What it does
COLOURlovers is a community archive of named colours, palettes and patterns for personal, non-commercial exploration. Browsing, palette creation and individual downloads are free without an account; keeping a creation on a profile or joining social activity requires signing in.
The palette creator starts with a colour you pick, type as hex or take from a photo. Suggestions come from colours that community members have already paired with it. Build a set of two to eight colours and drag the dividing lines to change their proportions. Downloads include hex values, CSS, Tailwind, JSON and images.
An existing palette keeps the creator and individual colour names beside its values. Its gradient view offers linear, radial and conic shapes, angle and reversal controls, and sRGB or OKLCH choices for calculating the intermediate colours. The Giant Goldfish page also offers Adobe ASE and GIMP GPL swatches, SVG vector artwork and several PNG sizes.
Each shared design carries the licence chosen by its maker. Giant Goldfish’s generated code identifies CC BY-NC 3.0, an attribution licence limited to non-commercial use of the licensed work. COLOURlovers distinguishes reusing a colour combination in a new illustration from reproducing its arranged, named swatch artwork. Keep that distinction and the item’s licence with a downloaded design. Site access is limited by the terms to adults and personal, non-commercial use.
The former programming interface, or API, closed in 2026: old addresses return 410 Gone and old keys no longer work. Groups and forums also closed, although palette and pattern browsing remain available.
Strengths
- Community pairings guide the creator from a chosen starting colour.
- Palette pages retain maker and colour-name credits alongside code and image handoffs.
Watch out for
- An account is required to keep creations on a profile and use social actions.
- The old API and its keys are retired.
- Shared artwork can carry non-commercial or other creator-selected restrictions.
Best for
- Adults exploring community colour combinations and patterns for personal projects.
Sources
- Color Palettes, Named Colors & Patterns :: COLOURlovers (Oct 28, 2026)
- Create a palette - COLOURlovers (Oct 28, 2026)
- FAQ - COLOURlovers (Oct 28, 2026)
- Giant Goldfish - Color palette by manekineko - COLOURlovers (Oct 28, 2026)
- Terms - COLOURlovers (Oct 28, 2026)
- Legal Code - Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons (Oct 28, 2026)
- Legal Code - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons (Oct 28, 2026)