Extract Brand Colors From Any Logo or Image — Free Hex Code Extractor

When a client sends you a logo with no brand guide, you need to extract the color values yourself. When you are matching a competitor's visual identity for a comparison, you need their exact colors. When a new project starts and the only brand asset is an old PNG logo, the hex codes are locked inside it. Here is how to extract brand colors from any logo or image quickly and accurately.

What color information you actually need from a logo

For most brand work, you need the primary and secondary brand colors as hex codes. From a logo file, you want:

• The main brand color (typically the most prominent color in the logo)
• Secondary accent colors
• Text color within the logo (if text is part of the mark)

You may also want to verify these against their accessibility contrast ratios — a brand color used as text on a white background may not meet WCAG requirements. After extracting, run the colors through the Color Contrast Checker to flag any accessibility issues before using them in digital materials.

How to extract colors from a logo file

Open the Kingfisher Color Extractor and drop your logo file — PNG works best because it preserves colors exactly without JPEG compression artifacts. The tool analyzes every pixel and shows the 8 most dominant colors.

For logos with solid colors (flat design, vector-based logos exported as PNG), the dominant colors typically match the brand colors exactly. For logos on white or transparent backgrounds, the background may appear as one of the 8 colors — use the pixel picker to click directly on a colored element if you want a specific value without the background color.

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Handling logos with gradients or transparent backgrounds

Gradient logos: The dominant color extraction will pick the most common colors across the gradient. For the exact start and end colors of a gradient, use the pixel picker — click the starting point of the gradient and note the hex, then click the end point.

Transparent PNG logos: The tool will not include the transparent areas in the color analysis. Only actual colored pixels are sampled. This means a white-background logo and a transparent-background logo of the same design will produce the same brand colors.

Small logos: Very small logos (under 100px) may be upscaled when displayed, creating antialiasing pixels between the intended solid colors. The dominant extraction handles this gracefully, but for very small images the pixel picker gives the most accurate reading if you click directly at the center of a colored area.

Building a full brand color guide from a single logo

From the extracted hex codes, you can build a complete brand color reference:

1. Extract the logo colors and note each HEX and RGB value
2. Check each color's contrast ratio against white and black using the contrast checker
3. Document which colors are safe for body text, heading text, and UI elements
4. Create a simple table: Color Name | Hex | RGB | Contrast on White | Contrast on Black | Use Case

This five-minute process turns an unbranded logo PNG into a usable brand color specification.

Exporting extracted brand colors for design tools

The tool offers two export formats useful for brand work:

Export CSS — downloads a CSS file with each color as a custom property:

:root {
  --color-1: #1A3A6E;
  --color-2: #E8572A;
  ...
}

Export Tailwind — downloads a Tailwind config object you can paste into your tailwind.config.js to make brand colors available throughout your project.

Both exports are text files you can paste directly into design systems, Figma color palettes, or developer handoff documentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if the extracted colors don't exactly match the official brand colors?

JPEG compression introduces color artifacts that shift values slightly. For best accuracy, use the original PNG or SVG logo file rather than a JPEG. If only a JPEG is available, use the pixel picker to click the center of a solid color area, which minimizes the effect of compression around edges.

Can I extract colors from a vector SVG logo?

Yes. SVG files are rendered by the browser before extraction. Drop the SVG file and the tool will extract colors from its rendered appearance.