Color Picker
Pick a color and convert it among HEX, RGB, and HSL, plus a Tailwind palette.
Color Selector
Color Formats
WCAG contrast
Ratio vs white and black using WCAG 2.1 relative luminance. AA is 4.5:1 for normal text; AAA is 7:1.
Tailored Palette
Click any shade to copy its Hex code.
What Is a Color Picker?
A color picker is a tool that lets you visually select a color and instantly convert it between all the formats used in web design — HEX, RGB, and HSL. Whether you are identifying a color from a reference, converting a client's brand color from HEX to RGB for CSS, or building a Tailwind CSS palette, a color picker handles the HEX, RGB, and HSL conversions in your browser so you do not have to do the math by hand.
Color conversion and palette generation run in your browser after the page loads. Tool inputs stay in your browser. The site uses aggregate Google Analytics. The automatic Tailwind palette generator also produces a full 10-step color scale from any base color — ready to paste directly into a Tailwind config file.
How to Use the Color Picker
- 1 Pick or enter a color.
Use the visual color picker to select a color, or type a known HEX, RGB, or HSL value directly into any input field. All formats update simultaneously.
- 2 Copy your converted value.
Click any converted value to copy it to your clipboard. Use HEX for standard CSS and design tools, RGB when you need an alpha channel, HSL for building color scales.
- 3 Generate a Tailwind palette.
The tool automatically generates a full 10-step color scale (50–950) from your selected base color, adjusting HSL lightness at each step for a balanced, accessible palette.
Who Is This For?
Web developers picking colors for CSS who need to quickly convert between formats — especially when a designer hands off a HEX value but the codebase uses HSL variables.
Designers converting colors between tools — translating Figma HEX values into RGB for CSS opacity layers, or identifying the HSL equivalent of a brand color.
Anyone who needs to identify or match a specific color code quickly — comparing two shades, checking brand color consistency, or generating a palette for a new project.
Key Benefits
Tool inputs stay in your browser. Conversion runs in this tab after the page loads. The site uses aggregate Google Analytics.
No subscription, no sign-up, no usage limits. Convert colors and generate palettes freely.
Select a color and all formats appear instantly. No login, no saved sessions, your color picks stay in your browser.
Instantly generates a complete 10-step (50–950) color scale from any base color — unique to this tool and ready for your Tailwind config.
Common Color Picker Mistakes
Not checking contrast ratios for accessibility: WCAG AA requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text. A color combination that looks good on a calibrated monitor may fail accessibility requirements for users with low vision.
Using hex colors without alpha when opacity is needed: HEX codes do not support transparency — use rgba() or hsla() in CSS when you need a semi-transparent color. A 6-digit hex with an opacity class is not the same as a true alpha channel.
Not accounting for color blindness: Approximately 8% of males have some form of color vision deficiency. Red-green combinations that look distinct to most users appear identical to people with deuteranopia. Always check your palette against a color blindness simulator before shipping.
Mixing RGB and HSL mental models: Adjusting brightness in RGB (by changing all three channels equally) produces different results than adjusting lightness in HSL. Use HSL when building color scales — it keeps hue constant while only changing perceptual lightness.
For adding color variables to your stylesheets efficiently, the CSS minifier can compress the resulting stylesheet. When resizing design assets that use your color palette, the image resizer handles dimension changes without affecting color values.
Further reading: MDN — CSS Colors (Mozilla Developer Network)
Understanding Color Formats
HEX Codes
A 6-character hexadecimal format (e.g. #FF5733). The standard in web development and design tools like Figma. Each pair of characters represents red, green, and blue on a 00–FF scale.
RGB(A)
Red, Green, Blue — three numbers from 0–255. The most useful format when you need to add an alpha (opacity) channel in CSS: rgba(255, 87, 51, 0.5).
HSL
Hue, Saturation, Lightness. The best format for design systems — you can create an entire color scale by keeping hue and saturation fixed while adjusting only the lightness value.
Common Use Cases
Brand color conversion
Convert a client's brand HEX color to RGB for CSS and HSL for building a complete tonal palette — all three formats in one step.
Tailwind CSS theme setup
Generate a full 10-step color scale from a single base color and paste it into your tailwind.config.js to extend the default palette with custom brand colors.
Design handoff translation
When a designer's Figma file uses HEX but your CSS codebase uses HSL custom properties, convert every color in seconds without manual calculation.
Accessibility contrast checking
Use HSL lightness values to quickly identify whether two colors have sufficient contrast for text readability — high lightness difference generally means better contrast.
Tailwind CSS Palette Generation
If you work with Tailwind CSS, you need an entire color scale — not just a single hex value. This tool generates an 11-step scale (50 to 950) from your selected base color by adjusting the HSL lightness value at each step. The result is a balanced scale with appropriate lightness increments for backgrounds, borders, active states, and text — ready to paste into your Tailwind config as a custom color.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between HEX and RGB? ▼
Both represent the same color in the same color space — HEX is a 6-character code like #FF5733 used in CSS and web design; RGB is three numbers (R,G,B) each from 0–255 representing the red, green, and blue components. They are mathematically identical, just expressed in different notations. #FF5733 in HEX is rgb(255, 87, 51) in RGB.
Is this color picker free? ▼
Yes. This Color Picker is free to use now — ads are not live yet — with no account required. Color conversion and palette generation run in this tab with no usage limits. Tool inputs stay in your browser. The site uses aggregate Google Analytics.
What is HSL? ▼
HSL stands for Hue, Saturation, Lightness — an alternative way to describe color that is more intuitive for designers. Hue is the color wheel position in degrees (0–360), saturation is color intensity (0–100%), and lightness is how dark or light the color is (0–100%). HSL makes it easy to create color scales by adjusting just the lightness value while keeping hue and saturation constant.
Why does a color look different on screen vs in print? ▼
Screens use RGB — additive color mixing that starts from black and adds light. Printers use CMYK — subtractive color mixing that starts from white and absorbs light. The same HEX value may print noticeably differently because not all RGB colors have a direct CMYK equivalent. Bright, highly saturated digital colors are especially prone to printing duller than they appear on screen.
What is a Tailwind CSS color palette? ▼
Tailwind CSS uses a 10-step color scale (50 through 950) for each color. Each step represents a different lightness level — 50 is very light and 950 is very dark. This tool generates a full 10-step scale from any color you pick by mathematically adjusting the HSL lightness values, giving you a complete palette ready to paste into your Tailwind config.
Can I use this tool offline? ▼
Color conversion and palette generation run in your browser after the page loads. Tool inputs stay in your browser. The site uses aggregate Google Analytics — so this page is not a fully offline app, even though the picker logic itself does not call a color API.
This tool is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Results are not a substitute for professional advice.
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