Götz SalzmannMay 13, 2025
Kate Morley
I designed the 12-bit rainbow palette for use on https://grid.iamkate.com. It consists of twelve colours chosen with consideration for how we perceive luminance, chroma, and hue. The palette uses a 12-bit colour depth, so each colour requires only four characters when specified as a hexadecimal colour code in a CSS or SVG file. For more details, see https://iamkate.com/data/12-bit-rainbow/
National Grid: Live

Shows the live status of Great Britain’s electric power transmission network

Apr 28, 2025 at 8:16pmWeb
Show threadbenApr 28, 2025
@katemorley hm, now I want to figure out using these for a terminal/editor theme.
Show threadLily CohenApr 29, 2025
@benjamineskola @katemorley that's exactly where my brain went 🤩
Show threadbenApr 29, 2025
Terminal is relatively straightforward and I think they work well. An editor theme is going to be more complex, of course And it's slightly arbitrary which colour is the "bright" one, since the whole point is that none of them are brighter than the other.
Show threadbenApr 29, 2025
actually that blue on a black background isn’t great, not enough contrast.
Show threadjackApr 28, 2025
@katemorley ooh, I'm glad you reposted this
Show threadDuracell Benny ⚡Apr 28, 2025
@katemorley It is very aesthetically pleasing.
Show threadAnthony SoraceApr 28, 2025
@katemorley Ooo, this is timely: I'm trying to figure out how to pick colors for a 10-step pattern for a painting project. Thanks!
Show threadAnthony SoraceApr 28, 2025
@katemorley The bit about allowing constrained variance in luminance is very helpful, but how did you actually *do* it? Was this manual, or did you writing something to divide it up given some constraints?
Show threadthe magpieApr 28, 2025
@katemorley it's beautiful, and it looks great "in the wild" on your page as well!
Show threadIanApr 28, 2025
@katemorley I like the first three; purple, blood orange, peach.
Show threadfeliks✨Apr 28, 2025
@katemorley enjoyed your use on the national grid visualization
Show threadKevin Karhan Apr 28, 2025
@katemorley that's cool!
Show threadKevin Karhan Apr 28, 2025
@katemorley that is a nice pallet.
I do like it...
I wounder how it works in terms of #contrast for #accessibility...
Show threadnaught101Apr 28, 2025

@katemorley I dunno if it's just me, but the yellow stands out as very different from the colours around it, while the ~5 green-blue colours are very similar. If it's perception-distributed, I would have expected more evenness (or perhaps this is me finding out that I'm slightly colour blind?).

Looks pretty as hell though.

Show threadmatt sephtonApr 28, 2025
@katemorley love this! great work. I often use 12-bit/4-character definitions just for a fun extra limitation. going the extra mile to create a palette with them is 👌
Show threadYen-JuApr 29, 2025

@katemorley It’s on hacker news.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43827108

The 12-bit rainbow palette | Hacker News

Show threadKing Naga Calyo Lucere-DelphiApr 29, 2025

@katemorley Oh this is a very lovely color palette! 🥰

I might have to slip this into my back pocket for an opportunity to use it~ 💞

Show threadJerry 🇸🇪Apr 29, 2025

@katemorley

Oh this looks wonderful! Going to steal the background colour as well to make a palette for JetBrains and Terminals...

Show threadmichaelApr 29, 2025
@katemorley this is beautiful <3
I started using it as color scheme for tracks in Reaper
Show threadJason, Human, Average Apr 30, 2025
@katemorley
I want to paint a pallet with this palette.
Show threada40YOStudentApr 30, 2025
@katemorley #instafollow
Show threadMatthew AbbottApr 30, 2025
@katemorley It looks great! Have you evaluated how the palette stands up to various types of colorblindness?
Show threadGuillaume LaforgeApr 30, 2025
@katemorley I ❤️ that color palette 🎨 and used it in some projects, and on my blog. Thank you for it! 🙏
Show threadJerry 🇸🇪May 1, 2025

@glaforge @katemorley

I wish setting a colour palette in JetBrains IDEs was simpler than it is...

Show threadChris SimpsonApr 30, 2025
@katemorley I love this. And it's also a great example of the mach bands illusion (well it is on a big screen)
Show threadRamiroMay 1, 2025
@katemorley delightful
Show threadRichard the Brave 🇨🇦May 1, 2025
@katemorley This is fantastic!
Show threadtechnosophistMay 4, 2025
@katemorley do these work just as well on light and dark backgrounds, or could the brightness be adjusted to make two palettes?