palette

A palette is a flat surface used by painters to arrange and mix paints. Traditionally made of wood or porcelain, palettes include a thumb hole for holding. The term also refers to the range of colors chosen for a project or artwork—a color palette. Artists often select hues based on color theory, to achieve harmony or contrast. In digital contexts, the term extends to color palettes and indexed color systems. Palettes can be static, containing a fixed set of colors, or dynamic, allowing colors to be added or modified.

Digital color palettes map a limited set of colors to pixel values. In early or constrained systems, images used palettes such as 256-color palettes or even 16 colors, stored as a color lookup table (CLUT). Modern truecolor images use 24-bit color without a fixed palette, but many formats still use palettes to reduce file size, e.g., GIF and PNG-8. Palette optimization and dithering are techniques to approximate colors when reducing color depth. Pantone and other industries provide standardized color palettes for branding.

In design and branding, choosing a palette is central to conveying mood and identity. Designers select harmonious combinations (complementary, analogous, triadic) and consider accessibility for contrast. In user interfaces, a color palette or swatches panel helps designers apply colors consistently across screens. The term palette also appears metaphorically to describe the range of options or tones available in a project, from subtle neutrals to vibrant accents.

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