The colour harmonies, explained
Harmonies are positions on the colour wheel that reliably look good together. Analogous colours sit next to each other on the wheel — calm, natural, easy to use. Complementary colours sit opposite each other, which creates strong contrast; use one as the main colour and the other sparingly as an accent. Triadic palettes use three evenly spaced hues for a vivid, playful result. Monochrome uses one hue at different lightness levels — the safest choice for a clean, professional brand.
Pastel isn't a position on the wheel but a mood: high lightness and gentle saturation. It suits wellness, baby, bakery and lifestyle brands.
How to use a five-colour palette
A useful rule of thumb is 60-30-10: about 60% of a design in a dominant, usually neutral colour; 30% in a secondary colour; and 10% in an accent reserved for what you want people to notice — the button, the price, the headline. Five colours give you that plus a dark and a light for text and backgrounds.
Always check that text is readable against its background. Colours that look great side by side can fail as text on top of each other. Our Colour Contrast Checker tells you instantly whether a pairing meets accessibility guidelines.
Extracting a palette from an image
The From image mode groups the pixels of your photo into clusters of similar colour and returns the centre of each cluster, ordered by how much of the image it covers. It's the fastest way to build a design around a product photo, a brand shot or a mood-board image, so everything feels like it belongs together. The image is analysed in your browser and is never uploaded.