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Copy the colour palette of one image into a new generation
Decode the source for 3 credits, take its five hex codes, and assign each one to a part of your picture. A palette moved from an engraved portrait onto a glass of water, and why hex beats colour words.
Decode the picture whose colours you want for 3 credits, copy the five hex codes out of its VISUAL tab, and name each one in your prompt against the thing it belongs to — background, highlight, subject, shadow. That is the whole method, and it works because hex codes are unambiguous in a way that "moody blue" is not. We moved a palette from an engraved portrait onto a glass of water, and it landed.
The two steps
- Decode the source picture. 3 credits, about fifteen seconds. Open the VISUAL tab and copy the five swatches, which come with hex codes and names.
- Write your own subject, then assign each hex to a part of the picture: this colour in the background, this in the highlights, this on the subject, this in the shadows.
- Add one exclusion sentence — "no warm tones anywhere, no other hues" — because the most common failure is a stray colour that was in neither list.
- Generate at 1K for 8 credits and check before going bigger.
The source and the result
The palette came from a published engraved portrait: #020202 midnight obsidian, #FCFCFC pure titanium, #1A4B8E luminous sapphire, #7A7A7A cool slate, #0D1B2A deep prussian. Nothing else about that picture was used — not its subject, not its medium, not its composition.
All five landed: the background is near-black, the glass rim catches pure white, the water holds the sapphire, the ledge is cool slate and its shadow goes prussian. The new picture's own decode reads its palette back as "cool navy blue, slate gray, and inky black" — which is the source palette described in other words.
Why hex codes and not colour words
| What you write | What the model has to decide |
|---|---|
| "deep blue" | Which of several hundred blues, at what darkness, how saturated |
| "moody blue-grey palette" | All of the above, plus what "moody" adds |
| "#1A4B8E in the water" | Nothing. One colour, one place |
The second column is where brand colours go wrong. If a specific blue is the point — a client's, a product's, a series that has to match — a hex removes the guessing that a colour adjective invites.
Assign the colours, do not just list them
The single change that makes this work is attaching each code to a part of the picture. A bare list — "palette: #020202, #FCFCFC, #1A4B8E" — gives the model five colours and no instruction about where they go, and it will distribute them by its own taste. "Near-black in the background and shadows, pure white in the highlights on the glass, sapphire in the water" gives it a job per colour. Same five numbers, very different reliability.
The limits, honestly
- It is not colour management. The output is close, not measured. For anything that must match a printed brand colour, treat this as a starting point and correct afterwards.
- Five is about the ceiling. Past five or six assigned colours the instructions start competing and the picture muddies.
- The exclusion sentence matters. Without "no warm tones anywhere", a stray amber turns up in something — a reflection, a bit of rust — because most photographs have one.
- A palette is not a style. Ours moved the colours and nothing else; the engraved line quality stayed behind. If you want the look as well, attach the picture as a style reference instead of, or alongside, naming the hexes.
Every published decode on the site carries its palette with hex codes, and reading them costs nothing — that is 16,000-odd ready-made palettes you can pull a set of five from without generating anything first.
FAQ
How do I copy the colours of one image into an AI generation?
Decode the source for 3 credits, copy the five hex codes from its VISUAL tab, and name each one against a part of your new picture — background, highlights, subject, shadows. Then add an exclusion line for the hues you do not want.
Why use hex codes instead of describing the colour?
Because "deep blue" leaves the model to choose among hundreds and a hex leaves it nothing to choose. That is the difference between a picture that is roughly the right mood and one that carries a specific brand colour.
Do I have to assign each colour to something?
Yes, and it is the step people skip. A bare list of five hexes lets the model distribute them by its own taste; naming what each one is for — this in the shadows, this in the water — is what makes the result repeatable.
Will it match exactly?
Close, not measured. It is not colour management, so for anything that has to match a printed brand colour, treat the result as a starting point and correct it afterwards.
Where do I find palettes to copy?
Every published decode on aikizi carries its palette with hex codes, and reading those is free — around sixteen thousand ready-made five-colour sets, no generation needed.
Pick any picture in the gallery, copy its five hexes, and put them on a subject of your own. What else a decode gives you is in the decode guide, and the prompt shape that carries them is part 7 of the generation series.