Monochrome colour palettes

One hue, five lightnesses. Chroma follows the lightness curve. Explore 496 palettes.

Browse all 78 palette collections

Colour pairings & usage tips

Use these colours.

Each palette centres on one hue, but different palettes start from different hues. Let the lightest and darkest tones separate surfaces and reading, with intermediate tones for supporting shapes.

Text & contrast.

Use the measured pair as a starting point. Intermediate tones can lose text contrast on a nearby surface, even though they belong to the same hue family.

A pairing to start with.

In Amethyst & Linen, #201D2E against #F7F7F9 has a contrast ratio of 15.37:1. This pair meets the WCAG AA contrast threshold for normal text. This checks opaque colours only; other pairings, transparency and gradients need their own checks.

The five swatches span 24–98% OKLCH lightness. Try different colour roles in the palette generator.