--- title: "Accessible Color Palette Generator - WCAG | CanDoYa" description: "Generate a role-based accessible color palette from brand and background colors. Check WCAG AA and AAA contrast, preview roles, and copy CSS." url: https://candoya.com/tools/accessible-palette-generator/ locale: en type: browser-tool --- # Accessible Color Palette Generator Category: Color & Design ## What is an accessible color palette generator? An accessible color palette generator turns a brand color and page background into practical UI roles, then checks each intended foreground and background pair against WCAG contrast thresholds. It gives you text, surface, primary, accent, border, and on-primary colors with exact ratios and copy-ready CSS variables. This generator is built for the point where a brand color has to become a usable interface. It keeps the chosen hue where possible, adjusts lightness to meet your AA or AAA target, and assigns each result a clear role. The live preview shows the roles together, while the pair-by-pair report keeps the claim precise: **it checks opaque sRGB contrast, not accessibility as a whole**. Everything is calculated locally in your browser. Your colors are not uploaded, and you can copy any individual hex value or export the full set as CSS custom properties. ## How to use it 1. **Choose your starting colors** - Enter the brand hex color you want to preserve and the page background it must work against. 2. **Set the contrast target** - Choose AA for a 4.5:1 normal-text target or AAA for 7:1, then choose how the accent relates to the brand hue. 3. **Review roles and real pairs** - Check the interface preview and read the exact ratio plus AA and AAA result for every intended foreground-background pair. 4. **Adjust and export** - Try another accent, edit either starting color, copy a single value, or copy the complete CSS-variable block. ## Who it's for - **Product designers** turning an approved brand color into background, surface, text, action, accent, and border roles. - **Front-end developers** who need named CSS tokens plus exact contrast evidence for a design-system review. - **Accessibility reviewers** checking the intended text and UI pairs before colors are embedded across many components. - **Small teams** exploring AA and AAA targets without moving brand inputs into a hosted design service. ## Expert note A fixed mid-luminance background can make a 7:1 ratio mathematically impossible with any foreground: even black and white may both fall short. In that case the generator returns the strongest available option and shows the failed AAA badge instead of claiming compliance. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is this accessible color palette generator free? Yes. You can generate, adjust, preview, and export as many palettes as you need without an account or usage limit. The complete role set is available as individual hex values and a copyable CSS custom-property block. ### Are my brand colors uploaded? No. Color conversion, palette generation, contrast measurement, and CSS export all run locally in your browser. The tool does not need to send your brand or background colors to a server to calculate the result. ### What are the WCAG contrast thresholds for text? For WCAG 2.x, normal text needs at least 4.5:1 for AA and 7:1 for AAA. Large text needs at least 3:1 for AA and 4.5:1 for AAA. WCAG defines large text as at least 18 point regular or 14 point bold. ### Does every generated color pass WCAG AAA? Not always. The chosen background may make 7:1 impossible, especially around the middle of the luminance range. The generator searches the full lightness axis, keeps the nearest passing choice when one exists, and clearly reports any pair that still fails. ### How does the generator preserve my brand color? It keeps the brand hue and saturation, then searches lighter and darker versions for the nearest color that reaches the selected ratio against the page background. The accent begins from an analogous, complementary, or triadic hue and goes through the same check. ### Does a passing palette make my website accessible? No. This tool checks color contrast for the listed opaque sRGB pairs. A complete accessibility review must also cover semantics, keyboard use, focus visibility, zoom, motion, component states, images, and information conveyed by color alone. ## Related tools - [Color Contrast Checker](https://candoya.com/tools/color-contrast-checker/) - [Color Palette Generator](https://candoya.com/tools/color-palette-generator/) - [Color Picker](https://candoya.com/tools/color-picker/) - [HEX to HSL Converter](https://candoya.com/tools/hex-to-hsl/) - [CSS Gradient Generator](https://candoya.com/tools/css-gradient-generator/) --- *Markdown edition of , published for AI agents and other automated readers. Index of key pages: .*