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Colour Palette Harmony Calculator

Work out colour palette harmony instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Colour Palette Harmony Calculator

Harmony schemes are fixed rotations around the 360 degree hue wheel, so a triad sits at 0, 120 and 240 degrees from the base and a complement at 180. Working in hue angles keeps a palette consistent when the base colour changes, which is why design systems store a base hue and derive the rest.

Formula

Palette hues

each hue = (base hue + scheme offset) mod 360

Worked example

With the default values below, Colour Palette Harmony Calculator returns Hues in the palette of 210deg, 330deg, 90deg. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Base hueaccepts 0–359 deg
210 deg
Harmony schemeone of Complementary, Split complementary, Triadic, Tetradic (square), Analogous
Triadic

Results

Hues in the palette
210deg, 330deg, 90deg
Colours in the scheme
3
First hue step
120 deg
Complementary hue
30 deg

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Palette hues
  3. 3Hues in the palette= 210deg, 330deg, 90deg
  4. 4Colours in the scheme= 3
  5. 5First hue step= 120 deg
  6. 6Complementary hue= 30 deg

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 2 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to whole numbers, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the Colour Palette Harmony figure worked out?

each hue = (base hue + scheme offset) mod 360. Harmony schemes are fixed rotations around the 360 degree hue wheel, so a triad sits at 0, 120 and 240 degrees from the base and a complement at 180.

Why does this matter?

Working in hue angles keeps a palette consistent when the base colour changes, which is why design systems store a base hue and derive the rest.

What do I need to enter?

Enter base hue, harmony scheme. The defaults shown are a realistic worked example — swap in your own figures to get a result you can use.

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