your main color could be displayed in relation to its related colors then this is the tool for you. It gives you everything from gradient steps, to relational color palettes to random related colors.
If you’re looking to create a quick list of options then this tool is excellent.
Tools For In Depth Color Theory
Do you need a bit more precision in your color selection? These tools are definitely for the advanced color coordinator. If you’re looking to create a robust design language that’s color-centric then these are the tools for you.
#6 Adobe Color Wheel
Choose colors based on their relational hues, saturation, and contrast to create color harmony. You can even create and organize color themes and save them to your adobe cloud account. This color picker tool can even choose a color palette based on an image.
#7 Color Box
Above all this is one of my all time favorite color palette tools simply because of how simple, yet robust it is. It’s got everything you could ever want in a color palette tool.
#8 W3 Schools HTML Color Picker
Of course, no list would be complete with out W3 Schools. This bare bones classic color palette tool gets the job done. You can compare contrast, and relational colors. In addition this tool is useful if you want to learn a little more about hex codes and how they work.
Color Palette Tools For Material Design
We all know that choosing a color palette for a material design project isn’t as easy as it looks, especially if you want to deviate from the general material ui colors. These tools will make your life just a little bit easier.
#9 Material Palette
If you’re in need of a quick way to choose a decent color palette for material design, then this is the tool for you. It’s easy, fast and well laid out.
#10 Material Design Color Tool
This tool is a real time saver when trying to figure out a color scheme for a material design project. It’s especially helpful because it’s got accessibility baked right in.
Color Palette Tools For Gradients
Next up is gradients!
Gradients add a lovely splash of color to whatever your working on! In fact these gradient tools happen to be long time favorites of mine and I hope you enjoy them too!
One thing that sets these tools apart for me in particular though, is that you can click each gradient and copy the CSS for it.
#11 Grabient
A beautifully crafted gradient tool, and my personal favorite when it comes to gradients. With this in mind it has a set of curated and customizable gradients that are just lovely. You can even export them to sketch in bulk.
#12 Coolhue
Another cool tool is Coolhue. This tool offers a lovely curated list of hue-based gradients as well as a sketch plugin to go along with it. It’s simple, pretty, and clean.
#13 Web Gradients
Next up we’ve got Web Gradients. A lovely source for beautifully curated pastel and soft toned gradients. Add a touch of feminine charm to your project with these gorgeous gradients.
Just For Fun
#14 Canva
While other tools like Adobe Color Wheel do allow you to choose color palettes based on uploaded images, this simple and sweet tool does the job too. It even dynamically names colors and does a good job of capturing the color story of the image.
