Do I have to use hex codes in a prompt?

No, and they mostly do not work. A model will not reliably honour a hex value. Colour names and relationships do land, which is why every entry here carries a wording as well as the swatches.

Can I combine a scheme with a style?

Yes, and that is what these are for. The prompt on each page is a clause rather than a whole picture, so it drops into a prompt from any other catalogue: a Bauhaus layout in an analogous palette, or a risograph print in two complementary inks.

Why does my palette come back muddier than the swatches?

Almost always because the saturation was not stated. Models average toward the middle, so a scheme comes back dulled unless the prompt says how saturated the colours are and what the ground is.

Colour harmony

The ways to choose a set of colours, and the wording that gets each one.

A harmony is a rule for picking colours, decided before anything is drawn. It is the cheapest decision in this catalogue and the one that changes a picture most: the same layout in complementary orange and blue and in three analogous greens is two different pieces of work. Every scheme here is a relationship you can check, not a matter of taste, and every one of them carries the wording that gets it out of a model.

Relationships on the wheel

Five schemes defined by where the colours sit relative to each other. The further apart, the louder.

Complementary

Two colours from opposite sides of the wheel, and nothing else.

Split-Complementary

One colour against the two sitting either side of its opposite.

Analogous

Three or four neighbours on the wheel, with no opposition anywhere.

Triadic

Three colours spaced evenly around the wheel, balanced and loud.

Tetradic

Two complementary pairs at once. The richest scheme, and the hardest to hold.

One hue, or none

Two schemes that give up hue contrast entirely and make value do all the work.

Monochromatic

One hue, five values. Everything separates by light and dark alone.

Achromatic

No hue at all. Black, white and the greys between them.

Rules you set yourself

Three schemes that are not wheel relationships at all. They are constraints, and they are the ones most used in practice.

Limited Palette

A small fixed set of colours, chosen freely and then strictly obeyed.

Warm and Cool Split

The picture divided by temperature rather than by hue. Warm light, cool shadow.

Neutral and One Accent

A neutral picture with one saturated colour, placed where you want the eye.

Run one of them

Copy a palette into a prompt and pay for that one run. No subscription.

Open an image model

Other palette groups

Period palettesThe sets of colours that date a picture, and the wording for each one.15 period palettes Screen palettesThe palettes from film and television, and the wording for each one.12 screen palettes Nature and materialPalettes taken from landscapes and materials, with the words for each.12 natural palettes Functional palettesPalettes chosen to do a job, with the real numbers behind them.10 functional palettes

Print stylesDesigning the whole poster rather than choosing its colours? The same reference, for ink on paper.

Start from how loud the picture has to be. Complementary and triadic are loud and read from a distance. Analogous and monochromatic are quiet and reward a close look. Neutral plus one accent is the choice when exactly one thing matters.