Why do the two colors look evenly matched in weight?

By design. The rule copies the base's lightness and chroma to the complement, so only the hue changes. Vary one side's lightness with the tints or shades tools when a member has to recede.

Can I get more than two colors from this tool?

No. Complementary is a two-color relationship and the count follows from the rule, so the output is exactly the base and its opposite. For three or four colours, use the triadic or tetradic generator.

Is this the same as an HSL complement?

Often not. This tool rotates hue in OKLCH, a perceptually uniform space, so the opposite lands where vision expects it. Tools that rotate in HSL or RGB can return a complement that looks tilted or muted.

Can I use the two colors as text and background?

Check them first. Same-lightness pairs frequently miss contrast thresholds; the contrast checker returns the ratio, and the minimum contrast auto-fixer can nudge one side until it passes.

Which swatch is my original color?

The first one, on the left, in every case. The complement always follows it, so the base you set is never ambiguous in the strip.

Complementary Palette Generator

Color

#3B82F6

#c17400

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The complementary palette generator takes one base color and returns it together with its direct opposite on the wheel, exactly 180 degrees away. The result is a fixed two-color pair: the base you set, and the complement the rule derives from it.

What is Complementary Palette Generator?

Complementary is the most decisive harmony there is: take the base hue, add 180 degrees, and the result is the color and its opposite across the wheel. The complementary palette generator performs that rotation in OKLCH, holding your base's lightness and chroma steady while the hue swings to the far side. What comes back is one of the simplest complementary color pairs available, the base and its complement, drawn as swatches you can copy straight into a stylesheet. The count is set by the rule rather than by a setting: complementary is a two-color relationship and this tool adds no third value. Nothing here is random, so the same base always returns the same pair.

The rotation happens in OKLCH, and hue is the only coordinate that moves. Lightness and chroma are taken from the base, so both halves of the pair are exactly as light and as saturated as the color you set; a complementary color pair is therefore a pure hue relationship rather than a tonal one. Because OKLCH is perceptually even, the complement lands where the eye expects it rather than where a naive RGB turn would place it, which is why the pair reads as a genuine opposite rather than a slightly tilted relative. The base always appears first in the strip, so the color you must keep is never ambiguous.

The count is fixed at two. There is no count control and no third color, however much the layout might want one.
Only the 180 degree relationship is available here. The analogous, triadic, tetradic and split-complementary rules each live in their own tool.
No contrast check. Both members inherit the same lightness, which is the exact case where text over color tends to fail, so pairings have to be verified elsewhere.
No ordering or sorting. The strip stays in derivation order, base first, and the two swatches are never ranked by lightness or hue.
No lightness or chroma controls. The only input is the base color; every tonal decision belongs to the tints or shades tools afterwards.

Use the pair by assigning roles rather than splitting the space evenly. A reliable pattern keeps one member as the surface and the other as the accent, with the accent confined to a small area, because equal areas of two complements compete and only area settles that competition. Where both members have to carry text, split either one into a lightness ramp first so the pair gains depth to work with. Warning colour work, iconography and sports kits are the classic homes for the rule, since there two colours must be unmistakably distinct at a glance.

As an opposite color generator this tool gives the raw relationship in a single step, with no wheel to read and no ruler to hold. Choose a base that already sits where you want the set to live, because everything derived here arrives at the base's own weight: a mid-tone base gives a mid-tone complement and a muted base gives a muted one. Keep a note of the base you used, since the complement is reproducible from it and from nothing else.

How to use Complementary Palette Generator

Set the base color with the picker or by typing a hex value.
Read the two swatches: the base, then its 180° complement.
Copy the hex value from either swatch.

When to use Complementary Palette Generator vs related tools

Use the complementary generator when a decisive two-color contrast is the goal, such as an accent against a surface. The split-complementary generator trades some of that punch for two softer neighbours, the triadic generator adds a third voice, and the 10-color palette generator lets you compare rules without leaving the page. Verify any text-on-color pairing with the contrast checker, and use the palette sorters when the strip needs an order.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.