Color Palette Extractor — Pull Colors From Any Image
Upload a photo and get its dominant colors instantly. See HEX, RGB, and HSL values with proportional swatches. All processing happens in your browser — nothing gets uploaded.
Drop an image here
or click to select — JPG, PNG, WebP all work
Why Extract a Color Palette From an Image
Design Inspiration
Found a photo with colors that work together? Pull the palette and use it in your next project. Photographers, illustrators, and brand designers often stumble on color combinations in the wild that are hard to replicate from scratch.
Web Development
Match your website's color scheme to a client's brand photo or product shot. Extract the exact colors from a reference image and export them as CSS variables or Tailwind config entries.
UI/UX Work
Create cohesive interfaces by pulling palettes from mood boards or screenshot references. When the buttons, backgrounds, and accents all trace back to the same source image, the design feels intentional.
100% Private
Your image never leaves your browser. The extractor runs entirely on Canvas — everything stays local. No uploads, no servers, no privacy concerns.
How the Palette Extraction Works
Upload Your Image
Drag and drop any photo or click to select. JPG, PNG, and WebP all work. The image loads directly into your browser's memory — nothing gets sent to a server, so it stays private and processes instantly.
Choose Your Color Count
Use the slider to pick how many colors you want. The default is 8, which works well for most photos. Go lower (3-5) for bold, minimal palettes. Go higher (up to 20) if you need subtle variations and secondary tones.
Get Your Palette
Click extract and the algorithm analyzes every pixel. It groups similar colors together and finds the dominant shades. The results show each color's proportion, plus HEX and RGB values you can copy directly or export for use in design tools.
Tips for Getting Better Palettes
Start With Images That Have Strong Color Identity
Photos with clear, distinct color themes give cleaner palettes. A sunset with oranges and purples, a forest scene with greens and browns, or a product shot with a limited color palette all work better than a cluttered street scene with random colors scattered everywhere.
Crop to the Area That Matters
If your image has a background that's throwing off the palette, crop it first. You don't need the whole frame — just the part with the colors you actually want to use. A tight crop of a flower petal gives a very different palette than the full garden photo.
Adjust the Color Count Based on Your Use Case
For brand colors and primary UI elements, stick to 3-5 colors. Too many options make it hard to maintain consistency. For illustration work or data visualization, 8-12 colors give you room for accents and variations without overwhelming the palette.
Check the Proportions
The percentage next to each color tells you how dominant it is in the image. A color that appears 40% of the time is probably your primary. Something at 5% might be an accent or highlight — use it sparingly or it stops being an accent.
Grayscale and Low-Contrast Images Need Care
Black and white photos or images with a muted color range can give you very similar colors that are hard to distinguish. If your palette looks like five shades of gray, try a different image with more saturation and contrast.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many colors can the extractor detect?
Our tool can extract 5, 10, 15, or 20 dominant colors from any image. It uses a median cut quantization algorithm to identify the most representative colors. More colors give finer detail, while fewer gives a simplified palette perfect for branding and design work.
Can I copy the hex codes from the extracted palette?
Yes. Each extracted color displays with its hex code. Click the code to copy it to your clipboard instantly. You can also copy the complete palette as a comma-separated list of hex codes for importing into design tools like Figma, Adobe, or Tailwind CSS projects.
What image formats work with the color extractor?
All major image formats are supported: JPG, JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, and BMP. The extraction algorithm works on the pixel data after the image loads in the browser. Higher resolution images produce more accurate results, so upload the highest quality version available.
How accurate is the color extraction?
The median cut algorithm is very reliable for identifying dominant colors. It analyzes every pixel to find the most frequent color clusters. However, images with thousands of subtle shades (like sunsets) may produce a simplified palette because the tool reduces the image to a limited number of color groups.