GitHub Primer Color Palette — Accessibility & Quality Audit
GitHub Primer ships 13 color ramps with 12 shades each. Chromametry scores it 85.45 / 100, ranking #5 of 11 design systems in the palette benchmark.
Open GitHub Primer in the Palette Generator →
Free, no account, runs in your browser. Edit any ramp and watch the WCAG contrast and scores update live.
Is the GitHub Primer palette WCAG accessible?
Any two GitHub Primer shades that are at least 6 steps apart reach 4.5:1 contrast in every ramp — that is the palette's contrast span (K). Pick text and background 6 or more steps apart and you never need to check a pair by hand.
| Contrast target | Used for | Steps apart needed (K) |
|---|---|---|
| 3:1 | large text, icons, UI borders (WCAG AA) | 5 of 11 |
| 4.5:1 | body text (WCAG AA) | 6 of 11 |
| 7:1 | body text (WCAG AAA) | 8 of 11 |
Quality metrics
Each metric is 0–1 (higher is better); the composite score is their geometric mean × 100.
| Metric | GitHub Primer | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Contrast efficiency | 0.911 | how much of the ramp the WCAG contrast span consumes |
| Lightness linearity | 0.924 | whether perceived lightness steps evenly |
| Chroma smoothness | 0.841 | whether saturation changes without kinks |
| Hue stability | 0.941 | whether each ramp keeps its hue from light to dark |
| Spacing uniformity | 0.684 | whether adjacent shades are equally distinct (CIEDE2000) |
All 13 ramps
gray
#ffffff · #f6f8fa · #eaeef2 · #d0d7de · #afb8c1 · #8c959f · #6e7781 · #57606a · #424a53 · #32383f · #24292f · #000000
blue
#ffffff · #ddf4ff · #b6e3ff · #80ccff · #54aeff · #218bff · #0969da · #0550ae · #033d8b · #0a3069 · #002155 · #000000
green
#ffffff · #dafbe1 · #aceebb · #6fdd8b · #4ac26b · #2da44e · #1a7f37 · #116329 · #044f1e · #003d16 · #002d11 · #000000
yellow
#ffffff · #fff8c5 · #fae17d · #eac54f · #d4a72c · #bf8700 · #9a6700 · #7d4e00 · #633c01 · #4d2d00 · #3b2300 · #000000
orange
#ffffff · #fff1e5 · #ffd8b5 · #ffb77c · #fb8f44 · #e16f24 · #bc4c00 · #953800 · #762c00 · #5c2200 · #471700 · #000000
red
#ffffff · #ffebe9 · #ffcecb · #ffaba8 · #ff8182 · #fa4549 · #cf222e · #a40e26 · #82071e · #660018 · #4c0014 · #000000
purple
#ffffff · #fbefff · #ecd8ff · #d8b9ff · #c297ff · #a475f9 · #8250df · #6639ba · #512a97 · #3e1f79 · #2e1461 · #000000
pink
#ffffff · #ffeff7 · #ffd3eb · #ffadda · #ff80c8 · #e85aad · #bf3989 · #99286e · #772057 · #611347 · #4d0336 · #000000
coral
#ffffff · #fff0eb · #ffd6cc · #ffb4a1 · #fd8c73 · #ec6547 · #c4432b · #9e2f1c · #801f0f · #691105 · #510901 · #000000
lemon
#ffffff · #FDF5B3 · #F4E162 · #DEC741 · #C5AA20 · #A88D02 · #866D00 · #685400 · #534100 · #413200 · #322400 · #000000
lime
#ffffff · #EAFABA · #CDEC78 · #B1D353 · #94B83B · #799A2A · #5A791B · #425E13 · #2F4A06 · #233B03 · #182C01 · #000000
teal
#ffffff · #DAF9F5 · #B0EAE3 · #6BD6D0 · #49BCB7 · #339D9B · #197B7B · #136061 · #024B4D · #063A3C · #052B2C · #000000
indigo
#ffffff · #EFF2FF · #D7DDFF · #B9C2FF · #9AA4FF · #7683FF · #545DF0 · #3C42D0 · #2C33A5 · #22297F · #191F5C · #000000
How GitHub Primer compares
Design systems that score higher: Adobe Spectrum (88.59), IBM Carbon (88.46), U.S. Web Design System (87.67), Salesforce Lightning 2 (86.31).
Other audits: Adobe Spectrum · IBM Carbon · U.S. Web Design System · Salesforce Lightning 2 · Atlassian · Tailwind CSS · Ant Design · Material UI v4 · Radix UI · Shopify Polaris — or see the full ranking.
Want a palette that scores higher? The Palette Generator builds ramps from any base color with even perceptual steps and a short contrast span.