How to use the random color generator
Press the Generate button, or tap the space bar, and a new random color appears with its codes. Click a code to copy it. The last colors you made are kept in the history strip, so if you see one you like and then press Generate by mistake, you can click it to bring it back.
Choose a style or a hue
By default the generator picks any color, with each of the red, green and blue values chosen at random, so every one of the 16,777,216 colors that a screen can show is equally likely. Use the Style box to narrow the choice:
- Vivid: strong, saturated colors.
- Pastel: soft, light colors with some color in them.
- Light and Dark: colors that are bright or deep.
- Muted: dusty, low-saturation colors.
The Hue box limits the color family, for example only blues or only greens. The style and hue combine, so you can ask for a pastel pink or a dark green.
The color codes
| Code | What it is |
|---|---|
| HEX | Six hexadecimal digits, two each for red, green and blue, such as #3A7BD5. The standard in CSS and design tools. |
| RGB | Red, green and blue amounts from 0 to 255, as in rgb(58, 123, 213). |
| HSL | Hue as an angle from 0 to 360 degrees on the color wheel, then saturation and lightness in percent. It is the easiest form to adjust by hand. |
| CMYK | Cyan, magenta, yellow and black percentages for print. This is a simple conversion, because real print colors depend on the printer and paper. |
Is the text readable on it?
Below the codes you can see how white and black text look on the color, with their contrast ratios. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines ask for a ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text (level AA) and 3 to 1 for large text. Level AAA asks for 7 to 1. The tool shows which levels each text color meets.
Inspect a color of your own
Type a hex code in the box, or use the color picker, and the same codes and the closest CSS name are shown for it.
Need more than one? Use the random hex color generator or the random RGB color generator for lists, or the random palette generator for colors that work together.