lokesh/color-thief

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

13615 stars · 1313 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

Color Thief is a TypeScript library that extracts dominant colors and palettes from images and video in the browser and Node.js, with a small CLI included. It offers perceptual OKLCH quantization, semantic swatches, WCAG contrast helpers, and reactive palette updates via an observe() API.

Use cases

• extract dominant color from an image in javascript
• generate a color palette from a photo
• get vibrant and muted swatches from an image
• dynamically theme a page based on an image's colors
• extract palettes from video frames reactively
• check text contrast against an image's dominant color
• get a color palette from an image in node.js

When to choose

• you need dominant colors or palettes from images in browser or Node with zero dependencies
• you want perceptually uniform palettes (OKLCH) or semantic swatches like Vibrant/Muted
• you need WCAG contrast ratios and text color recommendations from extracted colors
• you want live palette updates from video or canvas elements

When to avoid

• you need full image editing or manipulation, not just color extraction
• you work outside JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystems
• you need server-side processing of very large image batches where a native tool would be faster

Facets

library · maturity active

image-processing data-visualization image-processing frontend web-development graphics browser cli cross-platform color-palette color-extraction typescript oklch dominant-color zero-dependencies wcag-contrast nodejs

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="lokesh/color-thief")