The Paleta blog
Practical guides and curious detours about color — how to pick it, convert it, and use it well. Written to be read, not skimmed.
Welcome to Paleta: A Color Studio in Your Browser
The idea behind Paleta, and a quick tour of every tool — where to start and what each one is for.
How to Grab the Colors From Any Website
Three real ways to extract colors from a website: paste the CSS, inspect one element, or screenshot it, then turn the dump into a clean palette.
What Color Should Your Body Text Be?
The best body text color for readability isn't pure black. Here's the #1a1a1a-#333 gray range that works, and how to check it against WCAG.
HSL vs HSB: What's Actually Different
HSL vs HSB compared: why pure red reads 100%/50% in one and 100%/100% in the other, and why CSS picked HSL while pickers stuck with HSB.
How to Build a Tailwind-Style Color Scale (50–950) From One Color
Turn one brand color into the full 50–950 numbered scale that Tailwind, Radix and Material use — the right way.
Is Your Website's Color Contrast Legally Required?
Yes-ish — and it's the same WCAG numbers under the ADA, the EU's EAA and Section 508. A calm guide to what's actually required.
Build a Whole Palette in Pure CSS with color-mix()
Derive tints, shades and hover states from one CSS variable — with color-mix() and relative color, no Sass in sight.
Butter Yellow: The Hex Codes Behind 2026's It-Color
The soft, warm yellow all over 2026 — pinned down with real hex codes and palettes you can actually build.
How to Choose a Color Palette That Doesn't Look Like Everyone Else's
Pick one color you mean, expand it with a little theory, and test it before you commit.
HEX to RGB: How Color Conversion Actually Works
What those six characters really mean — and how to turn them into any other format.
HEX, RGB, HSL & OKLCH: Which Color Code Should You Use?
A plain-English tour of the four formats you'll actually meet in CSS.
What Is OKLCH? The Color Model Quietly Taking Over CSS
Why designers are switching, and what it fixes about HSL.
Color Contrast and WCAG, Explained Without the Jargon
How to make text readable for everyone — and why the numbers matter.
What Are Design Tokens? A Color-First Introduction
Naming your colors so a whole product can share them.
How to Pull a Color Palette From Any Photo
Turn a sunset, a poster or a product shot into usable colors.
Color Harmony: Complementary, Triadic and the Rest, Demystified
The color wheel, minus the art-school mystique.
Why Screen Colors and Print Colors Never Match
The short, honest answer to the RGB-versus-CMYK headache.
A Brief, Strange History of Color
Tyrian purple, the word 'orange', and the blackest black ever made.
The Psychology of Color in Branding: Evidence vs Myth
What the research supports, and what's just marketing folklore.
What Colors Mean Around the World
Red, white and green don't say the same thing everywhere.
Does Color Really Affect Your Mood?
Sorting the science from the mood-ring.
Designing for Color Blindness: A Practical Guide
Simple habits that make your work legible to everyone.
Color Theory Basics Every Designer Actually Uses
Hue, saturation, lightness and the wheel — the useful part of color theory, minus the lecture.
The Color Wheel, Actually Explained
Where it comes from, how to read it, and how to use it to pick colors that agree.
Tints, Shades and Tones: How to Build a Color Scale
The difference between adding white, black and gray — and how to make a scale that never goes muddy.
Complementary Colors: Why Opposites Work
The loudest pairing on the wheel — how to use it without giving everyone a headache.
How to Build a Monochromatic Color Scheme
One hue, many moods — the most foolproof palette there is.
Analogous Colors: The Easiest Palette to Get Right
Neighbors on the wheel that always seem to agree — plus the one trick to keep them from blurring.
Warm vs Cool Colors and Why It Changes Everything
The oldest distinction in color, and how it quietly steers mood, depth and attention.
Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors Explained
The family tree of every color — and why 'primary' means different things in paint and light.
What Colors Make Brown? (And How Mixing Really Works)
The internet's favorite color question, answered properly — plus gray and every muddy in-between.
The 60-30-10 Rule for Color That Just Works
The interior-design ratio that quietly makes interfaces look designed.
How to Make a CSS Gradient That Doesn't Look Cheap
Why most gradients look muddy in the middle — and the fixes that make them glow.
Designing a Dark-Mode Color Palette (the Right Way)
Why 'invert everything' fails, and how to build dark colors that feel calm instead of harsh.
How to Make Pastel Colors (Without the Mud)
Soft, dreamy, and weirdly easy to get wrong — here's how to keep pastels clean.
How to Build an Accessible Color Palette
Beautiful and readable aren't opposites — a workflow that gets you both.
RGBA, Hex Alpha and Opacity, Finally Explained
What that fourth number does, and why a transparent color isn't the same as a lighter one.
Where to Find Color Palette Ideas (and Make Them Yours)
Stuck at a blank canvas? Here's where good palettes actually come from.
Blue: The Story of the World's Favorite Color
The last color to get a name, the hardest to make, and the one almost everyone picks first.