Compared · checked 2026-10-25
The best free colour palette and contrast tools
A palette tool should find colours in a picture, make harmonies from one colour, check that text stays readable and hand the palette to your design or code tools. Here is what each offers, from its own pages.
We make Colours, one of the tools on this page. Every fact about the other tools comes from their own pages, linked under each one, as they read on 2026-10-25. Prices and features change: check each site before you choose.
How we compared them
- Free, and what an account or plan adds
- Colours from a picture
- Harmonies and scales from one colour
- WCAG contrast check
- Export files (CSS, Tailwind, ASE, GPL)
At a glance
| Tool | Price | Runs on | Colours from a picture | Contrast check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colours ours | Free, no account | Any modern browser | Eyedropper and main colours (k-means) | Ratio, AA and AAA, with a fix |
| Coolors | Free plan; Pro plan | Web, iOS app, Figma plugin, Chrome extension | Image Picker | Contrast Checker |
| Adobe Color | Free | Web | Extract from an image | Contrast ratios with WCAG guidance |
| WebAIM Contrast Checker | Free | Web | No (an eyedropper picks from the screen) | AA and AAA, normal and large text, UI |
| Feature | Colours ours | Coolors | Adobe Color | WebAIM Contrast Checker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colours from a picture | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Harmonies from one colour | Yes | Not stated | Yes | No |
| WCAG contrast check | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Large text and UI levels | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Yes |
| Colour blindness preview | No | Not stated | Yes | No |
| CSS export | Yes | Yes | Not stated | No |
| Tailwind export | Yes | Yes | Not stated | No |
| Adobe .ase export | Yes | Yes | Not stated | No |
| GIMP .gpl export | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | No |
| OKLCH values | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | No |
| No account needed | Yes | Partly | Partly | Yes |
| Pictures stay on your device | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Yes |
1. Colours (ours)
Best for: Picking colours from your own pictures privately, checking contrast and exporting a palette as code or a swatch file in one page.
Good
- Pictures are read in the browser, never uploaded
- CSS variables, Tailwind config, JSON, Adobe .ase and GIMP .gpl exports, and those files open again
- HEX, RGB, HSL, OKLCH and CMYK, with out-of-gamut OKLCH mapped into sRGB
Not so good
- No library of shared palettes to browse
- No colour blindness preview
- No PDF or image export of the palette
2. Coolors
Best for: Generating and browsing palettes fast, with a large library and plugins for design tools.
Good
- Spacebar generator and over 10 million palettes to explore
- Exports to PDF, image, CSS, ASE, SVG, code and Tailwind
- Palette Visualizer previews colours on designs
Not so good
- The free plan keeps up to 10 palettes; its page lists Image Picker colour extraction and advanced export among the Pro features
Coolors website · Sources: Coolors home page
3. Adobe Color
Best for: Designers in Adobe apps who want harmony rules on a colour wheel and palettes saved to their library.
Good
- Monochromatic, complementary, analogous, triadic and split-complementary rules on a colour wheel
- Colour blindness preview
- Saves palettes to your library for other projects
Not so good
- Its colour wheel page does not mention export files
Adobe Color website · Sources: Adobe Color, color wheel
4. WebAIM Contrast Checker
Best for: Checking one text and background pair against WCAG, with a link to share the result.
Good
- Lightness sliders to adjust either colour
- Permalink and a JSON API for the result
- Alpha for the foreground
Not so good
- Checks one pair; it does not make or export palettes
WebAIM Contrast Checker website · Sources: WebAIM Contrast Checker
Which one to choose
Colours is our pick when the colours come from your own pictures and the palette has to end up in code or a design tool: the eyedropper, the main colours, the contrast check and the exports are on one page, and nothing is uploaded.
Choose Coolors for its generator, library and plugins, Adobe Color for its colour wheel and Adobe library, and the WebAIM checker to check and share a single pair.
Questions
Which contrast ratio do I need?
WCAG AA asks for 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text and UI parts; AAA asks for 7:1 and 4.5:1. All four tools show the ratio.
Which file opens in Photoshop or Illustrator?
An Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) file. Colours and Coolors both export one.
Is my picture uploaded?
Not in Colours: it is read in your browser. Check each other tool's own privacy notes.
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