Image Palette Extractor

What this tool does

The Image Palette Extractor analyzes an uploaded image and returns the dominant colors as a palette. It helps you turn photos, illustrations, or screenshots into usable brand colors and UI tokens. The output includes copy-ready HEX values and optional CSS variables for fast handoff.

When to use this tool

Use it when you want to pull a palette from an inspiration image, client logo, or hero photo. After extracting colors, you can refine the set in Color Palette Generator, convert formats in Color Converter, and validate accessibility with Contrast Checker.

How it works

The tool downsamples the image in your browser, clusters pixels into a small set of representative colors, and returns those values as a palette. It focuses on dominant tones rather than rare pixels, so you get a practical starting point for a brand or UI system without manual picking.

Example use case

You are designing a landing page based on a product photo. Upload the image, extract a five-color palette, and use the darkest swatch for text and the lightest for backgrounds. Export the CSS variables and apply them to your design tokens for quick consistency.

Use cases

• Pull a palette from a hero image for a landing page.
• Match UI accent colors to a product photo.
• Extract brand colors from a logo or illustration.

Notes & limitations

The extracted palette depends on image lighting and compression, so results may shift between similar files. Very small or noisy images can produce less reliable colors. The tool does not detect color meaning or brand hierarchy, so you may need to reorder or refine swatches manually.

For UI work, consider adding a neutral gray scale separately, since photos often lack true neutrals. If the image is heavily filtered, the palette may skew toward highlights or shadows; try a more balanced source image for a cleaner starting point.

When extracting from gradients or abstract images, increase the palette size to capture smoother transitions.