How-to Guide 2 min read

How to Extract a Color Palette from Any Image

Extracting a colour palette from an image is essential for branding consistency, UI design, and recreating a visual style. Whether you are matching a client's brand colours, sampling colours from a photograph, or pulling a palette from a competitor's website screenshot, a colour extraction tool gives you exact HEX and RGB values instantly.

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By ImgToolkit Team · Updated May 2026 · 2 min read · Processed in your browser
PNGJPGWebPGIF

Quick Answer

Extracting a colour palette from an image is essential for branding consistency, UI design, and recreating a visual style. Whether you are matching a client's brand colours, sampling colours from a photograph, or pulling a palette from a competitor's website screenshot, a colour extraction tool gives you exact HEX and RGB values instantly.

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Your images stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded to any server.

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Step-by-Step Guide

4 steps · takes under 1 minute

1

Upload your image

Upload any image — a brand logo, UI screenshot, product photo, or mood board. The tool works on any image format: JPG, PNG, WebP.

2

View the extracted colour palette

The tool uses k-means colour quantisation to identify the dominant colours in the image. Results show as colour swatches with their HEX codes.

3

Copy the HEX or RGB values

Click any colour swatch to copy its HEX code to your clipboard. Use these values directly in CSS, Figma, Adobe XD, or any design tool.

4

Export your design system

Download the full extracted palette including colours, fonts detected in the image, and spacing suggestions as a reference document.

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100% Private — Zero Uploads

ImgToolkit runs entirely in your browser using the Canvas API. Your images are never sent to a server, never stored in the cloud, and never seen by anyone else. This makes it safe for sensitive documents, client work, medical imagery, and confidential screenshots.

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Pro tip

Use 75–85% quality for web images — you get 60–80% smaller files with no visible difference at normal screen sizes.

Format & File Size Comparison

Same 1080×1080px photo processed four ways

FormatQualityFile SizeNotes
PNG (original) Perfect 4.2 MB No compression — too large for web
Compressed PNG Visually identical 1.1 MB −74% — transparency preserved
JPG (85% quality) Excellent 310 KB −93% · Best for photos
WebP (85%)BEST Excellent 205 KB −95% · Recommended for web

Based on a 1080×1080px photo. Results vary by image content and complexity.

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Frequently Asked Questions

4 questions answered

How does colour palette extraction work?

The tool analyses every pixel in your image and groups similar colours together using a mathematical clustering algorithm called k-means quantisation. The dominant colours from each cluster are returned as the palette.

How many colours does it extract?

The tool extracts the most visually dominant colours — typically 5 to 10. For a brand logo, this usually covers the full brand palette. For a complex photograph, it captures the main tonal ranges.

Can I extract colours from a website screenshot?

Yes — take a full-page screenshot of any website, upload it to the tool, and extract the colour system. This is a fast way to analyse competitors' palettes or recreate a visual style.

What's the difference between HEX and RGB?

HEX (e.g. #06B6D4) and RGB (e.g. rgb(6, 182, 212)) are two ways of writing the same colour. HEX is standard in HTML and CSS; RGB is used in print workflows and some design tools.

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