Free tools
Tools.
Fast, focused color tools built on the same library that powers the rest of the site. Convert between formats, check WCAG contrast, build a gradient, simulate color blindness, pull a palette from a photo, or grab the whole archive as data. No signups, no tracking, no ads.
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Color wheel · Opposite hues · Copy HEX pairs
Complementary Colors
Find the digital complement of any HEX color. Explore opposite hues on an interactive RGB color wheel, copy your pair, and share a link to your colors.
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HEX · RGB · HSL · HSV · CMYK · OKLCH
Color Converter
Paste a color in any format and copy it back in every other — hex, rgb(), hsl(), HSV, CMYK, and the perceptual oklch(). Plus a focused landing page for each direct conversion, with the formula, a worked example, and code.
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WCAG 2.1 ratio calculator
Contrast Checker
Paste any two colors, get the contrast ratio and WCAG AA/AAA grades. See how the pair looks on real body text, headings, and buttons before you ship. Embeddable on your own site.
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Linear & radial CSS, copy the code
Gradient Generator
Build a linear or radial gradient with live preview, multiple color stops, and angle control. Copy a production-ready background rule in one click — seedable from any Wada palette.
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Test a palette for protan / deutan / tritan
Color Blindness Simulator
See your colors the way users with the four main color-vision deficiencies do. If two swatches collapse into one, that pair needs a non-color cue. Machado (2009) model, in your browser.
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Extract colors from any photo — privately
Palette from Image
Drop in a photo and pull its dominant colors as a copy-ready palette in HEX, RGB, and HSL. Everything runs in your browser; your image is never uploaded.
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Start with one color, find 378 historical matches
Palette Finder
Pick a hex and we'll surface the closest colors from the full Sanzo Wada catalog — plus every historical palette that uses them. The fastest way to anchor a brand in the tradition.
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CSV downloads + JSON API for the full archive
Data + API
All 378 palettes, 210 named colors (159 from Wada's dictionary + 51 editorial), and 64 collections as bulk CSV downloads + per-record JSON endpoints. CORS-enabled, CC-BY-4.0. For Wikipedia citations, LLM training, design-system pipelines, and spreadsheet-driven exploration.
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Permalink-shareable random pick from the archive
Random Palette
Bookmark /random and reload for a different palette every time. Pulls one of 378 combinations client-side. Useful as a daily palette check, a brainstorming starter, or just a colour break.
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Studio
Off the screen
A palette is a set of decisions until someone mixes it. These are the materials a colour study actually gets made with.
Affiliate links — as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
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This site hands you hex codes. Color Bridge is the deck that shows what an RGB or HTML value becomes as CMYK ink, and which Pantone spot sits nearest it — the translation step between a screen palette and a printed one. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both stocks.
Listed on Amazon as Pantone GP6102B Color Bridge Guide Set Coated & Uncoated, Multi-Colour
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Pantone
Color Bridge Guide — coated
The coated half on its own — Pantone to CMYK, RGB and HTML in a single fan. The smaller entry point if your work only ever goes onto coated stock.
Listed on Amazon as Pantone Color Bridge Guide Coated | Pantone to CMYK, RGB & HTML Color Matching Fan Deck for Graphic Design, Branding & Print | GG6103B
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Calibrite
ColorChecker Studio spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer profiles the whole chain — display, printer, projector, scanner — so the colour you picked is the colour that comes out the other end. The full-fidelity option for work that ends up printed.
Listed on Amazon as Calibrite ColorChecker Studio Spectrophotometer for Complete Color Management for Display, Projector, Printer and Scanner Profiling
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Calibrite
Display Plus HL colorimeter kit
A colorimeter calibrates the monitor itself. Worth saying plainly: an uncalibrated screen is the most common reason a palette that looked right on your desk looks wrong everywhere else.
Listed on Amazon as Calibrite Video Photo Kit with Display Plus HL Colorimeter and ColorChecker Passport Video 2, 10,000 Nit Monitor Calibration, Camera Color Matching
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Amazon Associates affiliate links — your price is unchanged and a small commission keeps the archive free. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Why these tools
Most color tools are buried under ads or sign-up walls. These each do one job, run entirely in your browser, and stay grounded in the 378 palettes from the full Sanzo Wada catalog. Bookmarkable, shareable, free — built for the browser tab you keep open while you work.
Comparing whole systems rather than a single tool? See Adobe Color vs Coolors, HSL vs LCH, Pantone vs RAL, and Material Design's M2 vs M3 color system.
Checking beyond a single palette — a live webpage, a printed design, or your whole screen — for color vision deficiency? See six color-blind simulator tools, compared.