Unleash the power of color psychology with this complete guide to creating the perfect website color scheme, with 20 FREE color palettes to inspire your online designs.
Crafting the perfect user experience takes more than smooth page transitions or innovative site navigation. The website designs of today have to compete in an increasingly crowded market for the attention of easily-distracted eyes.
In this competitive online environment, color really has the power to transform the user experience, with cleverly-considered color psychology helping to create the right impression and keep visitors on your website for longer.
In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at how you can select effective color schemes for websites, unlock color psychology to make impactful and industry-specific color palettes, and explore website color inspiration that brings a website’s brand identity to life.
Plus, discover 20 FREE color schemes for websites that offer cutting-edge color inspo for your next website design.
Table of Contents
Go to the end of this article to discover website color schemes with a contemporary edge. License these images via popovartem.com, Kilimanjaro STUDIOz, and 52Ps.Studio.
The Importance of Website Color Schemes
Why is color important to consider when designing a website? We’ve moved a long way from the clinical website templates of old, and stepped into a digital era in full color. An effective website design not only manages to communicate information and direct the user experience, it also represents the visual ‘market stall’ of a business or individual.
By carefully choosing a color scheme for your website design, you can put forward an aesthetic in-line with your brand identity, set the whole tone or mood for the website, as well as impact on a visitor’s experience of the site through the power of color psychology.
We can see this technique of careful color consideration in action on many well-used and popular websites. For example, Netflix uses a dark color palette of black and red to instantly set a cinematic mood, effectively ‘dimming the lights’ before the start of a movie and creating a cozy feel.
Professional networking site LinkedIn looks to corporate-approved colors of white, blue, and gray to set a serious tone, which mimics the feel of being in a physical workplace.
On a psychological level, this prompts users to behave as they would in a professional environment, while the gradient rainbow colors of Instagram encourage a more playful, social attitude.
Understanding Color Basics
Before we dive into the myriad of options for website color schemes, it’s wise to brush up on our color wheel basics, including primary colors, secondary colors, and more advanced ways of combining hues, including tertiary colors and complementary colors.
The Color Wheel
The color wheel reveals the spectrum of colors available to use on our website designs, and it’s important to make a note of some key color wheel guidelines when selecting color schemes.
The color wheel is made up of primary colors (red, green, and blue) and secondary colors (orange, green, and violet), which can be paired or combined in different ways to create various visual and psychological effects.
By combining primary and secondary colors, we can create tertiary colors, of which there are six in total: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.
However, you might identify these tertiary, or intermediate, colors by more distinctive names such as lime (yellow-green) or teal (blue-green).
To create a complementary color scheme, we can look to pairs of colors which sit opposite to each other on a color wheel. These complementary colors, although contrasting, will be a natural pairing. Think orange and blue, red and green, or yellow and purple.
For a graduating scheme on a website design, which is better suited to minimal websites or designs that require a calming mood, we can look to a palette of analogous colors, which use a group of three colors that sit next to each other on a color wheel.
An analogous color scheme of warm tones, including yellow, yellow-orange, and orange, for example, will give a website design a calm and cozy feel.
Primary Colors
Red, blue, and yellow are the three core primary colors that make up the foundation of the color wheel. Consider these primary colors to be the basic building blocks of a website color scheme, allowing the web designer to create a huge range of color swatches by mixing and blending these three primary hues.
Secondary Colors
By blending two primary colors together, we can create a secondary color, of which there are three on the color wheel—green, orange, and violet (or purple).
In art and design, these secondary colors allow us to build even more versatility into a color scheme, and each secondary color combines the psychological characteristics of its two primary color parents.
For example, we can merge blue’s calming nature with yellow’s vibrancy in green, which brings both tranquility and vitality to a website design.
Choosing the Right Colors
When choosing a color scheme for a website, what should we consider to be important? From cultural implications to the impact of screen light on color perception, there are numerous factors to consider when selecting a website color scheme.
Read on to find out a little more about these important color considerations, including achieving harmony and complementary balance in your site design.
Factors to Consider for Color Choices
Taking into account target audience preferences, which may differ due to generation, gender, or geography, is a good first step, and should also take into account cultural implications.
For example, if we are designing a website to target Gen Z consumers in the United States, and a sister website to target a similar-aged audience in the Asia-Pacific region, the cultural preferences towards particular colors are likely to be quite different based on cultural and environmental conditioning.
Our website design may also be directed by the existing colors of a brand identity, or we may want to achieve a particular emotional effect on the user through use of color psychology.
The light emitted by screens is another important factor to consider when making color choices. In contrast to printed materials, color as perceived on a screen is generated through light (in RGB color mode), and may differ widely between different devices.
We may want to use brighter colors to make a stronger statement on a call-to-action button or, alternatively, use softer colors for a website that requires a soothing user experience.
Earth-toned or neutral colors are a good choice for making websites more likely to appeal to a wide range of users, wherever they are in the world. The website design for Paris Tile combines neutral backgrounds with elegant black text for a simple yet striking color scheme.
How to Create a Harmonious Color Palette
We can use the guidance of the color wheel to create a harmonious color palette for a website design. To create harmony on your site design, use a primary color alongside its complementary or analogous color companions for instant balance.
For example, blue can be combined with violet and green to create a cool-hued harmonious scheme that relies on the graduating color theory of analogous colors.
Tweaking the hue, saturation, and HEX code value of colors can also bring subtle changes into your color scheme that can have surprisingly striking effects on the overall emotional impact of an interface.
For example, as with the cool-hued scheme above, we can introduce pale pastel tones of powder violet, sky blue, and pistachio green to create a much more playful and saccharine effect.
Complementary Colors and Their Impact
Complementary colors create a sense of harmony through contrast of opposing colors on the color wheel. Using complementary colors can be a particularly effective strategy for websites, as they can maximize the difference between colors on screens, helping to make text appear more legible.
From a visual perspective, complementary colors (such as blue and orange or green and red) can also help a website to appear instantly “just right” to the eye, because these contrasting colors are natural companions.
For the portfolio website of digital designer Félix Péault, Flayks, a loosely complementary scheme of dark green and coral pink create an innate sense of balance.
Exploring Different Color Options
Now that we know more about the color theory behind selecting schemes for websites, where can we begin with choosing color options that are the right fit?
Here, you’ll find a few tried-and-tested tips for selecting color schemes for website designs.
Natural Colors and Earthy Tones
Natural colors are extremely pleasing to the eye, as they mimic the earthy tones found in nature and the environment. Translating these nature-inspired color schemes to the screen is an effective color technique for making website visitors feel calm, grounded, and more open to a business’ message or offering.
Earthy tones, such as forest green, marine blue, ochre, sand, or stone gray, also make a great fit for websites themed on sustainability, charitable causes or eco concepts, or sites promoting travel vacations or organic products.
Ghost Note Agency looks to the grounding energy of earth colors to create a friendly and calming website design.
How to Use White Space Effectively
The internet is heavily saturated with imagery and text, so landing on a webpage that feels balanced and generous in its use of space can feel like a breath of fresh air.
White space, which describes the “empty” areas on a design, doesn’t have to be white; it simply has to feature a blank area of space or color (including a dark background) that allows other elements to be more visible, improving the overall user experience.
A white background, dark background, or colored backdrop also allows for a much smoother and clearer user journey, making menu items easier to locate and type more accessible to read.
White space doesn’t have to be white! Fabric suppliers J Stimler use plenty of dusky gray to allow images and neon type to pop.
How to Incorporate Bright Colors for Visual Impact
Bright and bold color schemes have been a popular choice for website designs for years, in part due to the ability of bright colors to attract attention and the trend-driven impact of social media, which has long championed a neon aesthetic that mimics the bold color schemes of the 1980s and 1990s.
Bright colors also bring the party to your website, giving designs a fresh and fun style!
For a more balanced color scheme, try pairing neon bright colors or acid pastels with more pared back neutrals, such as black, beige, or gray. Or, in the case of the portfolio website of designer Maya Lynne Adar, why not go all-out with a neon palette of acid bright colors?
On Maya Lynne Adar’s portfolio website, a simple and striking use of bold neon color gives the site a fresh, fun feel.
Accentuating with Colors
In web design, accent colors not only provide a serious pop of color, but also serve as effective user navigation, drawing attention to buttons, CTAs, and menu options.
Choosing an Accent Color for Emphasis
Dominant colors, which may be brighter, richer, or more vivid than neighboring hues, are accent colors. They draw the eye towards a particular area of your website design, or serve as an attention-grabbing color that gives the layout a particular mood.
These dominant colors can be added to otherwise common color schemes to create additional interest on a website design. Interesting accent colors to try might include pastel neons, such as acid lime or pastel lavender, or rich jewel colors, such as crimson red, emerald green, or sapphire blue.
Use contrasting colors such as neutral backgrounds alongside an accent color to really create a pop of color.
Looking for accent color ideas? Read on to discover 20 FREE palettes for website color schemes that use accent colors and neutral tones in contemporary and unexpected ways.
License this image via popovartem.com.
Website Color Combination Examples
Looking for the perfect modern color palette for a website or app design? Below, you’ll find 20 beautiful color schemes for websites that offer color combo inspiration ranging from soothing neutral tones to dark mode schemes and ultra-colorful, playful palettes.
You’ll also find inspirational examples of these beautiful color schemes in action on trend-forward, award-winning website designs.
Website Color Palette 1: Trendy
Trend-conscious website designers need look no further than this social media-inspired palette of neon fuchsia pink, coral orange, and bright red. Team with charcoal hued background colors for moody contrast.
Website Color Palette 2: Elegant
Keep your website color scheme chic and elegant with this airy color palette of neutral tones. Soothe your visitors’ eyes with shades of cream, buff, and powder pink, and bring in deep navy blue as a chic alternative to black.
The website design for Paris Tile turns to blush-toned neutrals for a soothing, chic color scheme.
Website Color Palette 3: Quirky
Kooky and quirky websites need a fun color palette to match! For a cartoonish, playful mood, look to bright pastel colors, including lemon yellow, pastel purple, orange, and pastel green.
Website Color Palette 4: Sporty
For a sporty look, try out energizing warm tones on your website design. This contemporary color scheme balances vibrant shades of bright yellow and orange with minimal gray and black.
Fabric suppliers J Stimler look to slick and sporty yellow, orange, and gray for their website color scheme.
Website Color Palette 5: Minimalist
Minimalist color schemes don’t have to be restricted to black and white. This softly tonal color scheme demonstrates how subtle earth tones can result in a calming modern color palette, best suited for design agency sites or architectural websites.
Website Color Palette 6: Sophisticated Tech
Tech websites can be a sea of neon green and black, thanks to The Matrix, but this modern tech color palette dares to be different.
Put forward a contemporary tech mood with cameo pink, deep navy, pale sea blue, and earthy ochre.
License this image via Kilimanjaro STUDIOz.
Website Color Palette 7: Sleek
A minimalist color palette with urban edge, this website color scheme is the perfect choice for websites themed on sports, tech, or engineering, and the high-contrast colors will help make your website more legible and accessible.
Website Color Palette 8: Urban
Looking for a moody, emo palette? This urban-inspired color scheme is a great fit for gaming websites, social media apps, or forum branding, and feels distinctly counter-culture, with dramatic, dark hues of teal blue, dirty red, and black.
Website Color Palette 9: Playful
If you’re working on a website design for a fashion-forward, young brand, consider this playful color palette, which reclaims pink and proudly teams it with rich scarlet red, ivory, and mustard yellow for a stylish color statement.
Website Color Palette 10: Intellectual
Mysterious purple is an immersive color that offers an intellectual spirit to willing website designs.
You can make monochromatic color schemes featuring purple feel more modern by introducing violet tones and soft color gradients.
Website Color Palette 11: Neon
Look to the streets of Tokyo and you’ll see why neon is proven to capture attention. These ultra-bright, dominant colors are a popular choice for website color schemes, as they are so effective at standing out, particularly against dark backgrounds.
This vibrant color scheme uses acid purple pink, alien green, and neon orange to create an eye-catching scheme for edgy website designs.
License this image via 52Ps.Studio.
Website Color Palette 12: Muted Pastel
Pastel colors don’t have to be childlike and saccharine. This grown-up pastel color scheme is a great choice for websites that require a calm and minimal mood, from yoga websites to wellness apps.
Website Color Palette 13: Deep Tones
If bright neons are a little too over the top for your tastes, consider this modern color scheme of deep tones. Step away from murky hues with rich, nighttime tones of deep cobalt blue and dark purple pink.
Website Color Palette 14: Light
This minimalist color palette turns to neutral tones to bring subtle, graduating color to a stripped-back website design.
This light color scheme for websites would work well for fashion, lifestyle, or news sites, creating a pared-back palette that allows photography and type to shine.
Website Color Palette 15: Unexpected Elegance
While many fashion websites opt for simple color palettes, they should also consider this colorful yet elegant palette that combines shades of pastel mauve, mint green, and coral pink with contrasting forest green.
The portfolio website, Flayks, of digital designer Félix Péault uses an unexpected color palette of deep green and coral pink to beautiful effect.
Website Color Palette 16: Warm Tones
Warm tones on websites are a tried-and-tested technique for making a site feel friendlier and cozier. You’ll notice that many budget-friendly businesses use warm colors of orange or red to try to appear more accessible and friendly.
This retro-inspired color scheme of orange red and midnight blue balances out any excess heat, and would make a great fit for blogs or budget sites.
Website Color Palette 17: Earthy
As discussed earlier in the article, earth tones are a popular color strategy employed by website designers to bring a grounded, approachable mood to a site.
Try this alternative earth color palette that features accent colors, neon absinthe, and dusky purple blue, to break up the tonal scheme and draw attention to buttons or type.
Ghost Note Agency uses an unexpected scheme of lavender and forest green on their warm, friendly website design.
Website Color Palette 18: Dark Neutral
For a color combo that feels seamless and timeless, opt for this mineral-inspired color scheme of dark neutral hues. Stone tones of gray and gray green are warmed up with playful peach pearl.
Website Color Palette 19: Eco
Eco warriors and not-for-profit website designers can avoid greenwashing with this marine-inspired color palette that makes for oceanic, immersive website designs.
Sea blue, seafoam green, and cool-hued cream can be used to produce an analogous color scheme that will create seamless graduation throughout your navigation.
Website Color Palette 20: Juicy
This tropical color palette would make for a fun and refreshing color scheme for an informal website design.
For product launches, social media websites, or beauty websites, this vibrant color combo of acid pink, dusky mauve, yolk yellow, and lime will bring the fun factor.
Maya Lynne Adar’s portfolio website is given a citrus boost with bright fuchsia pink and lime green.
Looking for more website design inspiration? Take your online designs to the next level with these tips and inspirational ideas for digital design:
License this cover image via popovartem.com.
Recently viewed
${excerpt}