Colour
Colour charts and a contrast checker.
Colour mosaic
A colour chart for digital art and design.
This poster shows 262 colours inspired by art, nature, travel and culture. Most are established, some are new. They are roughly in rainbow order with grey in the middle.
Each colour has a 3 digit hex code. For example, gamboge is #d91 (equivalent to #dd9911). The text is black or white, depending on which has the most contrast and meets accessibility standards.
The colours are also listed in the next section, or you can check their contrast.
Colour list
These colours are sorted by hue, then how colourful they are, then darkest to lightest.
reds
yellows
greens
cyans
blues
magentas
greys
Within each section, each colour is sorted by how vivid it is, then in rainbow order, then darkest to lightest.
reds
yellows
greens
cyans
blues
magentas
greys
| vividness |
codes (black to white) |
Other versions
Colour disc
The colour mosaic came out of a more complex colour disc - showing 4,096 colours.
Older versions
Older versions of colour charts I've made are on the design page.
About
Being interested in art, maths, web and graphic design, I love colour charts. The colour mosaic was made using "vanilla" Javascript on a canvas element and without AI 🧠.
All charts were originally inspired by Bob Stein's 216 colour webmaster's palette.
Colour names come from a number of sources, and I've made up a few. Particular thanks to:
Licence
Thanks for visiting! This work is licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC 4.0
I'm happy for anyone to use or adapt this poster but please:
- add credit, with a link back to the full accessible description on AndrewHick.com/colour
- share or rework it accessibly (for example, add alternative text to any images)
- ask me before using it commercially