Hue (H)
Hue is the color family – its position on the color wheel,
usually expressed in degrees:
- Hue 0 → Red
- Hue 60 → Yellow
- Hue 120 → Green
- Hue 180 → Cyan / Teal
- Hue 240 → Blue
- Hue 300 → Magenta / Pink
- Hue 360 wraps back to Red
Lightness (L)
Lightness describes how light or dark a color is.
Imagine a slider from black to white:
- L0 → pure black
- L100 → pure white
- Values in between are progressively lighter steps of the same hue
In structured palettes, each hue family often has a little ladder of L
values so you can move from deep ink to soft highlight without changing
hue family.
Saturation (S)
Saturation is the intensity of the color:
- Low S → muted, dusty, greyed-out
- Medium S → natural, everyday colors
- High S → loud, neon, digital-feeling colors
Why this matters in Palette Grabber
Palette Grabber samples pixels, finds their hue and lightness, then
organizes them into palettes so you see structure instead of just random colors.
This sorter lets you fine-tune that order: by name, by numeric labels, or
using Hue/L patterns in your swatch names.
