Color palette

As explained in CSS in Depth, Second Edition

A color palette is a coordinated set of color values selected for use across an interface or visual design.

A color palette is a coordinated set of color values for an interface. It usually centers on a primary brand color, related shades or complementary colors, black, white, and grays. section 11.2

Treat repeated palette values as design tokens by assigning them to CSS custom properties. Updating one variable can then change the design consistently instead of requiring repeated edits. section 11.2

A practical palette workflow includes:

• Start with the designer’s named swatches and associated hex values. section 11.2
• Extend the palette deliberately when an unplanned need, such as an error message or informational box, appears. section 11.3.3

Centralized theme colors

A theme layer can define :root variables such as --brand-green: #076448, --dark-green: #099268, --text-color: #212529, and --extra-light-gray: #f8f9fa. Components then consume them with declarations such as background-color: var(--extra-light-gray) or color: var(--white).

Figure 11.5 The color palette for the site

Inspect the site’s swatches and associated color values as a visual reference for the palette. section 11.2

How CSS in Depth, Second Edition covers it

How deep it goes

Defines palette composition and demonstrates CSS custom-property implementation, while stopping short of a complete color-selection methodology.

Examples

Uses branded greens, grays, white, navigation states, buttons, page backgrounds, tiles, and a less vivid active-link color.

What it assumes

Assumes a design specification with color swatches and values, while demonstrating CSS variable assignment from the start.

What you can do after

Apply it via CSS custom properties to reuse colors consistently and update palette values centrally.

How it connects

Connects color palettes with color contrast, CSS custom properties, visual design, HSL, OKLCH, and color-mix().

liveBookmanning.com

Read CSS in Depth, Second Edition on liveBook Get the book at manning.com

Also explained in

• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Design for DevelopersA color palette, or color scheme, is a selected set of colors intended to be used together in a visual design.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Everyday Data VisualizationA color palette is a selected set of colors intended to work together in a visual design or visualization.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Web Components in ActionTheming is the practice of defining and applying a coordinated visual style across an interface or component system.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Classic Game Programming on the NES: Make your own retro video gameA graphics palette is a set of color values available for rendering graphical content.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  WordPress Power Toolkit: Harness AI to build next-level websitesA color scheme is a coordinated selection of colors applied to a website's visual design.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Web Design Playground, Second EditionA color scheme is a coordinated selection of colors used together in a visual design.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Web Design PlaygroundA coordinated set of colors chosen to work together in a design.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Build a Website with ChatGPTA color scheme is a coordinated selection of colors used for the visual design of a web page or website.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Pro Angular 16A color palette is a defined collection of colors from which interface colors are selected.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Tiny CSS ProjectsThe SMACSS theme category contains styles defining the visual look and feel of a page or project.

Compare how 11 books explain color palette →

Related concepts

• coloruses · Color is a visual property or representation characterized by attributes such as hue, lightness, saturation, or component values.
• monochrome color schemeincludes · A monochrome color scheme is a coordinated palette built from variations of a single color or hue.
• OKLCHuses · OKLCH is a perceptually uniform cylindrical color space representing color by lightness, chroma, and hue.
• sequential colormapincludes · A sequential colormap maps ordered quantitative values to a progressive change in color lightness, intensity, or saturation.
• CSS variableuses · A CSS custom property is an author-defined property, typically named with a leading double hyphen, whose value can be inherited and referenced in other declarations.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of CSS in Depth, Second Edition. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.