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Skin Color Generator

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About Skin Color Generator

Generate a palette of 8 skin tones with hex, RGB, and HSL codes. Filter realistic tones by depth (fair to deep) and undertone (cool, neutral, warm, olive), each matched to the closest Monk Skin Tone Scale step, or switch to fantasy skins for elves, orcs, aliens, and more. Every tone comes with a five-color shading palette for painting, and you can lock tones, copy CSS, or download a PNG or .gpl palette.

Skin tone generator by depth and undertone

Realistic mode makes tones in six depths: fair, light, medium, tan, brown, and deep. With Depth on Any, every palette runs from the lightest depth to the darkest, so one click gives you the full range.

Undertone changes the color, not the lightness. Cool is pinker, warm is more golden, olive is greener and more muted, and neutral sits in the middle. Each tone also shows its closest step on the 10-step Monk Skin Tone Scale.

Skin color palette for digital art

Every tone comes with five colors for shading: highlight, base, shadow, deep shadow, and blush. Shadows are darker, slightly redder, and a little more saturated than the base, and the highlight is lighter and less saturated, so shaded skin does not turn gray.

The character bust is painted with the same five colors, which lets you check a palette on a face before you use it.

  • Download a .gpl palette for GIMP, Krita, Inkscape, or Aseprite.
  • Download a PNG reference sheet with each tone's name, shades, hex code, and RGB values.

Skin tone hex codes, RGB, and HSL

Each swatch shows its hex code, and the selected tone also lists RGB and HSL. The list under the generator has the hex and RGB codes for all 8 tones: tap a row to copy one code, or press Hex to copy them all.

The CSS button copies the palette as custom properties, --skin-1 to --skin-8, with each tone's name as a comment.

Fantasy skin color generator

Switch to Fantasy for non-human skin: elves, orcs, aliens, undead, demons, dryads, merfolk, and golems. Each type has its own color range and names, such as Moonlit Lilac for an elf or Swamp Moss for an orc.

Fantasy tones get the same shading palette, locks, and exports as realistic ones.

FAQ

Each tone is built in the OKLCH color space along a curve fitted to the 10 steps of the Monk Skin Tone Scale, a skin tone reference by Ellis Monk and Google released under CC BY 4.0. Depth sets the lightness, undertone shifts the hue and color strength, and a small random variation keeps every tone different. The tone card shows which Monk step it is closest to.

Cool tones lean pink or red, warm tones lean golden, olive tones lean slightly green and look a little muted, and neutral sits between them. Tones are described only by depth and undertone, not by ethnicity.

Fill the skin with Base, put Shadow under the jaw, nose, and brows, use Deep shadow for the darkest creases, add Highlight on the forehead, nose bridge, and cheekbones, and use Blush on the cheeks and lips. The character bust in the preview is painted with the same five colors. Tap any swatch to copy its hex code.

Yes. Press the lock icon on a swatch. Generate, and any change to the depth, undertone, or fantasy type, then replace only the unlocked swatches.

GIMP, Krita, Inkscape, and Aseprite all read .gpl files. The file has one row per tone with its five shades: highlight, base, shadow, deep shadow, and blush. Use the CSS button for web projects or the PNG for a reference sheet.

Fantasy mode has eight types: Elf (pale lilac and silver), Orc (greens), Alien (blues), Undead (gray-greens), Demon (reds), Dryad (bark browns and olive greens), Merfolk (sea teals), and Golem (stone grays). Leave Type on Any to get one of each.