Generator
ColorColor Shades Generator
Generate consistent color shades and tints from any base HEX color. Balance light and dark variants, preview accessible swatches, and export CSS variables, JSON, or Tailwind config for design systems in seconds.
Color Shades Generator - Build Tone Ladders for Your Brand
Design systems rely on consistent tints and shades for buttons, backgrounds, states, and data viz. This tool creates evenly spaced variations from a single base color so you can ship ready-to-use palettes for UI, illustrations, or print.
What are shades and tints?
Tints mix a color with white to create lighter results, while shades blend with black for darker values. Balanced ladders provide flexibility for hover states, shadows, card backgrounds, and chart accents without guessing percentages.
How do I use this generator?
1) Enter or pick a base HEX color. 2) Set total swatches or adjust how many tints and shades you need. 3) Click Generate to update the preview. 4) Copy any swatch, or export CSS variables, JSON, or Tailwind config to drop into your project.
Why export in multiple formats?
Different teams prefer different pipelines. CSS variables slot straight into stylesheets, JSON works for tokens or Figma plugins, and Tailwind config integrates with modern utility-first projects.
Key Features
- Generate up to 16 total tints and shades from a single HEX
- Interactive swatch grid with copy-on-click behavior
- Independent controls for light tints and dark shades
- CSS, JSON, and Tailwind export blocks ready to paste
- Random color generator for quick exploration
- Accessible color contrast preview for each swatch
- Responsive layout with keyboard-friendly swatch buttons
- Dark mode styling and smooth hover animation
- All calculations run locally in your browser