Color Wheel Spinner
Color wheel spinner — spin the wheel, get a color
Press Spin and this color wheel spinner lands on one color at random. It starts with eight colors — Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet and Pink — and every slice is the same size, so each color has the same 1-in-8 chance on every spin.
The list is yours to change. Type your own colors into the entries box, one per line, and the wheel rebuilds itself straight away. Note that the slice shades on the wheel are just its own rainbow theme; the result is the color word you entered, so it is the name that counts. If you want the actual HEX code of a color, use the random color generator, which paints named colors and HEX codes exactly.
How to use it for a classroom, a game or a painting
- Pick your colors: keep the eight defaults, or replace them. Toddlers do well with just four or five primary and secondary colors.
- Spin: press the button or the space bar and wait for the wheel to stop.
- Use the result: name it, find it, mix it, or paint with it.
- Avoid repeats: turn on winner removal so each color is used once before the wheel runs out.
The 12-color wheel, ready to paste
Artists organise color on a wheel of twelve: three primaries that cannot be mixed, three secondaries made from two primaries, and six tertiaries in between. Paste the twelve names below into the entries box for a wheel that doubles as a color-theory lesson, and a spin gives every color a 1-in-12 chance (about 8.3%). The table is the traditional red-yellow-blue artist's wheel used in art classes.
| Color | Type | Made from | Opposite (complement) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Primary | Cannot be mixed | Green |
| Red-Orange | Tertiary | Red + orange | Blue-Green |
| Orange | Secondary | Red + yellow | Blue |
| Yellow-Orange | Tertiary | Orange + yellow | Blue-Violet |
| Yellow | Primary | Cannot be mixed | Violet |
| Yellow-Green | Tertiary | Yellow + green | Red-Violet |
| Green | Secondary | Yellow + blue | Red |
| Blue-Green | Tertiary | Green + blue | Red-Orange |
| Blue | Primary | Cannot be mixed | Orange |
| Blue-Violet | Tertiary | Blue + violet | Yellow-Orange |
| Violet | Secondary | Blue + red | Yellow |
| Red-Violet | Tertiary | Violet + red | Yellow-Green |
The colors are listed in wheel order, so the opposite of any row is the color six steps around. That is the whole trick behind complementary pairs.
Spin a whole palette, not just one color
Once the wheel has chosen a base color, the 12-color table gives you a palette in seconds. Three classic schemes:
- Complementary: Take the color directly opposite the spin. Spin Orange, pair it with Blue. High contrast, vivid.
- Analogous: Take the neighbour on each side. Spin Yellow, add Yellow-Orange and Yellow-Green. Calm and harmonious.
- Triadic: Count four steps around the wheel, twice. Spin Red, add Yellow and Blue. Balanced and playful.
For a design task you can also run the wheel twice, once for a background and once for an accent, and see whether the pair works. A surprising combination is usually more useful than another safe blue.
Six ways to play with a color spinner
- Color hunt for kids: Spin, say the color out loud, then everyone races to find something that color in the room or garden. First to touch it scores a point. Works for toddlers learning color names and for older kids playing in teams.
- Drawing and painting challenge: Spin once for the dominant color of a piece and once more for an accent. Painting with a color you would not have chosen is the fastest way out of a rut.
- Color-mixing quiz: Load the 12-color list below. Spin a secondary or tertiary color and ask the class which two colors mix to make it. The recipe column in the table is your answer key.
- Room, outfit or craft picker: Load only the colors you own or like and let the wheel choose today's theme: a nail color, a scarf, a knitting yarn, a card for a gift.
- Team colors and turn order: Spin to hand each group a color, or number the slices by turn. Remove each winner so every team gets a different color.
- Party and board-game spinner: Replace a lost game spinner or play a color-based game of your own: spin a color, players must put a hand or foot on something of that color.
Need something other than colors? The random drawing ideas wheel gives you something to paint in your spun color, the random number generator handles numbered rounds, and the wheel of names picks which player goes next.
Is the color spin fair?
Each spin uses your browser's standard random number generator to choose one slice, with identical odds for every color and no memory of earlier spins. The same color can therefore come up twice in a row, which is normal for random picks. That is fair for games, lessons and creative prompts. It is not a certified draw, so do not use it for a regulated raffle; our about page explains how we test the tools.