Color Palette Extractor
Extract dominant colors from any image. Get top 5 or 10 colors with HEX and RGB values.
What is Color Palette Extractor?
Color palette extraction analyzes an image and identifies the dominant colors within it. This is useful for designers who want to create a color scheme based on a photograph, developers building brand palettes from a logo, or artists studying color composition. Our extractor analyzes the image at a reduced resolution, groups similar colors into buckets, counts their frequency, and returns the top 3-10 most dominant colors with their HEX and RGB values. Each color can be copied to the clipboard with a single click.
How to Use
- 1Upload an image by dragging it onto the drop zone.
- 2Adjust the slider to choose between 3 and 10 colors.
- 3Review the extracted color palette with HEX and RGB values.
- 4Click the copy button next to any color to copy its HEX value.
Why Use This Tool
- ✓Design inspiration — extract a color palette from a photo for use in web or graphic design.
- ✓Brand consistency — identify the dominant colors in a logo or brand image.
- ✓Color study — analyze the color composition of photographs and artwork.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are the dominant colors calculated?⌄
The tool downscales the image to approximately 100px for fast processing, then groups pixels into color buckets by quantizing each RGB channel to the nearest 32-value step. The buckets are sorted by pixel count, and the top N colors are returned with their average RGB values converted to HEX. This approach is fast and produces representative results.
Why are the extracted colors slightly different from what I see in the image?⌄
The quantization step (rounding to the nearest 32-value) means very similar colors are merged into a single representative color. This is intentional — without grouping, you would get thousands of nearly identical colors. The grouping produces a clean, distinct palette of the most visually significant colors.
Can I extract colors from a PNG with transparency?⌄
Yes. Transparent pixels are included in the analysis, which may produce unexpected results if large areas are transparent. For best results, use images with a solid background or flatten transparency before extracting colors. The extracted palette will include the background color as one of the dominant colors.
How many colors should I extract?⌄
For a design palette, 5 colors is a good starting point — it gives enough variety without being overwhelming. For detailed color analysis, use 8-10. For a minimal palette, use 3. The slider lets you adjust the count and see results update instantly.