Generate tints, shades & tones
Classic painter's progression: mix with white (tints), black (shades), or gray (tones). Pick N steps and copy any variant.
How tints, shades and tones work
Pick a base, choose step count, copy any of 3 painter-style variant rows.
- 01
Pick a base
Start with your brand or theme color.
Colors round-trip through a normalised OKLCH representation, so manipulations (lighten, mix, contrast) preserve perceptual uniformity per CSS Color 4.
inputOKLCHCSS Color 4perceptuallivebase · colorhex · sRGB#3b82f6
loaded · normalisedOKLCH · ready - 02
Set step count
10 is a good default. Up to 20 supported.
Format conversion handles
hex,rgb(),hsl(),oklch(),color(display-p3 …)with proper gamut mapping when crossing colour spaces.stepshex · rgb · hslP3gamut-mappedliven · options10 · live10 stops each
options applied · livelive - 03
Compare rows
Tints lighten with white; shades darken with black; tones desaturate with gray.
Contrast and accessibility checks evaluate against WCAG 2.2 AA (4.5:1) and AAA (7:1) thresholds; APCA is offered when contrast is the goal.
compareWCAG 2.2APCAAA · AAAcontrastrows · converted3 · readytint / shade / tone
converted · liveWCAG-aware - 04
Copy variants
Click any swatch for one HEX, or copy the whole JSON.
Copy formats any swatch in the chosen syntax (
#aabbcc,rgb(170 187 204), etc.); downloads emit CSS variable blocks or palette JSON.copyclipboardCSS varspalette JSONblobok · copiedready · done✓ Copied
shipped · ready to shipsuccess
Colour work that survives accessibility audits
Use OKLCH for manipulation
OKLCH is perceptually uniform — lightness changes look uniform. hsl() isn’t, and produces muddy mid-tones.
Test against WCAG 2.2
4.5:1 for normal text (AA), 7:1 for AAA. Use Contrast Checker before shipping.
Mind gamut clipping
P3 colours that exceed sRGB get clipped on standard displays. Choose relative colorimetric in CSS Color 4.
Colour blindness affects 8%
Use the Color Blindness simulator to check critical UI before launch.
Don’t hardcode hex
Use CSS variables. Light/dark themes become trivial when colours are tokenised.
Dark mode isn’t inverted
Don’t simply invert lightness — desaturate slightly and re-pick accents. Pure-inverted UIs look harsh.
When to use painter's variants
Theming, illustration, branding.
Backgrounds
Tints work well as soft background variants. Conversions go through OKLCH so perceptual lightness stays uniform across hues — a 50% L blue looks as bright as a 50% L yellow. HSL fakes this and produces muddy mid-tones, OKLCH solves it per CSS Color 4.
WCAG 2.2 AABody text
Shades provide deep text colors that aren't pure black. WCAG 2.2 contrast is sampled live for AA (4.5:1) and AAA (7:1) — flip foreground/background to test both directions. APCA is offered when contrast itself is the goal (e.g., dataviz).
P3-awareMuted UI
Tones desaturate without losing identity. Output covers hex, rgb(), hsl(), oklch(), and color(display-p3 …) for CSS Color 4. Drop straight into Tailwind config, CSS custom properties, or Figma without re-typing values.
perceptually-uniformIllustration
Painter-style progressions for art and motion. Pair with the Contrast Checker before shipping any new theme. Catches accessibility regressions before they become bugs filed against you by users with low vision.
gamut-safeQuick scale
Generate a 3 × N scale in seconds. Tokens drop straight into Figma variables, Tailwind config, or CSS custom properties. Theme switching becomes a single variable swap rather than a search-replace across stylesheets.
a11y-readyCross-tool
Export as JSON for design system ingestion. Gamut-aware: tools warn before you ship a P3 colour that clips on sRGB displays. Choose the appropriate fallback strategy (relative colorimetric vs perceptual) per CSS Color 4 spec.
design-tokenFrequently asked questions
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