Algorithm to randomly generate an aesthetically-pleasing color palette

Question

I m looking for a simple algorithm to generate a large number of random  aesthetically pleasing colors  So no crazy neon colors  colors reminiscent of feces  etc    I ve found solutions to this problem but they rely on alternative color palettes than RGB  I would rather just use straight RGB than mapping back and forth  These other solutions also can at most generate only 32 or so pleasing random colors    Any ideas would be great

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Converting to another palette is a far superior way to do this  There s a reason they do that  other palettes are  perceptual  - that is  they put similar seeming colors close together  and adjusting one variable changes the color in a predictable manner  None of that is true for RGB  where there s no obvious relationship between colors that  go well together

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David Crow s method in an R two-liner   GetRandomColours  lt - function num of colours  color to mix c 1 1 1       return rgb  matrix runif num of colours 3   nrow num of colours  color to mix  2

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In javascript   function pastelColors        var r    Math round Math random    127    127  toString 16       var g    Math round Math random    127    127  toString 16       var b    Math round Math random    127    127  toString 16       return       r   g   b      Saw the idea here  http   blog functionalfun net 2008 07 random-pastel-colour-generator html

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Here is quick and dirty color generator in C   using  RYB approach  described in this article   It s a rewrite from JavaScript   Use   List lt Color gt  ColorPalette   ColorGenerator Generate 30  ToList      First two colors tend to be white and a shade of black  I often skip them like this  using Linq    List lt Color gt  ColorsPalette   ColorGenerator              Generate 30               Skip 2     skip white and black              ToList       Implementation   public static class ColorGenerator           RYB color space     private static class RYB               private static readonly double   White     1  1  1            private static readonly double   Red     1  0  0            private static readonly double   Yellow     1  1  0            private static readonly double   Blue     0 163  0 373  0 6            private static readonly double   Violet     0 5  0  0 5            private static readonly double   Green     0  0 66  0 2            private static readonly double   Orange     1  0 5  0            private static readonly double   Black     0 2  0 094  0 0             public static double   ToRgb double r  double y  double b                        var rgb   new double 3               for  int i   0  i  lt  3  i                                  rgb i    White i      1 0 - r     1 0 - b     1 0 - y                             Red i       r            1 0 - b     1 0 - y                             Blue i       1 0 - r    b            1 0 - y                             Violet i    r           b            1 0 - y                             Yellow i     1 0 - r     1 0 - b           y                            Orange i    r            1 0 - b           y                            Green i      1 0 - r    b                  y                            Black i     r           b                  y                             return rgb                       private class Points   IEnumerable lt double   gt                private readonly int pointsCount          private double   picked          private int pickedCount           private readonly List lt double   gt  points   new List lt double   gt              public Points int count                        pointsCount   count                     private void Generate                         points Clear                var numBase    int Math Ceiling Math Pow pointsCount  1 0   3 0                var ceil    int Math Pow numBase  3 0               for  int i   0  i  lt  ceil  i                                  points Add new                                         Math Floor i  double  numBase numBase     numBase - 1 0                       Math Floor  i  double numBase    numBase    numBase - 1 0                       Math Floor  double  i   numBase     numBase - 1 0                                                        private double Distance double   p1                        double distance   0              for  int i   0  i  lt  3  i                                  distance    Math Pow p1 i  - picked i   2 0                              return distance                     private double   Pick                         if  picked    null                                picked   points 0                   points RemoveAt 0                   pickedCount   1                  return picked                             var d1   Distance points 0                int i1   0  i2   0              foreach  var point in points                                var d2   Distance point                   if  d1  lt  d2                                        i1   i2                      d1   d2                                     i2    1                             var pick   points i1               points RemoveAt i1                for  int i   0  i  lt  3  i                                  picked i     pickedCount   picked i    pick i      pickedCount   1 0                              pickedCount    1              return pick                     public IEnumerator lt double   gt  GetEnumerator                         Generate                for  int i   0  i  lt  pointsCount  i                                  yield return Pick                                     IEnumerator IEnumerable GetEnumerator                         return GetEnumerator                         public static IEnumerable lt Color gt  Generate int numOfColors                var points   new Points numOfColors            foreach  var point in points                        var rgb   RYB ToRgb point 0   point 1   point 2                yield return Color FromArgb                   int Math Floor 255   rgb 0                     int Math Floor 255   rgb 1                     int Math Floor 255   rgb 2

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function fnGetRandomColour iDarkLuma  iLightLuma              for  var i 0 i lt 20 i            var sColour     ffffff    Math floor Math random     0xFFFFFF  toString 16   substr -6        var rgb   parseInt sColour  16        convert rrggbb to decimal     var r    rgb  gt  gt  16   amp  0xff      extract red     var g    rgb  gt  gt   8   amp  0xff      extract green     var b    rgb  gt  gt   0   amp  0xff      extract blue      var iLuma   0 2126   r   0 7152   g   0 0722   b     per ITU-R BT 709       if  iLuma  gt  iDarkLuma  amp  amp  iLuma  lt  iLightLuma  return sColour        return sColour       For pastel  pass in higher luma dark light integers - ie fnGetRandomColour 120  250   Credits  all credits to    http   paulirish com 2009 random-hex-color-code-snippets    stackoverflow com questions 12043187 how-to-check-if-hex-color-is-too-black

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you could have them be within a certain brightness  that would control the ammount of  neon  colors a bit  for instance  if the  brightness   brightness   sqrt R 2 G 2 B 2    was within a certain high bound  it would have a washed out  light color to it  Conversely  if it was within a certain low bound  it would be darker  This would eliminate any crazy  standout colors and if you chose a bound really high or really low  they would all be fairly close to either white or black

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I d strongly recommend using a CG HSVtoRGB shader function  they are awesome    it gives you natural color control like a painter instead of control like a crt monitor  which you arent presumably   This is a way to make 1 float value  i e  Grey  into 1000 ds of combinations of color and brightness and saturation etc   int rand   a global color randomizer that you can control by script  by a crossfader etc  float h   perlin grey 23 3 rand  float s   perlin grey 54 4 rand  float v   perlin grey 12 6 rand   Return float4 HSVtoRGB h s v     result is AWESOME COLOR RANDOMIZATION  it s not natural but it uses natural color gradients and it looks organic and controlleably irridescent   pastel parameters   For perlin  you can use this function  it is a fast zig zag version of perlin   function  zig   xx   float    float       lfo nz -1 1     xx  xx 32      var x0   Mathf Floor xx       var x1   x0 1      var v0    Mathf Sin  x0  014686  31718 927  1      var v1    Mathf Sin   x1  014686  31718 927  1      return Mathf Lerp  v0   v1    xx  1   2-1

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You could average the RGB values of random colors with those of a constant color    example in Java   public Color generateRandomColor Color mix        Random random   new Random        int red   random nextInt 256       int green   random nextInt 256       int blue   random nextInt 256           mix the color     if  mix    null            red    red   mix getRed      2          green    green   mix getGreen      2          blue    blue   mix getBlue      2             Color color   new Color red  green  blue       return color       Mixing random colors with white  255  255  255  creates neutral pastels by increasing the lightness while keeping the hue of the original color  These randomly generated pastels usually go well together  especially in large numbers   Here are some pastel colors generated using the above method      You could also mix the random color with a constant pastel  which results in a tinted set of neutral colors  For example  using a light blue creates colors like these      Going further  you could add heuristics to your generator that take into account complementary colors or levels of shading  but it all depends on the impression you want to achieve with your random colors   Some additional resources    http   en wikipedia org wiki Color theory http   en wikipedia org wiki Complementary color

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It s going to be hard to get what you want algorithmically - people have been studying color theory for a long time  and they don t even know all the rules   However  there are some rules which you can use to cull bad color combinations  ie  there are rules for clashing colors  and choosing complementary colors    I d recommend you visit your library s art section and check out books on color theory to gain a better understanding of what is a good color before you try to make one - it appears you might not even know why certain combinations work and others don t   -Adam

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Here is something I wrote for a site I made  It will auto-generate a random flat background-color for any div with the class  flat-color-gen  Jquery is only required for the purposes of adding css to the page  it s not required for the main part of this  which is the generateFlatColorWithOrder   method   JsFiddle Link   function          function generateFlatColorWithOrder num  rr  rg  rb            var colorBase   256          var red   0          var green   0          var blue   0          num   Math round num           num   num   1          if  num    null                 red    num rr    256              green    num rg    256              blue    num rb    256                    var redString   Math round  red   colorBase    2  toString            var greenString   Math round  green   colorBase    2  toString            var blueString   Math round  blue   colorBase    2  toString            return  rgb   redString      greenString      blueString                return       redString   greenString   blueString             function generateRandomFlatColor             return generateFlatColorWithOrder Math round Math random   127               var rr   Math round Math random   1000       var rg   Math round Math random   1000       var rb   Math round Math random   1000       console log  random red     rr       console log  random green     rg       console log  random blue     rb       console log  ----------------------------------------------------            flat-color-gen   each function i  obj            console log generateFlatColorWithOrder i              this  css  background-color  generateFlatColorWithOrder i  rr  rg  rb  toString                window jQuery

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An answer that shouldn t be overlooked  because it s simple and presents advantages  is sampling of real life photos and paintings  sample as many random pixels as you want random colors on thumbnails of modern art pics  cezanne  van gogh  monnet  photos    the advantage is that you can get colors by theme and that they are organic colors  just put 20 - 30 pics in a folder and random sample a random pic every time   Conversion to HSV values is a widespread code algorithm for psychologically based palette  hsv is easier to randomize

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JavaScript adaptation of David Crow s original answer  IE and Nodejs specific code included   generateRandomComplementaryColor   function r  g  b         --- JavaScript code     var red   Math floor  Math random     256        var green   Math floor  Math random     256        var blue   Math floor  Math random     256          ---        --- Extra check for Internet Explorers  its Math random is not random enough      if   MSIE 9 i test navigator userAgent   amp  amp    MSIE 10 i test navigator userAgent   amp  amp    rv 11 0 i test navigator userAgent            red   Math floor    0     window crypto getRandomValues new Uint32Array 1   0     256            green   Math floor    0     window crypto getRandomValues new Uint32Array 1   0     256            blue   Math floor    0     window crypto getRandomValues new Uint32Array 1   0     256                 ---        --- nodejs code            crypto   Npm require  crypto        red   Math floor  parseInt crypto randomBytes 8  toString  hex    16     1 0e-19   256       green   Math floor  parseInt crypto randomBytes 8  toString  hex    16     1 0e-19   256       blue   Math floor  parseInt crypto randomBytes 8  toString  hex    16     1 0e-19   256                ---      red    red   r  2      green    green   g  2      blue    blue   b  2       return  rgb     Math floor red           Math floor green           Math floor blue             Run the function using   generateRandomComplementaryColor 240  240  240

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Use distinct-colors   Written in javascript   It generates a palette of visually distinct colors   distinct-colors is highly configurable    Choose how many colors are in the palette Restrict the hue to a specific range Restrict the chroma  saturation  to a specific range Restrict the lightness to a specific range Configure general quality of the palette

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In php    function pastelColors          r   dechex round   float  rand      float  getrandmax      127    127        g   dechex round   float  rand      float  getrandmax      127    127        b   dechex round   float  rand      float  getrandmax      127    127        return        r    g    b      source  https   stackoverflow com a 12266311 2875783

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I would use a color wheel and given a random position you could add the golden angle  137 5 degrees   http   en wikipedia org wiki Golden angle  in order to get different colours each time that do not overlap    Adjusting the brightness for the color wheel you could get also different bright dark color combinations   I ve found this blog post that explains really well the problem and the solution using the golden ratio   http   martin ankerl com 2009 12 09 how-to-create-random-colors-programmatically   UPDATE  I ve just found this other approach   It s called RYB red  yellow  blue  method and it s described in this paper   http   threekings tk mirror ryb TR pdf  as  Paint Inspired Color Compositing    The algorithm generates the colors and each new color is chosen to maximize its euclidian distance to the previously selected ones   Here you can find a a good implementation in javascript   http   afriggeri github com RYB   UPDATE 2    The Sciences Po Medialb have just released a tool called  I want Hue  that generate color palettes for data scientists  Using different color spaces and generating the palettes by using k-means clustering or force vectors   repulsion graphs  The results from those methods are very good  they show the theory and an implementation in their web page    http   tools medialab sciences-po fr iwanthue index php

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I ve had success using TriadMixing and CIE94 to avoid similar colors  The following image uses input colors red  yellow  and white  See here

[algorithm] Algorithm to randomly generate an aesthetically-pleasing color palette

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