Image Palette Extractor

Upload an image and extract its dominant colors — click any swatch to copy the hex code.

How to use

  1. Choose an image from your device — click or drag and drop.
  2. Pick how many colors to extract (5, 8, 10 or 16) using the chips below the preview.
  3. The dominant colors appear as swatches with their hex codes. Click any swatch to copy the code.

About this tool

Every photograph has a hidden palette. The sky is not one blue but a dozen, the skin is not one beige but a gradient, and the overall mood of the image comes from how those colors relate to each other. Designers extract these palettes to build color schemes that feel like the image — for a website, a brand, a presentation or a room. The eye does it intuitively; a tool does it precisely.

This extractor uses median-cut quantization on a downscaled version of the image. The algorithm recursively splits the color space along the channel with the widest range, then averages each bucket to produce a representative color. The result is a set of colors that captures the visual weight of the image — not necessarily the most frequent pixel color, but the colors that matter.

The image never leaves your device. It is drawn onto a small canvas for analysis, and the original is not modified. Click any swatch to copy the hex code to your clipboard.

Frequently asked questions

Does my image leave my browser?

No. The image is drawn onto a canvas element for analysis. Nothing is uploaded.

What algorithm does it use?

Median-cut quantization. It splits the color space recursively and averages each bucket.

Why does a mostly white image return unexpected colors?

Because the algorithm looks for the colors with the widest range, not the most frequent. A white background with a small colored object will surface the object colors.

Can I use these colors commercially?

The hex codes are numbers, not copyrighted material. The image you extract from may be, but the colors themselves are free to use.

How accurate are the colors?

They are averages of pixel clusters, not exact samples. For precise color matching, use the color picker tool on a specific pixel.

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