Random Color Palette Generator
Generate a palette of random colors with one click (or the spacebar). Lock the colors you want to keep, and only the unlocked swatches will change when you regenerate — a fast way to explore fresh combinations while holding on to the ones that already work.
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About the Random Color Generator
This tool creates palettes of fully random colors — no color-theory relationship is enforced between them, unlike the complementary, triadic, or analogous generators. It's useful for brainstorming, breaking out of habitual color choices, or just seeing something new when you don't have a starting point in mind.
How the Colors Are Generated
Each color is built in HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) space rather than picked as a raw random hex value. The hue is fully random from 0–360°, but saturation and lightness are constrained to ranges that tend to look pleasant and usable — roughly 45–90% saturation and 35–70% lightness. Pure random RGB values tend to produce a lot of near-black, near-white, or muddy gray-brown results; constraining S and L avoids that while still giving a wide spread of hues. The HSL values are then converted to RGB and formatted as a hex code.
Locking Colors
Click the lock icon on any swatch to keep it fixed. The next time you generate, locked swatches are left untouched and only the unlocked ones get new random colors — the same "keep what works, reroll the rest" workflow popularized by tools like Coolors. Unlock a swatch again at any time to let it change on the next generate.
Keyboard Shortcut
Press the spacebar anywhere on the page (as long as you're not typing in a text field) to trigger a new generate, without needing to click the button — handy for quickly cycling through options.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this random number generator cryptographically secure?
No. Colors are generated with JavaScript's Math.random(), which is fine for design and brainstorming purposes but is not suitable for cryptography or security-sensitive use.
How do I keep a color I like while regenerating the rest?
Click the lock icon in the top-right corner of any swatch before generating again. Locked swatches (shown with a teal outline) are skipped, so only the unlocked colors change. You can lock as many or as few as you like, including all of them.
What's the fastest way to generate new palettes?
Press the spacebar. It triggers the same generate action as clicking the button, as long as your cursor isn't focused in a text input.
How is this different from the complementary, triadic, or analogous palette generators?
Those tools start from a single base color and apply a color-theory rule — fixed hue offsets like 120° (triadic) or 30° (analogous) — to build a palette that's mathematically related to your starting point. This tool has no starting point and no rule; every unlocked color is picked independently at random within a pleasant saturation/lightness range.
Can I generate just one random color?
Yes. Drag the "Colors" slider down to 1 before generating, and you'll get a single random swatch each time.
Can I export the palette I generate?
Yes — use the export panel below the swatches to download your current palette (including any locked colors) in common formats.