Pastel Color Palette Generator
Pastels are high-lightness, low-saturation colors. In OKLCH terms that is roughly L 0.85–0.95 with chroma 0.03–0.09. They feel gentle and airy — and they almost never pass contrast as text on white, so pair them with a dark ink.
See it on a page
Lightest color becomes the background, darkest the text, the most saturated one the button.
Ship the release notes your users actually read.
Body text in your darkest color on your lightest: 1.11:1 AA fail
Export
CSS custom properties, Tailwind v4 @theme (in OKLCH), Tailwind v3 config, JSON or SCSS.
:root {
--color-pink: #FFCECB;
--color-light-gray: #C0DEBE;
--color-lavender: #D3DFFF;
--color-misty-rose: #FFD8D5;
--color-aquamarine: #B8F0BE;
}Contrast between every pair
WCAG 2.2: 4.5:1 for body text (AA), 3:1 for large text and UI parts, 7:1 for AAA.
| Text / background | #FFCECB | #C0DEBE | #D3DFFF | #FFD8D5 | #B8F0BE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #FFCECB | Aa1.03:1Fail | Aa1.05:1Fail | Aa1.07:1Fail | Aa1.08:1Fail | |
| #C0DEBE | Aa1.03:1Fail | Aa1.09:1Fail | Aa1.11:1Fail | Aa1.12:1Fail | |
| #D3DFFF | Aa1.05:1Fail | Aa1.09:1Fail | Aa1.01:1Fail | Aa1.03:1Fail | |
| #FFD8D5 | Aa1.07:1Fail | Aa1.11:1Fail | Aa1.01:1Fail | Aa1.01:1Fail | |
| #B8F0BE | Aa1.08:1Fail | Aa1.12:1Fail | Aa1.03:1Fail | Aa1.01:1Fail |
Get an AI critique of this palette
The contrast numbers are calculated exactly in your browser and passed to the AI, so its advice starts from real ratios.
Hand-picked pastel palettes
Sorbet
Nursery
Macaron
Spring
Tips for pastel palettes
- Use pastels as backgrounds and fills, dark text on top.
- Add one deeper tone of the same hue for buttons.
- Mixing warm and cool pastels keeps them from looking washed out.
Want a palette written for your project? Describe it on the palette generator and the AI will suggest one.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a color pastel?
High lightness and low saturation: it looks like the color mixed with plenty of white.
Are pastel colors accessible?
As backgrounds, yes, with dark text. As text or thin icons on white, almost never: most pastels are under 2:1.