Color Mixer: Mix Paint and Light Colors Online Free

Our free color mixer shows you what happens when colors mix, both as real paint and as light on a screen. Add as many colors as you like, set the parts of each, and see the result with its HEX, RGB, and HSL code and its color name. You can also turn the tool around: enter a target color, and the paint mixing calculator suggests which two or three paints make it, and in what ratio.

Loading the color mixer…

How to Use the Color Mixer

The tool opens with Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Yellow Medium in equal parts, which make a muted green. From there:

Choose what you are mixing. Select “Paint (pigments)” to simulate acrylic or oil paint, or “Light (screen colors, RGB)” to mix colors the way a monitor does.
Add colors. Click a paint from one of the palettes, or click “Add custom color” and type a HEX code, an RGB or HSL value, or a color name such as “olive”. Click a color’s swatch to open your device’s color picker.
Set the parts. Use the plus and minus buttons or type a number from 0 to 100. Two parts yellow and one part blue means twice as much yellow as blue. A color set to 0 stays in the list but is left out of the mix.
Read the result. The swatch updates instantly and shows the closest color name, the color code in seven formats, and a bar with the share of each color.
Save, share, or export. Copy the recipe, download a PNG recipe card, print it, save the mix in your browser, or copy the link to send the exact mix to someone.

There is no limit to how many colors you can combine, so the tool also works as a color combiner for designers who want to blend several brand colors into one.

Paint or Light: Why Colors Mix Differently

Many simple online color mixers just average the RGB numbers of the colors. That works for screen design, but not for painters.

Light mixes additively. A screen creates every color from red, green, and blue light. When lights overlap, their energy adds up and the result gets brighter. Red and green light make yellow, and all three together make white.

Paint mixes subtractively. Each pigment absorbs part of the light and reflects the rest. In a mix, every pigment keeps absorbing, so the result reflects less light and usually becomes darker and duller. That is why blue and yellow paint make green, while blue and yellow light make white.

Here are some results from the tool (one part of each color unless a ratio is given):

Colors	Mode	Result in the tool
Ultramarine Blue + Cadmium Yellow Medium	Paint	#628042, a muted green
Cadmium Red Light + Cadmium Yellow Medium	Paint	#F16A1D, orange
Cadmium Red Light + Ultramarine Blue	Paint	#4F3C3D, a dull purple-brown
Cadmium Red Light + Titanium White	Paint	#F47862, salmon pink
Ultramarine Blue + Burnt Sienna	Paint	#393A37, an almost neutral dark gray
1 part Ivory Black + 2 parts Cadmium Yellow Medium	Paint	#867B31, olive green
Red + green	Light (additive)	#FFFF00, yellow
Blue + yellow	Light (additive)	#FFFFFF, white

The red and blue example shows a classic lesson: a warm red and a blue do not give a clean violet. A cooler red such as Quinacridone Magenta works better, as our guide on what colors make purple explains. Whenever you mix two or more colors, the tool also shows what the same colors would look like in the other mode.

Which Colors Make This Color? The Paint Mixing Calculator

The second tab works the other way around. Enter the color you want as a HEX code, an RGB or HSL value, or a color name, use the color picker, pick a color from your screen (in browsers that support it), or click a spot in an image. The tool tests combinations of the paints in your chosen palette and lists up to four recipes with the paints, parts, percentages, and a side-by-side swatch of target and mix.

For teal (#008080) with the artist palette, for example, it recommends 9 parts Cerulean Blue and 1 part Sap Green, with a difference of ΔE 1.8. The ΔE value (Delta E, calculated with the CIEDE2000 formula) shows how far the mix is from your target. Below 2, the difference is hard to see even side by side, and above 10 the colors are clearly different. Very bright colors such as fuchsia are often out of reach for paint, and the tool tells you when that happens.

You can limit recipes to two or three paints and switch off paints you do not own. When two recipes are almost equally accurate, the tool prefers fewer paints and simpler ratios, because that is what you can actually mix. “Open in mixer” loads a recipe into the mixer for fine-tuning, so the two tabs work together as a color mixing calculator.

The Paint Palettes in the Tool

The paint mode includes 33 paints, grouped into ready-made palettes:

Basic: red, yellow, blue, white, and black. Read more about primary colors.
Artist palette: 18 common acrylic and oil colors, from Lemon Yellow to Phthalo Blue and Burnt Sienna.
Split primary: a warm and a cool version of each primary for cleaner secondary colors.
Cyan, magenta, yellow: the modern primaries, plus white and black.
Zorn palette: white, Yellow Ochre, a cadmium red (as a modern stand-in for vermilion), and Ivory Black, as explained in our Zorn palette guide.
Earth tones: Yellow Ochre, Raw and Burnt Sienna, Raw and Burnt Umber, Payne’s Gray, white, and black.

Where it applies, the tool shows the pigment code, such as PB29 for Ultramarine Blue. All paint colors are approximations of typical paints, and the same paint name can look different from brand to brand. If you are still choosing paints, see our guides to the best acrylic paint and the best oil paints.

Mixing Methods in Light Mode

In light mode, you choose how the colors are combined. With one part red and one part green, the tool shows:

Additive light: #FFFF00, like two overlapping spotlights. If a channel goes above full brightness, the color is scaled down so its hue stays the same.
Light average (linear RGB / XYZ): #BCBC00, the physically correct average of two lights at half strength.
RGB average (sRGB): #808000, the simple average of the RGB numbers that most basic color mixers calculate.
OKLab (perceptual): #D0A800, an average in a color space built around human vision.
LAB, LCH, and HSL: #C9AB00, #D7A700, and #FFFF00.

The LAB, LCH, HSL, RGB, and XYZ methods were part of the previous version of this tool, so links shared from it still open with the same colors and method. Results are shown as HEX, RGB, HSL, HSV, CMYK, LAB, and OKLCH. The CMYK values are a simple conversion, not a print profile.

How the Paint Simulation Works

To mix paint on a screen, the tool uses Kubelka-Munk theory, a model published by Paul Kubelka and Franz Munk in 1931 that describes how a paint layer absorbs and scatters light:

Each paint color is turned into a smooth reflectance curve across 36 wavelengths of visible light, from 380 to 730 nanometers.
For every wavelength, the tool calculates each paint’s ratio of absorption to scattering.
These values are combined according to your parts. Each paint is weighted by its lightness and an estimated tinting strength, because strong pigments such as Phthalo Blue take over a mix faster than weak ones such as Yellow Ochre.
The mixed curve is converted back into a screen color.

That is why the tool shows effects that averaging cannot: 1 part Phthalo Blue and 10 parts Titanium White still give a clear blue (#63A7D8), while 1 part Ultramarine Blue and 10 parts white give a pale blue-gray (#BFD0EC).

The model has limits. It does not know the exact pigments of your brand, and it ignores layer thickness, glazing, drying shifts, and the surface you paint on. Screen colors also only approximate real pigments. Treat the paint mode as an informed starting point.

Mixing Steps, Tints, Tones, and Shades

The “Mixing steps” strip shows eleven steps between any two colors in your list, so you can see how quickly one color takes over the other. The tool also creates tints, tones, and shades of your result. In paint mode, it adds Titanium White, Ivory Black, or both to your actual recipe. Click any swatch to copy its HEX code. To see how colors relate, explore our free color wheel app and our guide to complementary colors.

Mix Colors from an Image or a Famous Painting

To use the color mixer online from an image, click “Pick from an image” in the “Which colors make this color?” tab, or drag and drop or paste an image. Click or touch a spot, and the tool averages a 5 × 5 pixel area so that noise and texture do not throw off the color. The recipes update as soon as you let go.

To practice with the old masters, load The Starry Night, The Great Wave, or Water Lilies, three public-domain paintings from Wikimedia Commons. To pick exact color codes instead, use our image color picker.

Tips for Mixing Real Paint

Start with the lighter color. Add the darker or stronger paint a little at a time.
Measure the parts. Use the same brush load, knife scoop, or drop for each part, so the recipe is easy to repeat.
Test a swatch. Let a small sample dry, because many acrylics dry slightly darker.
Make neutrals with complements. Blue with Burnt Sienna or red with green gives richer grays and browns than black.

Our detailed guide to mixing colors covers the basics of color theory, and our article on how to mix watercolors explains what changes with transparent paint.

What Colors Make…? Our Mixing Guides

When your result or target belongs to a color family we have written about, the tool links to the matching guide. When you mix exactly two colors and we have an article about that pair, it links to it as well, for example what blue and yellow make. Popular guides:

Who Uses a Color Mixer?

Painters: planning a mix before squeezing out paint, or finding the paints for a color in a reference photo.
Art students and teachers: showing why blue and yellow make green in paint but white in light.
Crafters: finding a starting point for resin, polymer clay, or fabric paint colors.
Designers: blending brand colors into a new shade and copying its HEX, RGB, or HSL code.

Your Colors and Images Stay Private

The color mixer runs completely in your browser (only the sample paintings load from Wikimedia Commons). Images you load are never uploaded to a server, and your saved mixes (up to 12) are stored only in your own browser. The share link contains nothing but the mode, colors, and parts of your mix.

More Free Art Tools

All our tools are free, run in your browser, and need no account. See them all on the free art tools page.

Image color picker: find the exact colors in any photo or painting.
Color name finder: get the name of any HEX, RGB, or photo color.
Color wheel: find complementary, triadic, and analogous colors.
Color palette generator: create matching color schemes or a palette from an image.
Random color generator: get random colors and palettes with paint mixing tips.
Tint and shade generator: make tints, shades, and tones of any color.
Color blindness simulator: see images and palettes as color blind people do.
Photo to painting: turn a photo into an oil or watercolor painting.
Photo to sketch: turn a photo into a pencil sketch or line art.
Photo to coloring page: turn any picture into a printable coloring page.
Image to pixel art: convert an image into editable pixel art.
Notan generator: plan light and dark shapes with a two- or three-value study.
Art grid tool: put a drawing grid over any photo.
Pose reference: practice figure drawing with timed poses.
Graph Paper Printable: print graph paper, dot grid, isometric, and hex paper to scale.
Aspect Ratio Calculator for Art: work out aspect ratios and scale art to any canvas size.
Online drawing board: draw and paint online with brushes, layers, and symmetry.
Golden ratio overlay: check your composition with a golden spiral and rule of thirds.
Perspective grid generator: print one-, two-, and three-point perspective grids.
Paint by number generator: turn a photo into a printable paint by number template.
Mandala maker: draw symmetrical mandalas and print them as coloring pages.
Connect the dots maker: turn a picture into a printable dot to dot worksheet.
Picture frame and mat size calculator: work out mat openings and frame sizes for your art.
Art pricing calculator: find a fair price for your paintings and prints.
Art quiz: guess famous paintings, artists, and styles.
Art prompt generator: get random ideas for drawing and painting.
Random character generator: create an original character with traits and a palette.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is a Color Mixer?

A color mixer, sometimes called a color mixer generator, color mix generator, or color mixing tool, shows the color you get when you combine two or more colors in certain amounts. Our online color mixer simulates paint pigments as well as light on a screen. Color mixing online is free here and needs no account, on computers, tablets, and phones alike.

What Is a Color Combiner?

“Color combiner” is another name for a tool that blends several colors into one. In our color mixer, you can combine as many colors as you want, give each a number of parts, and copy the result as HEX, RGB, HSL, or another format.

How Do I Find Out Which Colors Make a Specific Color?

Open the “Which colors make this color?” tab and enter your color as a HEX code or name, or pick it from an image. The tool suggests paint recipes with one, two, or three paints, their ratio, and a ΔE value that shows how close the mix comes to your target.

Why Do Blue and Yellow Make Green in Paint but Not on a Screen?

Paint pigments absorb light, so a mix of blue and yellow paint mainly reflects the green light that both let through. Screen colors are light that adds up, and blue and yellow light together contain red, green, and blue, which we see as white.

How Do I Calculate Paint Mixing Ratios?

Set the parts for each paint in the mixer, and the tool shows each paint’s percentage. For example, 3 parts white and 1 part blue means 75 percent white and 25 percent blue. The reverse tab calculates the ratio for a target color for you.

Can I Share or Save My Color Mix?

Yes. Every mix has its own link that opens the tool with the same colors, parts, and mode. You can also save up to 12 mixes in your browser, download a PNG recipe card, or print it.

Charlene Lewis( Content Creator and Creativity Writer )

In 2005, Charlene completed her Wellness Diplomas in Therapeutic Aromatherapy and Reflexology from the International School of Reflexology and Meridian Therapy. She worked for a company offering corporate wellness programs for a couple of years, before opening up her own therapy practice. It was in 2015 that a friend, who was a digital marketer, asked her to join her company as a content creator, and this is where she found her excitement for writing.

Since joining the content writing world, she has gained a lot of experience over the years writing on a diverse selection of topics, from beauty, health, wellness, travel, and more. Due to various circumstances, she had to close her therapy practice and is now a full-time freelance writer. Being a creative person, she could not pass up the opportunity to contribute to the Art in Context team, where is was in her element, writing about a variety of art and craft topics. Contributing articles for over three years now, her knowledge in this area has grown, and she has gotten to explore her creativity and improve her research and writing skills.

Charlene Lewis has been working for artincontext.org since the relaunch in 2020. She is an experienced writer and mainly focuses on the topics of color theory, painting and drawing.

Learn more about Charlene Lewis and the Art in Context Team.