Picking colours that look right together is not guesswork or pure taste. There are a handful of simple relationships, based on positions around the colour wheel, that reliably produce palettes that work. Learn these and you can build a decent scheme in minutes.
Start with one colour
Every scheme starts from a single base colour, often your brand colour or the dominant colour of a photo. The harmonies below are just different ways of choosing companion colours based on where they sit relative to that base on the wheel.
The main harmonies
- Complementary: the colour directly opposite on the wheel. High contrast and energetic, great for a call to action against a calm background, but tiring if overused.
- Analogous: colours next to each other on the wheel. Calm and harmonious, since they share undertones. Good for backgrounds and gentle, cohesive designs.
- Triadic: three colours evenly spaced around the wheel. Vibrant and balanced. Use one as the lead and the other two as accents.
- Monochromatic: one hue at different lightness and saturation. Clean and hard to get wrong.
Use the 60-30-10 idea
A palette is not just which colours, but how much of each. A common rule: about 60% a dominant colour, 30% a secondary, and 10% an accent. It stops a design looking like a fight between equals and gives it a clear hierarchy.
Pretty is not enough: check it is readable
A palette can look lovely and still fail people who need good contrast. Once you have your colours, check any text-on-background pairing meets accessibility contrast, because a beautiful scheme nobody can read is a failed scheme. See what counts as a good contrast ratio for the thresholds.
Build a scheme quickly with the colour palette generator: pick a base colour, choose a harmony, and copy the result. Then run your text pairings through the contrast checker so it is readable as well as good-looking.