95 Top Resources and Tools to Choose Your Next Color Scheme

In color theory, a color scheme is the choice of colors used in various artistic and design contexts. For example, the “Achromatic” use of a white background with black text is an example of a basic and commonly default color scheme in web design. Color schemes are used to create style and appeal. Also known as color palettes, color schemes can include as few or as many colors as the designer sees fit.

As a designer, color plays a huge role in any project from print to web. It can convey different emotions, speak to different target audiences, and communicate action, among other things. A very general rule is to use the 60/30/10 rule to apply certain colors in your web design. According to this rule, 60% of the color used should be the main color, 30% the secondary color, and 10% the accent color.

Designing a website can be quite a challenge for a number of different reasons, one of them being color choice, suited to the theme of your site. Picking the right color scheme can be very tricky, but there’s tons of inspiration to be found online. We’ve collected 95 color apps, libraries, palettes and articles that can be used as an inspiration or as a starting point for all your design needs.

Libraries

1. Adaptive Backgrounds
   Extract dominant colors from images and apply to its parent (jQuery Plugin).
2. Chroma.js
   JavaScript library for dealing with colors.
3. Colofilter.css
   Duotone filters made with CSS.
4. Coloor
   Image preloading utility.
5. Color Thief
   Grab color palette from an image.
6. color2k
   A color parsing and manipulation lib.
7. Colorable
   Color palette combination contrast tester.
8. Colorify.js
   Simple, customizable, tiny JavaScript color extractor.
9. Distinct Colors
   Generate a palette of visually distinct colors.
10. GradStop.js
    Generate gradient color stops.
11. granim.js
    Create fluid and interactive gradient animations.
12. Palettable
    Palettable (formerly brewer2mpl) is a library of color palettes for Python
13. picocli
    Small library for creating Java command line applications with ANSI colors and styles.
14. pigment
    Color information, conversion and manipulation library
15. Polychrome
    A small library for parsing and manipulating colors.
16. TinyColor
    Fast, small color manipulation and conversion for JavaScript.
17. tinygradient
    Fast and small gradients manipulation.

Web App

1. 0to255
   Find variations of any color.
2. 147 Colors
   Learn CSS color names.
3. Adobe Color Wheel
   Create color schemes with the color wheel.
4. Color Library
   Automated Color Separation.
5. Color Picker for Data
   Hold chroma constant and pick your palette with ease.
6. Color Supply
   Inspirational color palettes from designers & illustrators around the world.
7. Colorbrewer2
   Multi-hue and single-hue palettes for heat maps and data visualization.
8. Colordot
   A color picker for humans.
9. Colorgorical
   Generate a palette with n colors.
10. Colormind
    Colormind is a color scheme generator that uses deep learning.
11. Colourco
    Easily and intuitively combine colours.
12. ColRD
    Create and share color inspiration with the world.
13. Coolors
    Generate infinite color palettes for your designs and share.
14. Croma
    Generate color palettes from image and colors
15. Drag Gradients
    Generate and customize multiple css3 radial gradients.
16. Flat UI Colors
    UI color set.
17. geenes
    Create a color scale in seconds, then export it to sketch or code.
18. Hexcolorpedia
    Hex color information, Color conversion, Shades, tints, tones, Pantone match, color blending and huge Color palettes collection.
19. HSL Color Picker
    HSL Color Picker.
20. iColorpalette
    Create, browse or export (aco, ase, svg, png, pdf) color palettes by color or themes.
21. Material Design Colors
    Material Design Colors, Flat UI Colors and Material Design Icons.
22. Material Palette
    Material Design color palette generator.
23. Palettab
    New color palette and font inspiration with every tab (Chrome Extension).
24. Palettable
    Generate beautiful color palettes with no prior design knowledge.
25. Paletton
    The Color Scheme Designer.
26. Random A11y
    Generates a random palette that is a11y friendly.
27. SassMe
    Visualize SASS color functions in real-time without compiling.
28. Shade
    Mathematically derived gradient explorer.
29. Shutterstock Spectrum
    Search Images by Color with Spectrum.
30. Sorted colors
    Sorted named CSS colors in a way that it shows related colors together.
31. SVG Color Filter Playground
    Understand how feColorMatrix works.
32. Tints and Shades
    Display tints and shades of a given hex color in 10% increments.

Color Palettes

1. BrandColors
   Official color codes for the world’s biggest brands.
2. Cohesive Colors
   A tool to create cohesive color schemes.
3. Color Farm
   Handpicked colors from the popular Dribbble shots.
4. Color Hex Palettes
   Discover the new color palettes.
5. Color Lisa
   Color palette masterpieces of the world’s greatest artists.
6. Color Name List
   Huge curated list of unique color names.
7. Color Palettes
   Decorate your house, flat, bedroom, kitchen, living room and wedding with color ideas.
8. ColorClaim
   Subtle color combinations.
9. Colordrop
   A collection of great looking color palettes.
10. ColorHunt
    Color palettes with quick preview feature.
11. ColorsWall
    Place to store your color Palettes and generate tool.
12. Colour Names
    List of colour names in CSS.
13. COLOURlovers
    Tools to create color palettes as well as pattern designs.
14. Dave Green’s ‘cubehelix’ colour scheme
    Resources for the cubehelix family of colour schemes.
15. Design Seeds
    Colors found in nature and the aesthetic of purposeful living.
16. Gradients
    Curated gradients.
17. Open Color
    Colors tested on deuteranopia and protanopia mode.
18. UI Gradients
    Handpicked collection of beautiful colour gradients.
19. WebGradients
    A free collection of 180 linear gradients.

Articles

1. A colour scheme for the display of astronomical intensity images
2. A Guide to Color and Conversion Rates
3. A Nerd’s Guide to Color on the Web
4. A Simple Web Developer’s Guide To Color
5. Algorithm for automatic harmonious color selection for the image
6. Build a Color Scheme: The Fundamentals
7. Color and Emotion: What Does Each Hue Mean?
8. Color Palette Documentation for Living Style Guides
9. Color Realism and Color Science
10. Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color
11. Create Emotion With Color In UX Design
12. Design Accessibly, See Differently: Color Contrast Tips And Tools
13. Designing in color
14. Finding the Right Color Palettes for Data Visualizations
15. Finessing `feColorMatrix`
16. How I Learned About Color Mixing
17. How I Work with Color
18. How to create a color story
19. How to create the right emotions with color in web design
20. Principles of Color and the Color Wheel
21. Take color inspiration from the masters
22. The Code Side Of Color
23. The Power of Colour in App Design
24. The Principles of UX Choreography
25. The Psychology of Color in Marketing
26. The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding
27. Trendy Web Color Palettes and Material Design Color Schemes & Tools