Shopify Polaris Color Palette — Accessibility & Quality Audit
Shopify Polaris ships 12 color ramps with 17 shades each. Chromametry scores it 57.16 / 100, ranking #11 of 11 design systems in the palette benchmark.
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Is the Shopify Polaris palette WCAG accessible?
Any two Shopify Polaris shades that are at least 15 steps apart reach 4.5:1 contrast in every ramp — that is the palette's contrast span (K). Pick text and background 15 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) | 13 of 16 |
| 4.5:1 | body text (WCAG AA) | 15 of 16 |
| 7:1 | body text (WCAG AAA) | 16 of 16 |
Quality metrics
Each metric is 0–1 (higher is better); the composite score is their geometric mean × 100.
| Metric | Shopify Polaris | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Contrast efficiency | 0.282 | how much of the ramp the WCAG contrast span consumes |
| Lightness linearity | 0.728 | whether perceived lightness steps evenly |
| Chroma smoothness | 0.689 | whether saturation changes without kinks |
| Hue stability | 0.922 | whether each ramp keeps its hue from light to dark |
| Spacing uniformity | 0.467 | whether adjacent shades are equally distinct (CIEDE2000) |
All 12 ramps
azure
#ffffff · #f9fcff · #f6faff · #f1f8ff · #ecf6ff · #e6f4ff · #e1f1ff · #d4edff · #c7e9ff · #99e1ff · #00c8ec · #00b9db · #00aacd · #009ab9 · #0083a0 · #00657c · #000000
blue
#ffffff · #fbfcff · #f8f9ff · #f6f7ff · #f2f4ff · #eef1ff · #ecefff · #e4e9ff · #dee5ff · #cad7ff · #8ac1ff · #00b2f5 · #00a1eb · #008bcb · #0076ad · #00537c · #000000
gray
#ffffff · #fefefe · #fdfdfd · #fbfbfb · #fafafa · #f9f9f9 · #f6f6f6 · #f2f2f2 · #ebebeb · #e7e7e7 · #dbdbdb · #c2c2c2 · #a6a6a6 · #939393 · #787878 · #5a5a5a · #000000
green
#ffffff · #f4fff6 · #e8ffeb · #d8ffe0 · #c7fed6 · #affbcb · #9afac6 · #73f7be · #49f0b9 · #56e0b7 · #40cdad · #22b9a3 · #1ca394 · #0d9489 · #2e7f78 · #166c66 · #000000
lime
#ffffff · #f3fff3 · #e9ffea · #deffe0 · #ceffd0 · #b6ffb8 · #81ff87 · #6ef977 · #6af572 · #63e96d · #56d45f · #49c051 · #3db245 · #3b9c40 · #1c8626 · #1c6522 · #000000
magenta
#ffffff · #fffbff · #fef8fe · #fff4ff · #fef0fe · #fdedfd · #fde9fd · #fce0fc · #fcd9fc · #fbc4fb · #f19df1 · #e478e4 · #cf6ccf · #b75ab7 · #9d479d · #7d2a7d · #000000
orange
#ffffff · #fffbf7 · #fff9f2 · #fff6ec · #fff3e4 · #ffefdc · #ffecd2 · #ffe5b7 · #ffdd00 · #f3d200 · #dabe00 · #c9b000 · #b99f00 · #a38b00 · #8a7500 · #6a5a00 · #000000
purple
#ffffff · #fcfbff · #faf9ff · #f8f6ff · #f5f3ff · #f3f0ff · #f0eeff · #ebe7ff · #e5dfff · #d5c9ff · #c8b4ff · #bc99ff · #b26cff · #9e00ea · #8400c8 · #5d0097 · #000000
red
#ffffff · #fffbfc · #fff6f8 · #fff5f6 · #fff1f4 · #ffeef0 · #ffeaed · #ffe2e5 · #fed6d9 · #fbbcc0 · #f27381 · #e53869 · #d13869 · #c53b65 · #a42e53 · #77223b · #000000
rose
#ffffff · #fffbfc · #fff8fa · #fff5f7 · #fff1f5 · #ffeef2 · #ffeaef · #ffe2ea · #ffdbe6 · #ffc5d9 · #fe94c7 · #f23db5 · #dd2ea4 · #c42291 · #a81679 · #870d5d · #000000
teal
#ffffff · #f5fefd · #edfdfb · #e3fbf9 · #d5fbf8 · #c2fbf6 · #b1f8f3 · #a0f4ee · #73f1eb · #60e5df · #00d0cb · #4bbeb9 · #3dada8 · #3d9b97 · #1c8582 · #2a7370 · #000000
yellow
#ffffff · #fffcee · #fffae0 · #fff8ce · #fff6b6 · #fff400 · #fbf000 · #f6eb00 · #f1e700 · #e4da00 · #cbc200 · #bdb400 · #aca400 · #979000 · #7c7600 · #625d00 · #000000
How Shopify Polaris 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), GitHub Primer (85.45), Atlassian (84.23), Tailwind CSS (81.04), Ant Design (78.76), Material UI v4 (69.43), Radix UI (67.80).
Other audits: Adobe Spectrum · IBM Carbon · U.S. Web Design System · Salesforce Lightning 2 · GitHub Primer · Atlassian · Tailwind CSS · Ant Design · Material UI v4 · Radix UI — 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.