Cool Color Palettes

Cool palettes sit toward blue and green, and they read as precise. Their light stops tend toward a cold white, their anchors toward slate and navy, and their accents toward cyan or a clean violet. That combination is why cool palettes carry so much of the technical world, and why they can feel impersonal when nothing in the set is allowed to warm up.

The palettes below are drawn from the library's cool collection, which is recomputed from the catalog rather than chosen by hand, so the set reflects what the catalog actually holds. Each shows its six colors and opens onto a page with its role assignments and contrast readings, which is where a cool palette either proves its clarity or turns out to be flat.

These sets assume that most of the surface will be a cool neutral, so the accent is doing less work than it appears to. The palettes that read as precise rather than cold usually keep one warm note somewhere, even if it is only in the highlight. When you open one, check the light stop: a cold white will make everything around it feel sharper, and a slightly warm one will soften the whole set.