What Is a Color Palette Extractor?

A color palette extractor analyzes the pixels of an image and identifies its most prominent colors. The result is a small set of representative hex codes — the dominant color palette of that image.

How It Works

The tool uses the k-means clustering algorithm directly in your browser:

The image is downsampled to a working resolution for speed.
Pixels are sampled and grouped into k clusters by color similarity.
Each cluster centroid becomes one palette color.
Colors are sorted by dominance — the most frequent color appears first.

No libraries are used. The algorithm runs entirely in JavaScript via the Canvas API.

Common Use Cases

UI design — match interface colors to a hero image or product photo
Brand identity — extract a palette from a logo or mood board
Web development — generate CSS custom properties from an image
Art & illustration — analyze color harmony in reference images
Social media — create consistent visual themes for feeds

How to Use

Drop an image onto the upload zone or click to select a file.
Choose how many colors to extract (2–12).
Click Extract palette.
Click any color row to copy its hex code.
Click Copy CSS variables to get all colors as :root { --palette-1: … }.

Frequently Asked Questions

What image formats are supported?

Any format your browser can decode: PNG, JPEG, WEBP, GIF, AVIF, and most others.

Why do results vary slightly between runs?

K-means uses a random initialization step. The final palette is usually stable, but for images with many similar colors, minor variation between runs is normal.

How many colors should I choose?

6 is a good default for most images. Use fewer (3–4) for simple graphics or logos, more (8–12) for rich photographs with complex color distributions.

Can I use the extracted hex codes directly in CSS?

Yes. Use the Copy CSS variables button to get a ready-to-paste :root {} block with --palette-1 through --palette-N variables.