Can I lock a colour and shuffle the others?

No. The page has no lock control, so a colour cannot be pinned while the rest move. Keep a fixed list elsewhere and roll a second working copy against it.

Does shuffle change the colours?

Never. It only reorders the rows, so the palette contains exactly the values you put in, in a different sequence.

Is the shuffle order truly random?

It is randomised by a comparator sort rather than a uniform shuffle, so the result leans towards the starting order. Treat it as a fresh look rather than as a random permutation.

Is my palette saved when I leave the page?

No. Nothing persists, and the page returns to its default five colours on the next visit. Copy the values out before navigating away.

What is the difference between shuffling and sorting a palette?

Shuffling gives a new sequence with no rule behind it; sorting applies one — by hue, lightness or chroma. A reader can follow a sort; a shuffle is a fresh perspective for you.

Palette Locker

Palette

Actions

You Might Also Need

Palette Sorter

Sort a palette by hue, lightness or chroma

Palette Importer

Import a palette from JSON or pasted text

The palette locker is an editable five-colour list with one action: shuffle. It reorders the palette so a familiar set is seen in a new sequence — the name promises more than the page does.

What is Palette Locker?

The palette locker is a small workbench with an honest limitation worth stating first: despite a name that suggests you can lock colors and shuffle the rest, the page does not hold anything. What it provides is an editable palette — five rows, each with a colour field and a remove button, plus an add button that appends a fresh random colour — and a single shuffle action that reorders the rows.

That is still useful, because order is a design decision that is easy to stop noticing. A palette sorted by hue reads as a ramp; the same five values in a shuffled order can suggest a different hierarchy, and seeing the set out of sequence is often what surfaces the two colours that were doing the same job.

Order also changes what a palette communicates. Sorted by hue, five colours read as a spectrum and invite comparison between neighbours; shuffled, the same values read as a set and the eye picks out the outlier. Shuffle a palette a few times and whichever colour keeps drawing attention is usually the one that should become the accent, which is a cheap way to let the palette make the decision. Where the arrangement has to be defended rather than noticed, sort for palette order instead of shuffling: a rule a reader can follow is worth more than a fresh sequence in a template or a style guide.

Each row is independently editable: change a value with the colour field or remove the row entirely.
Add color appends a new slot seeded with a random colour, so a palette can grow past five.
Shuffle reorders the existing values; it never changes or invents a colour.
Nothing persists between visits: the page returns to its default set on reload.

The shuffle is worth understanding precisely, because the implementation is a comparator sort rather than a card shuffle. Each comparison returns a random sign, which randomises the sequence but not uniformly: the outcome is biased towards its starting order, so some colours can remain near where they began. Nothing breaks — the palette is still reordered — but if the goal is a clean random permutation, a Fisher–Yates shuffle is the stronger tool, and this one is best used for a fresh look rather than for statistical exercise.

No lock or freeze control exists, so a colour cannot be pinned while the others move.
No undo: removing a row or editing a value is immediate and unrecoverable in the page.
No ordering by any property — the sorter is where hue, lightness and chroma ordering live.
No export: the confirmed palette has to be copied out value by value.

Use it as a working palette on screen while you decide what the set actually is. Where a real lock-and-reroll loop is needed, hold the keepers elsewhere — a second tab of this page, or an imported palette of values you have already approved — and roll the rest against that fixed list. Where the goal is a defensible order rather than a new one, sort by hue or lightness instead of shuffling; a legend and a swatch sheet both want a rule, not a roll.

How to use Palette Locker

Edit the rows to the palette you are working on, or press Add color to extend the list.
Press shuffle to see the same values in a new order and notice what the original order was hiding.
Copy out the values you want to keep; nothing is saved between visits.
Sort rather than shuffle once the palette needs an order that a reader can follow.

When to use Palette Locker vs related tools

Use this when a palette feels settled but its order may not be. The palette sorter gives the set a defensible order by hue, lightness or chroma, the random palette generator is where the raw colours come from, and the palette comparison tool is the better way to judge two arrangements side by side.

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.