Distinct Color Generator

Make color categories easier to tell apart

Charts, game teams, map regions and status categories often need more than a pleasant palette. They need colors that stay visibly different when they appear close together, at small sizes or against a dark surface. The Qolorio Distinct Color Generator creates a set of colors with separation built into the decision.

Choose how many colors you need, the type of work they need to support and the background where they will appear. Keep one color fixed when a brand or existing system already gives you a starting point. Then copy the values, export them or take the full set into Color Studio.

Different enough to work together

A palette can contain many different hues and still be difficult to read. Two colors may look distinct on their own, then become easy to confuse when they are used as neighbouring chart lines, small map areas or competing team markers.

This tool compares every new color with the colors already chosen and favours the strongest available separation. It also takes the selected viewing condition into account, so the result is designed for normal vision or for an approximate protanopia, deuteranopia or tritanopia review.

The minimum separation score is a useful signal for comparing results. It is not a promise that every person, screen, chart type or real-world context will read every color in exactly the same way.

How to read the score

The number does not grade a palette on its own. It identifies the closest two colors in the result and measures how far apart they are likely to appear. A higher score means that closest pair is more clearly separated. Whether that is good enough depends first on how many colors you asked for: keeping twenty colors distinct is harder than keeping eight apart.

For charts on a light background with normal vision selected, a good two-color result starts around 0.35. With three colors, look for about 0.28; with four, 0.24; and with five, 0.20. As more colors must share the same space, a lower score is expected: about 0.15 for eight colors, 0.13 for ten, 0.11 for twelve, 0.10 for fifteen and 0.08 for twenty.

So a score of 0.151 for 10 colors is a strong result. The score caption makes that visible in the tool itself. A lower result may ask you to compare another option, but the labels are practical guidance for this generator, not a universal color standard.

Scores below these guides are not automatically wrong. They are a prompt to inspect the closest pair, especially when the colors will touch, appear as thin lines or carry an important meaning. Do not compare scores across different color counts, use cases or viewing conditions. The score is not an accessibility grade, a contrast ratio or a guarantee for every screen and situation. Labels, shapes, patterns and position still matter when a distinction is important.

Choose the context before the colors

Color changes when its surroundings change. A color that works on white can lose its character on a near-black interface; a clear map region can become too quiet when many regions touch. Select a light, dark or mixed background before you generate. The result area follows the chosen light or dark surface, so you can judge the palette in a more realistic context.

Use For charts for series, lines and data categories. Choose For game teams when players, units or sides need a clear visual identity. For map regions creates a calmer set for adjacent areas, while For tags / categories is useful for compact labels and interface grouping.

Start with a color you need to keep

Turn on Keep one color fixed when one value already belongs to the project. You can enter a HEX value, or use a familiar CSS color value such as rgb(40, 97, 143), hsl(205 56% 36%) or rebeccapurple. Qolorio resolves the value to HEX, keeps it in the result and builds the remaining colors around it.

One fixed color is a useful constraint, not a reason to force the rest of the palette. If the result feels too close, generate another option or revisit the fixed starting point.

Review more than color

Color-vision simulations are approximations. They are helpful for noticing risky relationships, but they cannot replace a review of the finished design. Important states, teams, categories and actions should never rely on color alone. Add clear labels, icons, shapes, patterns or position when the distinction matters.

When the set is ready, copy the HEX list, export JSON or choose Use in Studio. Color Studio gives the palette more room: assign practical roles, test important relationships and see how the values behave inside a wider system.

Choose the context. Keep the distinctions. Take the colors forward.