Color Mixing Chart

Make a printable colour mixing chart for the paints you own. Type 2 to 16 paint names and get a grid with every paint across the top and down the side: each box is the row paint mixed with the column paint, and the diagonal is each paint on its own. Choose a full chart (every mix twice, once each way) or a half chart (every mix once), a mixing ratio from 1 : 1 to 3 : 1, or a tint chart with white, a shade chart with black or both. Set the box size and gap for a brush or palette knife, print on US Letter or A4 and download a PDF, 300 DPI PNG or SVG. Start from one of our 13 designs. Nothing is uploaded.

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How to make and print a colour mixing chart

1. Type your paints, one per line, or start from a design.
2. Choose the chart: full, half, tint, shade, or tint and shade.
3. Choose the mixing ratio (or the number of tint and shade steps).
4. Set the box size and the gap between boxes, the paper and the page direction.
5. Download the PDF, print at 100% (Actual size) on paper that takes your paint, and paint a swatch in each box.

What you can use it for

• Learning what your own paints make
• Watercolour, acrylic, gouache and oil swatch charts
• Tint and shade practice
• Art classes and homework
• Testing a new paint before a project
• A reference sheet to keep by the easel

The 13 mixing chart designs

Design	Paints	Chart	Ratio or steps	Boxes	Box size
Six-paint chart (warm and cool primaries)	6	Full	50 / 50	36	18 mm
Six-paint half chart (each mix once)	6	Half	50 / 50	21	22 mm
Three primaries	3	Full	50 / 50	9	30 mm
Eight paints, 2 : 1 mixes	8	Full	67 / 33	64	16 mm
Twelve-paint half chart	12	Half	50 / 50	78	11 mm
Sixteen-paint half chart, small boxes	16	Half	50 / 50	136	9 mm
Earth colours	5	Full	50 / 50	25	22 mm
Tint chart: each paint + white	6	Tint	5 steps	30	20 mm
Shade chart: each paint + black	6	Shade	5 steps	30	20 mm
Tint and shade chart	6	Tint and shade	4 steps	42	15 mm
Six paints with a screen preview of the mixes	6	Full	50 / 50	36	18 mm, preview fills
Kids: primaries + white and black	5	Full	50 / 50	25	26 mm
Big boxes for a palette knife (4 paints)	4	Full	50 / 50	16	35 mm

Every design is a starting point: type your own paint names and change the chart, ratio, box size and gap. Paint names are generic pigment names, not brands. Our tests check that every pair of paints appears exactly once in a half chart and twice in a full chart, that the diagonal is the pure paint and that every ratio label adds up to 100.

How many boxes

Paints	Full chart boxes	Half chart boxes	Two-paint mixes
2	4	3	1
3	9	6	3
4	16	10	6
5	25	15	10
6	36	21	15
8	64	36	28
10	100	55	45
12	144	78	66
16	256	136	120

A full chart holds every two-paint mix twice (once each way round) plus the pure paints; a half chart holds each mix once plus the pure paints.

Mixing ratios

Ratio (row : column)	Row paint	Column paint	Total
1 : 1	50 %	50 %	100 %
3 : 2	60 %	40 %	100 %
2 : 1	67 %	33 %	100 %
3 : 1	75 %	25 %	100 %

Tint or shade steps	Labels, paint / white or black
3	100 / 0, 67 / 33, 33 / 67
4	100 / 0, 75 / 25, 50 / 50, 25 / 75
5	100 / 0, 80 / 20, 60 / 40, 40 / 60, 20 / 80
6	100 / 0, 83 / 17, 67 / 33, 50 / 50, 33 / 67, 17 / 83

Ratios are parts by volume or by eye: a 2 : 1 mix is two brush loads of the row paint to one of the column paint. In a full chart the row paint is always the larger part.

Largest box that fits

Paints	US Letter portrait	A4 portrait	US Letter landscape
3	56.8 mm	54.9 mm	44.8 mm
4	41.9 mm	40.4 mm	32.9 mm
6	26.9 mm	25.9 mm	20.9 mm
8	19.4 mm	18.7 mm	15 mm
10	14.8 mm	14.3 mm	11.5 mm
12	12 mm	11.6 mm	9.1 mm
16	8.3 mm	7.9 mm	6.1 mm

With a 3 mm gap and short paint names (Paint 1, Paint 2 …); long names take a little more room. A smaller gap or landscape page gives a little more room; the tool tells you the largest box when a chart does not fit.

Screen preview (approximation)

Mix	Label	Preview colour
Lemon yellow + Warm yellow	50 / 50	#FFDB2F
Lemon yellow + Ultramarine blue	50 / 50	#8F9A79
Lemon yellow + Phthalo blue	50 / 50	#85985E

The preview averages the screen colours of the paints in their shares. That is a screen approximation, not a prediction of paint: real pigments mix differently, and the chart is there so you can paint and see. To estimate what paints make a colour, use the Paint Mixing Calculator; to blend screen colours for digital work, use the Color Mixer.

Which tool to use

You want	Use
A printable grid to test your own paint mixes	Color Mixing Chart
Which paints make a colour	Paint Mixing Calculator
To blend two screen colours and copy hex codes	Color Mixer
A blank colour wheel or colour wheel worksheet	Blank Color Wheel
A printable sheet of screen colour swatches with codes	Color Swatch Generator

For tints and shades of a screen colour with hex codes, use the Color Shades Generator.

What prints

Download	What is in it
PDF	Every page at real size, vector: segments, rings, marks, boxes and labels, with a check bar
PNG 300 DPI	One picture per page (a ZIP when there are two)
SVG	The page on screen at real size, with shapes, labels and marks in separate groups

Frequently asked questions

What is a colour mixing chart?

A grid with your paints along the top and down the side. In each box you paint a mix of the paint for that row and the paint for that column, so you can see every two-paint mix your set makes. The boxes where a paint meets itself, on the diagonal, are the pure paints.

How many boxes will I paint?

A full chart of n paints has n × n boxes and a half chart has n × (n + 1) ÷ 2; both include the n pure paints. Six paints give 36 or 21 boxes, twelve give 144 or 78. The table below lists them.

Full chart or half chart?

A half chart has every mix once. A full chart has every mix twice, once on each side of the diagonal: use the second box for a different ratio (the row paint is the larger part, so the two sides differ when the ratio is not 1 : 1) or a more diluted version.

What do the numbers in the boxes mean?

The share of each paint in parts of 100. 67 / 33 means 2 parts of the row paint to 1 part of the column paint. In a tint chart, 75 / 25 W means 3 parts paint to 1 part white; B means black. The numbers in every box add up to 100.

Does it show what colour the mix will be?

Only if you turn on the screen preview, and then only as an approximation: it averages the screen colours of the two paints, which is not how pigments mix, so a real swatch can look quite different. The chart is for painting real swatches. To estimate a paint mix, try the Paint Mixing Calculator.

What box size should I use?

One you can fill with a stroke or two of the brush or knife you use; our designs use 9 to 35 mm. A gap between boxes stops wet paint running from one box into the next. The table below gives the largest box that fits for each number of paints.

What paper should I print on?

Paper that takes your paint: watercolour or mixed-media paper for water-based paints, or print on plain paper and trace or glue it. Check that your printer takes the paper weight first.

How is this different from the Color Mixer?

The Color Mixer blends two screen colours in RGB, HSL, Lab or OKLCH and gives hex codes for digital work. This page makes a blank paper chart for testing real paints by hand.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit.

Is anything uploaded?

No. The chart is drawn by JavaScript in your browser. Your paint list is not sent anywhere or saved when you close the page.