Resources / Colors
From Coolors and Adobe Color to Khroma and Color Hunt, this collection covers every stage of working with color: palette generation, CSS gradients, accessibility contrast checking, and brand color lookup.
Quick Guide
Use CodeHelper's tools when you need:
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- •Fast, client-side operations
Use external tools when you need:
- •Team collaboration features
- •Cloud storage & synchronization
- •Extensive template libraries
All Tools
Color Brewer 2
Palette generator built for cartography and data visualization. Filters for colorblind-safe, print-friendly and photocopy-safe schemes, exports to CSS, JS arrays and GIMP palettes.
Open source, created by Cynthia Brewer and Mark Harrower at Penn State, now maintained by Axis Maps.
Huetone
Editor for building accessible color systems with predictable contrast. Works in CIELAB space and checks ratios with the APCA algorithm used in WCAG 3 drafts.
MIT licensed, open source on GitHub, built with chroma.js.
Colormind.io
Palette generator trained on photographs, movies and art with a deep learning model. Lock colors to guide new generations or pull a palette from an uploaded image.
Free API access for generating palettes programmatically.
ColorCurves.app
Palette generator that plots colors on an editable curve instead of a single algorithm, so you can shape a gradient of hues by dragging control points.
ColorGradient
Visual builder for CSS gradients covering linear, radial and conic types, supporting the full CSS background specification including layered and patterned gradients.
Free, no account required.
Coolors
Palette generator used by Netflix and Microsoft design teams, press spacebar to cycle schemes, extract colors from photos, and check contrast for accessibility.
Free tier caps 10 saved palettes, 1 project and 5 colors; Pro is 3 USD per month.
HTML Color Codes
Reference and picker covering hex, RGB and HSL conversion, 140 named CSS colors, preset charts for Tailwind and Material Design, plus a contrast checker.
Free, built by design studio Dixon and Moe.
Colors & Fonts
Combines palette building, contrast testing, font pairing and mesh gradient or shader creation in one workspace, with export to common design formats.
Google Material Color Tool
Official Material Design color system covering tonal palettes, dynamic color and contrast roles for light and dark themes, with HSL and hex export per role.
The old material.io color tool was retired; this is the Material 3 color system page.
Material Palette
Generates five-color Material Design palettes from two base colors, with matching icon and text color suggestions for Android and web interfaces.
ColorSpace
Builds a full palette or a two- or three-stop gradient from a single input color, useful when you already have one brand color and need the rest.
FlatUIColors
Fourteen curated flat-design palettes totaling 280 colors, each swatch gives hex, RGB and HSL on click, grouped by country-style naming like Flat UI and China.
Adobe Color
Adobe's color wheel for building harmonies such as complementary, triadic and monochromatic, plus image-based extraction and a built in contrast checker.
Free to use, an Adobe account is needed to save palettes to a library.
Colorsinspo
Bundles a contrast checker, image color extractor, Tailwind palette generator and gradient studio with thousands of browsable curated palettes.
Free, includes a Figma plugin and processes images on device.
ColorsWall
Browsable library of user submitted color palettes with hex and RGB conversion tools and a contrast checker, palettes can be generated without an account.
Account needed only to save or submit palettes.
Happyhues
Shows each color palette applied to a real mock interface instead of plain swatches, so you can see how a scheme reads across buttons, cards and text.
Free, a side project by Mackenzie Child built with Webflow.
Adobe Trends
Browses color trend palettes pulled from the Behance and Adobe Stock creative communities, filterable by industry, for research before picking a scheme.
Color Hunt
Hand curated palettes sorted by mood, season and aesthetic such as pastel, vintage or neon, with new, popular and random sort order and a save collection.
Free, created by Gal Shir, Chrome extension available.
Gradient Hunt
Community submitted gradient collection you can browse and copy as CSS, aimed at designers who want a ready background gradient without building one.
Web Gradients
180 ready CSS gradients meant as content backdrops, each with copyable CSS3 code and matching Sketch, Photoshop and Figma files.
Free for personal and commercial use, made by Dima Braven.
ColorBox
Generates full color scales by adjusting hue, saturation and steps rather than single swatches, exports to Tailwind config, OKLCH and Swift.
Free, has a Figma plugin, built by Kevyn.
CSS gradient
Interactive gradient builder with angle and color stop controls for linear and radial gradients, plus swatch libraries pulled from brands like Stripe.
Free, built by Designstripe.
Gradienta
Library of ready CSS gradients that also ships matching JPG exports, useful when you need a raster version for an og image or a flat background.
UI Gradients
Simple browsable collection of named two-color gradients with one click copy of the CSS, built for quickly grabbing a background without tuning stops.
Palette Generator
Minimal generator that produces a new five-color palette every time you press the spacebar, built for fast random exploration rather than fine control.
Material Palettes
Library of over 3,300 Material Design style palettes you can browse by tag such as pastel or neon, copy hex codes, or generate from a reference image.
Free, palettes are license free, export to JSON.
Grabient
Generates and browses CSS, SVG and PNG gradients in linear, angular and radial styles, with a searchable library of community made gradients.
Open source on GitHub with over 2,000 stars.
ShadeSwash
Generates a full range of tints and shades from one base color, useful for building hover, border and background states that stay in one family.
Free, open source, built by varlevi and GitHub contributors.
BrandColors
Database of official hex codes for recognizable company and product brands, downloadable as ASE, CSS, SCSS, LESS or Stylus for matching brand assets.
Over 600 brands and 1,600 codes, community submissions accepted via GitHub.
Brand Palettes
Searchable reference of brand color palettes and logo colors in hex, RGB, CMYK and Pantone, organized by industry with transparent logo downloads.
Covers over 2,846 brands, free to browse.
Colorate
Browsable color scheme gallery aimed at drawing inspiration for a project palette, grouped by combinations rather than single swatches.
0to255
Takes one hex color and lays out every lighter and darker step from 0 to 255, built specifically for picking hover, border and shadow shades that match.
Color Blender
Takes two colors and calculates the midpoint shades between them in a configurable number of steps, a focused single purpose tool from Eric Meyer.
Free, no account, part of meyerweb.com's long running CSS tools.
Gradient Buttons
Library of ready made gradient styled buttons you copy and paste as CSS, skips building hover and shadow states for a button from scratch.
Khroma
Trains a small model on fifty color picks you make, then keeps generating palettes matched to that taste, searchable by hue, tint and value.
Free, built by George Hastings.
Whocanuse
Shows how a text and background color pair actually looks to people with red, green or blue color blindness, cataracts, glaucoma or low vision, not just a pass or fail grade.
Open source, maintained by Corey Ginnivan.
Colorable
Live contrast ratio tester with sliders for hue, saturation and lightness on both text and background, generates random pairs and shareable results.
Open source, built by Jxnblk.
Saruwakakun
Forty curated color schemes grouped by mood like cool, warm or powerful, each one previewed on a sample mobile app screen so you see it in context.
Paletton
Color wheel tool using RYB theory to build monochromatic, triad and tetrad schemes, with a colorblindness preview and export to Photoshop or GIMP formats.
Free, ad supported, donations accepted.
Colorzilla
Browser extension adding an eyedropper, color picker and page color analyzer, plus a separate online Photoshop style CSS gradient editor.
Free, available for Firefox and Chrome.
Color Lovers
Long running community site for palette sharing, browse popular and trending color schemes submitted by other designers with hex codes attached.
HTML CSS Color
Color picker and wheel with a gradient generator and reference tables for named HTML and CSS colors, plus hex, RGB, HSL and CMYK conversion.
CoolHue 2.0
Curated gradient set delivered as plugins for Sketch and Figma so you can insert them without leaving the design tool, plus Photoshop swatch files.
Free, built by Webkul.
Colors.lol
Generates whimsical, overly descriptive color names alongside hex codes, originally produced by a Twitter bot, useful for naming design tokens.
Colors Dopely
Browsable palettes, single colors and gradients from other designers, with a studio for building and a contrast checker for the result.
Freemium, core browsing is free, Pro unlocks extra tools.
UIColor Picker
Upload or paste an image and click any pixel to read its hex, RGB, HSL, CMYK or OKLCH value, then build a palette or gradient from what you picked.
Free, no login, images are processed in the browser and never uploaded.
Color Hex
Looks up a color by hex or name and returns RGB, HSL, HSV and CMYK values plus ready CSS, useful as a quick reference rather than a generator.
FarbVelo
Generates palettes from adjustable hue angles, interpolation models and lightness ramps rather than pure randomness, can also pull a palette from an image.
Free, open source under CC BY-SA 4.0, no account or tracking.
Duo
Personally curated catalog of two color combinations from Alex Pate's own projects and finds around the web, with a toggle to show only AA compliant pairs.
Moved from the .uk domain to alexpate.com, JSON export available.
Lospec Palette List
Database of palettes made for pixel art, covering both historical hardware palettes and artist made sets, filterable by color count and type.
Over 4,500 palettes, free, optional Patreon supports the site.
Eggradients
Gradient collection organized by base color with a color mixer, gradient maker and image to palette converter bundled on the same site.
Free, Chrome extension available.
Gradientos
Lets you preview and test a gradient against real layout mockups before committing to it, rather than judging a gradient swatch in isolation.
Encycolorpedia
Reference site for individual colors, each hex code gets a page with naming, conversions and lists of similar shades across different color systems.
Color Designer
Generates up to 40 intermediate shades between two chosen colors with hex, RGB and HSL output, a focused tool for building a smooth color ramp.
Free, a paid option removes ads for 14 days.
Best Color Tools for Developers & Designers
A great color palette is the foundation of any successful web or app design. Whether you need a hex color picker, a CSS gradient generator, or a color contrast checker for accessibility compliance, having the right color tools saves hours of manual work.
Most entries here solve one of two jobs: generating a palette from scratch or finding a ready made gradient. Coolors and Adobe Color cover the first job for most people, with image extraction and contrast checking built in, while Khroma trains on your own picks instead of color theory rules. For browsing rather than generating, Color Hunt and Color Lovers are community curated, and BrandColors matches an existing company's exact hex codes.
The pitfall here is abandonment: color tools are easy side projects, and several entries below changed domains, got parked, or disappeared outright. Lean on open source options like FarbVelo, Huetone and Whocanuse if you need something actively maintained, and check free tier limits, Coolors caps saved palettes, before building a workflow around one.
What to check before you pick one
- Accessibility support: Check that colors meet WCAG contrast ratio standards for readable, inclusive designs.
- Export options: Good tools export HEX, RGB, HSL, and CSS code directly.
- Inspiration mode: Browsable galleries of curated palettes help when you're starting from scratch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free color palette generator?
Some of the most popular free color palette generators include Coolors, Adobe Color, Color Hunt, and Paletton. Each offers a unique approach: Coolors is great for quick random palettes, while Adobe Color excels at color theory-based combinations.
How do I check color contrast for accessibility?
Tools like Colorable, Whocanuse, and Color Brewer 2 let you test foreground/background color combinations against WCAG accessibility guidelines. They show contrast ratios and indicate whether they pass AA or AAA standards.
How can I generate CSS gradients for my website?
CSS Gradient (cssgradient.io), ColorGradient.dev, and Colorzilla all provide visual gradient editors that generate ready-to-use CSS gradient code you can copy directly into your stylesheet.
Where can I find brand color codes?
BrandColors (brandcolors.net) and Brand Palettes (brandpalettes.com) maintain large databases of official brand color codes and hex values for hundreds of well-known companies.