Tools
Contrast checking shouldn't be the feature you pay extra for
Some palette tools treat accessibility contrast checking as a premium add-on rather than a default. Shipping an inaccessible palette is not a feature worth paying to avoid — it should never have been optional.
Last updated Aug 15 · 9 min read
Why contrast checking should never be the paid feature
A number of palette-generation tools offer basic hue selection for free while reserving WCAG contrast checking — confirming a colour actually works as readable text — for a paid tier. That framing treats accessibility as an upsell rather than a baseline requirement, when a palette that fails 4.5:1 contrast on body text is not usable regardless of how it looks.
The Colour Palette Generator checks every swatch against both white and black text automatically, by default, with the actual ratio labelled — free, on every generation, with no tier gating it.
The OKLCH detail most competing tools still skip
Beyond contrast, this generator computes harmonies in OKLCH rather than HSL — HSL lightness does not match perceived brightness, so an HSL palette can look uneven even when every swatch shares the same lightness number. OKLCH is perceptually uniform, producing genuinely even-looking ramps, a distinction most palette tools, paid or free, do not make.
Four harmony rules and lock-and-regenerate, free
Complementary, analogous, triadic, and a monochrome ramp — pick one, and lock any swatch you want to keep while regenerating the rest around it, rather than losing a good colour every time you want to explore alternatives.
Export formats that match current frameworks
CSS custom properties, a Tailwind v4 CSS-first @theme block (not the older v3 JS-config approach some tools still export), JSON with contrast figures included, or an SVG swatch sheet — covering plain CSS, Tailwind, and programmatic use without a paid export tier. Once exported, pull the same hex values into the Favicon Generator so your browser-tab icon matches the palette exactly.
When a palette needs to become a real brand system
A generated palette is a solid, accessible starting point — not a brand. Assigning real meaning (which colour means error, which is the primary CTA) across a full product is strategy work. If that's next, Scult's branding team handles it, or book a meeting for a second opinion first.
Need this built into your business?
The free tools and prompts on this site handle the small, solved problems. If what you need is bigger — branding & design, built and maintained for you — that's Scult's day job.
