Is my image uploaded to a server?

No. Color extraction runs locally in your browser using the Canvas API. Your files never leave your device.

How many colors are extracted?

Up to eight colors are returned, sorted by how often their bucket appears in the sampled pixels.

Why do the extracted hex values look stepped?

The sampler groups each RGB channel into coarse buckets before it counts pixels. That keeps a photograph from returning hundreds of near-duplicates. The hex you see is the bucket, not a pixel from a specific coordinate.

Can I use extracted colors for print?

Each swatch can be checked in the print gamut checker and the HEX to CMYK converter. Those CMYK numbers are a formula, not a press proof.

What should I do after I have the swatches?

Open the first color in the palette generator, check text pairs in the contrast checker, and preview problem hues in the color blindness simulator.

Palette from Image

Drop any image to extract its dominant colors. Send results to the palette generator, gradient tool, or CMYK converters.

Drop an image here or click to upload. Processing runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.

Color tools

Palettes, gradients, accessibility checks, and print-ready conversions — all in one place.

Color Palette Generator
Generate harmonious palettes from one color — complementary, triadic, analogous, and more. CMYK values and print gamut warnings included.
CSS Gradient Generator
Build linear, radial, and conic CSS gradients with live preview. Copy production-ready code instantly.
WCAG Contrast Checker
Check color contrast ratios against WCAG 2.1 AA and AAA. Includes palette matrix mode and auto-fix suggestions.
Tint & Shade Generator
Turn one brand color into a Tailwind-compatible 50–950 scale with WCAG contrast badges on every swatch.
Color Blindness Simulator
Preview palettes as seen with protanopia, deuteranopia, or tritanopia. Essential for accessible design.
Interactive Color Wheel
Drag to pick a hue and see complementary, triadic, and analogous harmonies live — with HEX, RGB, and CMYK values.
Print Gamut Checker
See exactly how a screen color shifts when printed in CMYK. Side-by-side press preview with shift warnings.
Compare Colors (Delta E)
Measure the perceptual difference between two colors with ΔE2000 — plus HEX, RGB, CMYK, and HSL values for both.
Random Color Generator
Generate a random HEX color, a lockable five-color palette, or a two-color CSS linear gradient. Copy HEX, RGB, HSL, and CMYK.

View all tools →

What the extractor actually samples

The image stays in your browser. The tool draws it to a canvas, scales the longest side down so the sample stays small, and skips pixels that are mostly transparent. Each remaining pixel is grouped by rounding the red, green, and blue channels into coarse steps. The groups that contain the most pixels are returned, up to eight, with the most frequent first.

That count is frequency in the sample, not importance. A large white background will outrank a small logo. Crop to the region you care about before you upload if the background is drowning the subject. A photograph of a sunset and a flat brand board will not produce the same kind of list: the sunset has many nearby buckets, and the board has a few.

The hex values are those buckets. They are a starting palette, not a measurement of a brand color and not a match to a named CSS color. If a result happens to be one of the catalog colors, its swatch links to that color page. Otherwise copy the hex and continue in the other tools.

What to do with the palette

Send the first color to the palette generator when you need a harmony instead of a photo sample. Send the list to the gradient generator when you want stops. A photo palette often includes both a very light and a very dark bucket; those are the ones to test as text and background in the contrast checker. Hue pairs that look separate in the photo can sit on top of each other for some viewers — preview them in the color blindness simulator.

For print, frequency in a photo does not mean the color is in gamut. Open the saturated buckets in the print gamut checker and read CMYK-safe web palettes before you treat a screen sample as ink. The converter output is a reference for a conversation with the printer, not an approved separation.

None of this identifies a person in the photo or a trademark color. It counts quantized pixels. If you need a specific brand hex, type that hex into the converter hub instead of sampling a screenshot of a logo, which will pick up compression and anti-aliasing.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about this tool.

Is my image uploaded to a server?: No. Color extraction runs locally in your browser using the Canvas API. Your files never leave your device.
How many colors are extracted?: Up to eight colors are returned, sorted by how often their bucket appears in the sampled pixels.
Why do the extracted hex values look stepped?: The sampler groups each RGB channel into coarse buckets before it counts pixels. That keeps a photograph from returning hundreds of near-duplicates. The hex you see is the bucket, not a pixel from a specific coordinate.
Can I use extracted colors for print?: Each swatch can be checked in the print gamut checker and the HEX to CMYK converter. Those CMYK numbers are a formula, not a press proof.
What should I do after I have the swatches?: Open the first color in the palette generator, check text pairs in the contrast checker, and preview problem hues in the color blindness simulator.