Modes and harmonies
Every Suisai palette window has a mode, selected from the menu in its header.
Palette lets you build your own collection of colors. The other eight options are grouped under Harmonies: seven color harmony types and Color Ramp.
Harmonies generate related colors from one or more starting colors, called seeds. Change a seed and Suisai recalculates the result.
| Mode | Seeds | Colors |
|---|---|---|
| Color Ramp | First and Last | 3–15 colors interpolated between the seeds |
| Complementary | First | 2 |
| Split Complementary | First | 3 |
| Analogous | First | 3–15, arranged around the seed |
| Triadic | First | 3 |
| Tetradic | First | 4, at 0°, 60°, 180° and 240° |
| Square | First | 4, at 90° intervals |
| Monochromatic | First | 3–15, from tint through seed to shade |
| Palette | None | Up to 256 swatches, in your chosen order |
Each mode explores colors differently. Complementary produces two opposing hues, while Triadic and Square distribute colors around the color wheel. Analogous generates neighboring hues, and Monochromatic explores variations of one hue.
Color Ramp works differently: choose a First and Last color, and Suisai calculates the steps between them.
Choosing and changing seeds
Use the dropper in the control row to sample a seed from your screen. In Color Ramp, the first pick sets the First Seed and the next sets the Last Seed.
A small vermilion marker identifies each seed in the resulting colors.
You can also drag a color directly into a harmony to set its seed. Drop it onto the appropriate seed or color band, and Suisai updates the generated colors.
To change a seed precisely, open its editing controls. Changes to harmony seeds can be undone.
For more about sampling and modifier keys, see Sampling a color.
Blend space
Color Ramp and Monochromatic can generate their intermediate colors using either sRGB or OKLab.
sRGB interpolates the color components directly. OKLab uses a perceptual color space, which can produce more visually even transitions between the starting colors.
The setting belongs to each window, so you can compare the same seeds using different blend spaces.
Working with generated colors
Open a color’s details to inspect its values, copy it in your chosen format, or use its context menu for additional actions.
You can add individual generated colors to a palette by dragging them onto the palette you want them in, or by right-clicking the color and choosing Add to Palette. Press ⇧⌘A to add the entire harmony at once.
This lets you use a harmony as a starting point for a palette, then continue editing its colors independently.
Editing seeds and derived colors
In a harmony, the seeds are editable. The remaining colors are calculated from those seeds, so editing a seed updates the harmony.
If you want to change a generated color independently, add it to a palette first. Once it’s in Palette mode, you can edit, rename, rearrange, or combine it with other colors without changing the original harmony.
That’s the main difference between the modes: a harmony generates colors from seeds; a palette holds individual colors you control.