What is this simulating?

How adjacent colors in a palette interact where they physically meet: sector boundaries in a spiral placement, wash edges in wet media, and pour fronts. Boundaries blend through a pigment-style subtractive mix, because cloth and paper mix like pigment, not like stage lights.

What does 'will mud' mean?

The pigment midpoint of that neighboring pair loses nearly all its chroma: two vivid parents meeting in a gray-brown. On a real piece that boundary reads as mud. Plan a gap, a barrier, or reorder the palette so different neighbors meet.

Is this an exact prediction of my piece?

No. Real results depend on the medium, the fiber or paper, application, and time. The lab is a fast, honest plan: it uses real subtractive mixing math to show which meetings are safe and which need care, before material is committed.

Can I reproduce a result I like?

Yes. Every piece is generated from a seed, so rerolling steps through reproducible variations, and the PNG download names the technique and seed so you can note what you liked.

Which colors should never touch?

Near-complements with high chroma: red against green, orange against blue, violet against yellow. Their pigment midpoints collapse toward gray-brown. If the design demands the pairing, separate them with a neutral band, a resist, or a value gap so the boundary reads as a line, not a stain.

What order should I arrange a rainbow palette?

Wheel order: each color then meets only its hue neighbors, and every boundary mixes through a clean intermediate. The moment you swap two sectors, new pairs meet; reroll the lab after any reorder and re-read the boundary report.

Studio tool

Blend lab

A palette that looks good as chips can still fight on cloth or paper, because where colors meet, they mix. The lab paints your palette as a spiral fold, a wet wash, or a pour, blends every boundary with pigment math, and tells you plainly which neighbors will mud.

How this works

1 Bring a palette in from the generator, reducer, or a share link.
2 Pick a technique and reroll seeds until a placement speaks to you.
3 Read the boundary report: reorder neighbors that mud, then download the piece.

Colors applied in sectors around a fold center, the classic spiral placement. Watch what the boundaries mix into.

Edit palette in generator

The palette

#7B2D8B #C2398A #FF848C #FFD700 #101010

Bring any palette here with its share link, or from the generator, reducer, or analyzer. Order matters: neighbors meet.

Where colors meet

meets→blends clean
meets→blends clean
meets→blends clean
meets→blends clean
meets→blends clean

Computed, not claimed

Four boundaries, decided by the math

Each strip below is two registry pigments and their true pigment midpoint, mixed by the same subtractive math the lab uses. The verdict chip is the engine's, not ours. Tap any segment to copy it; open a name for its full page.

Ultramarine meets Burnt Sienna the classic two-pigment gray machine of the traditional palette · midpoint #61286E blends clean
Cadmium Red meets Sap Green near-complements: the pair every landscape painter learns to fear · midpoint #7C4233 blends clean
Cerulean Blue meets Naples Yellow wheel neighbors by mixing behavior: a soft, usable green · midpoint #6CA259 blends clean
Quinacridone Magenta meets Ultramarine the modern route to violets that cadmium reds cannot reach · midpoint #53209A blends clean

Your medium

How each medium blends its boundaries

Watercolor wash Wet-in-wet edges blend wide and soft: the wash technique. Boundaries travel, so a mud-prone pair contaminates more area than you planned. Order neighbors by hue and let the water do clean work.
Acrylic pour Pour fronts fold colors into each other in long marbled seams: the pour technique. Cells keep parents separated, seams are pure midpoint, so the mud report reads as a map of your seams.
Dye & fiber Dyes wick along fiber and meet in gradients you cannot mask. The wash preview is closest. High-chroma pairs from one temperature lean survive the wick; complements meet in gray cloth.
Ceramic glaze Glazes blend where they overlap and run, and firing shifts everything warm. Treat the lab's boundaries as pre-fire plans, test tiles as truth, and keep the mud report stricter than you would for paint.

Guide

Planning color that touches

Screens blend by adding light, so on-screen neighbors always meet in a bright, clean midpoint. Physical media blend by subtracting it: each pigment absorbs part of the spectrum, and two vivid parents can meet in gray-brown. This is the single most common surprise in dye work, watercolor, and glazing, and it is entirely plannable.

The reliable pattern is the wheel-neighbor rule: colors near each other in hue blend through clean intermediates, while complementary pairs meet in mud. That is why a classic spiral runs through the rainbow in order, and why a red next to a green needs a barrier, a gap, or a plan to love the brown.

Order is a design decision. The same five colors arranged two ways produce different pieces, because different pairs meet. Reroll the lab, watch the boundary report, and let the mud land only where you want it.

FAQ

Common questions

What is this simulating?: How adjacent colors in a palette interact where they physically meet: sector boundaries in a spiral placement, wash edges in wet media, and pour fronts. Boundaries blend through a pigment-style subtractive mix, because cloth and paper mix like pigment, not like stage lights.
What does 'will mud' mean?: The pigment midpoint of that neighboring pair loses nearly all its chroma: two vivid parents meeting in a gray-brown. On a real piece that boundary reads as mud. Plan a gap, a barrier, or reorder the palette so different neighbors meet.
Is this an exact prediction of my piece?: No. Real results depend on the medium, the fiber or paper, application, and time. The lab is a fast, honest plan: it uses real subtractive mixing math to show which meetings are safe and which need care, before material is committed.
Can I reproduce a result I like?: Yes. Every piece is generated from a seed, so rerolling steps through reproducible variations, and the PNG download names the technique and seed so you can note what you liked.
Which colors should never touch?: Near-complements with high chroma: red against green, orange against blue, violet against yellow. Their pigment midpoints collapse toward gray-brown. If the design demands the pairing, separate them with a neutral band, a resist, or a value gap so the boundary reads as a line, not a stain.
What order should I arrange a rainbow palette?: Wheel order: each color then meets only its hue neighbors, and every boundary mixes through a clean intermediate. The moment you swap two sectors, new pairs meet; reroll the lab after any reorder and re-read the boundary report.

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