Analogous Color Palette Generator

What makes colours analogous

Analogous colours are neighbours on the colour wheel: a run of hues that all lean the same way, such as yellow, yellow-orange and orange. This generator spreads the swatches evenly across 60° either side of your base and keeps the base among them, so five swatches step 30° at a time: −60°, −30°, the base, +30° and +60°.

Because every swatch shares hue with the one beside it, an analogous palette has little hue contrast. It reads as a single mood rather than a set of separate colours.

When to use it

Analogous schemes are what you see outdoors: a sunset’s reds into oranges, a forest’s yellow-greens into blue-greens. They suit backgrounds, illustrations, data that runs in order such as a heat map, and brands that want to feel calm and of a piece.

With no strong contrast built in, the palette can turn muddy if every swatch has the same lightness. Pick one as the dominant colour and use the lightness slider, or lock a darker swatch, to give text and edges something to stand on. If you need one colour to pop, the complementary page’s pair is the usual addition.

Everything here runs in your browser. The colour palette generator has all six harmonies on one page, and the mode buttons above switch this one too, so you can compare a analogous palette with the others from the same base colour.