Color Palette Extractor

Drop any image. Get its dominant colors with one click — HEX, RGB, HSL or CSS variables.

🖼️ Drop an image here or click to choose — PNG / JPG / WebP / AVIF
Uploaded preview

What is this color palette extractor?

This free color palette extractor reads any image you drop in, samples its pixels and surfaces the most representative colours with the median-cut algorithm — copy each swatch as HEX, RGB or HSL, or export the whole palette as CSS variables or JSON.

How do I extract dominant colors from an image online?

Drop the image into the upload area and the tool decodes it locally, runs median-cut quantisation and surfaces a palette you can copy one swatch at a time or export as CSS variables. Nothing leaves your browser.

Key features

Median-cut quantisation
Statistically derived palette — colours that actually represent the image, not just the centre pixel.
Three formats per swatch
Copy any colour as HEX, RGB or HSL with one click; the active format syncs across the whole palette.
Three export shapes
Plain HEX list, ready-to-paste CSS custom properties or a structured JSON array — pick what fits your toolchain.
Private by design
Images are decoded into a canvas and analysed locally; nothing is uploaded, so private artwork stays private.

How to use it

Drop an image into the upload area or click to choose one. Drag the colours slider to control how many palette entries you want — 5 to 8 is a great starting range. Tap any swatch to copy it in the active format, or use the export buttons to grab the whole palette as a HEX list, CSS variable block or JSON.

Frequently asked questions

How does the palette extractor pick colours?

It samples the image into a colour cube and recursively splits the cube along its longest axis — the median-cut algorithm. Each final box yields one average colour, so you get a palette that represents the whole image rather than a few hand-picked pixels.

Is my image uploaded anywhere?

No. The image is decoded into a canvas in your browser and analysed locally. Nothing is sent to a server, so even private or unreleased artwork is safe to use.

Which export formats are supported?

Each swatch copies as HEX, RGB or HSL. The full palette exports as a HEX list, a CSS custom-property block, or a JSON array — pick whichever fits your design tool or codebase.

Built by the Toolbox team using the classic median-cut quantisation algorithm (Heckbert, 1982) on top of the browser's native Canvas APIs — the same approach behind ColorThief and GIMP's posterise filter, with no dependency on third-party services.