What it does
iWantHue generates distinct category colours within chosen hue, chroma and lightness ranges. Its free, open-source browser tool exports colour lists, while the JavaScript library can reproduce a palette from saved settings and a seed.
Set the category count, constrain the colour space and compare the soft k-means and hard force-vector methods. Sort the resulting swatches by hue, chroma or lightness, or use the difference ordering. HEX, RGB, HCL and LAB lists and CSS output support a chart handoff.
For a repeatable code workflow, pass a seed to the library and retain the generation options. Its quality setting controls sampling or iteration work, while repeated attempts select the set with the strongest minimum separation. Colour-vision distance options are available, but the browser warns that its colour-blindness refinement is slow.
The software is free under a choice of CeCILL-C or GNU LGPL version 3 or later. Those terms apply when incorporating or redistributing the library.
Strengths
- Colour-space bounds constrain the character of a category set.
- A saved seed supports repeatable library output.
- Several numerical and CSS representations are available.
Watch out for
- The browser’s colour-vision refinement increases processing time.
Best for
- Generating distinct category colours for charts
- Reproducing category palettes in JavaScript
Sources
- iWantHue browser controls and exports (Oct 27, 2026)
- iWantHue library usage and options (Oct 27, 2026)
- iWantHue dual licence notice (Oct 27, 2026)