Free colorway generator: colourways of one print, fast

A buyer likes your print and asks, "Kaunse colours mein milega?" You need eight or ten colour options of the same design by the evening, ready for WhatsApp and the catalogue.

This guide shows how to make that set quickly, which colourways to keep, how to present them and what to check before anything goes to print. If you are new to the word itself, read what is a colorway first.

What a good set looks like

A colorway set is useful to a buyer when every option looks clearly different and still feels like the same print. Three things decide that.

Light, dusty and dark grounds

The ground covers most of the fabric, so it changes the look more than anything else. Give the buyer a spread:

• Light grounds: ivory, mint, powder blue, peach. Good for summer, kurtis and daily wear.
• Dusty grounds: sage, mauve, clay, dusty blue. Calm, earthy colours that suit office wear and home textiles.
• Dark grounds: navy, wine, bottle green, black. Rich colours for festive wear and winter.

A buyer who sees one of each can picture the print for different customers at once.

Keep the motif contrast

The motif has to stand out from the ground. If you put a mid-tone ground behind mid-tone flowers, the flowers disappear on fabric, even if the colours look nice on the phone.

Tip: Turn each colourway to greyscale before you send it. In Photoshop, add a Black & White adjustment layer and switch it on and off. If the motif is still clear in grey, it will read well on cloth.

Think of season and fabric

The same ground looks different on cotton, rayon, georgette and silk. A pastel that looks fresh on cotton poplin can look flat on a shiny polyester. Choose grounds for the fabric the buyer will actually print on, and for the season the goods will sell in.

Ground palettes by occasion

These are starting points that Indian designers and traders commonly use. Treat them as ideas to try, since every market has its own taste.

Occasion	Light grounds	Dusty grounds	Dark grounds
Festive (Diwali, Navratri)	Lemon, peach, ivory	Mustard, terracotta	Maroon, bottle green, royal blue
Summer	White, off-white, sky blue, mint	Sage, sand beige	Indigo, teal
Wedding	Blush pink, pistachio, powder blue	Mauve, rose taupe	Wine, plum, emerald
Daily and office wear	Beige, pearl grey	Dusty blue, olive grey	Navy, charcoal, chocolate

Note: For festive prints, keep at least one deep ground in the set. For wedding pastels, check that gold or cream motifs do not vanish on a light ground.

Make colourways step by step

Color Variation is our free colorway generator. It finds the ground of your design and gives it new colours. The motif keeps its colours exactly as drawn, and edges, texture and transparent areas stay as they are. You need a free account to use it.

1. Open Color Variation and upload your design as JPG, PNG or WEBP.
2. The colourways appear in three groups: light, dusty and dark. Each one shows its colour name and its hex codes.
3. Click "New colors" on a group to see more options for that group.
4. Use the "Lighter / deeper" slider on a group if all its grounds feel too pale or too heavy.
5. Click any colourway to view it larger. There you can try a different look (such as Soft, Matte or Vivid) and see the colour codes.
6. Download the ones you like at full size, or use "Download all".
7. Click "Download chart" to save every colourway on screen on one sheet, grouped by light, dusty and dark, with names and codes.

Downloads keep the pixel size and DPI of your original file, so the colourway prints at the same size as the design you uploaded. Very large files may be saved a little smaller, and the tool tells you when that happens.

Tip: Upload a clean crop of one full repeat when the design is huge. The colourways are easier to compare, and you can apply the chosen ground to the full file later.

Pick 6 to 10 for the buyer

Make many options for yourself, then send fewer. A buyer finds it hard to choose from 25 options that look almost the same. One fashion software company that writes about product development says most apparel brands offer two to six colourways per style per season (WavePLM), so the buyer will keep only a few of what you send anyway.

How to choose:

• Keep two or three from each group: light, dusty and dark.
• Drop any two options that look alike from across the room. Keep the stronger one.
• Keep the original colourway in the set so the buyer can compare.
• Check the motif in greyscale for every option you keep.

Example: Design D-3108, a floral butta on rayon for kurtis. Send 8 colourways: original, ivory, mint, powder blue (light); sage, clay (dusty); navy, wine (dark). Name them D-3108 A to D-3108 H.

Build the colour chart sheet

The "Download chart" sheet is a good working record of everything you tried. For the buyer, send a clean sheet of only your picks:

1. Use the same crop for every option so the buyer compares colour only.
2. Under each one, write the name ("D-3108 C Mint") and the ground and motif codes.
3. Put the design number, fabric and print method in one line at the bottom.
4. Save one JPG or PDF for WhatsApp and keep the full-size files ready for the printer.

Use the same name in the file name, the sheet and the order. Names like "new final 2" are how the wrong file reaches the printer.

Checks before print

Strike-off first

A colour that looks right on screen can print differently on the real fabric. Each colourway that goes into production should be approved on a strike-off, a short printed sample on the actual fabric. One designer's guide calls the strike-off the print sample made for approval before bulk production (Inside Fashion Design).

Talk codes with the printer

The hex codes on your chart are screen colours. They help the printer see what you mean, but they are not a fabric colour standard.

Many buyers and mills use Pantone TCX codes. TCX swatches are dyed on 100% cotton poplin (Pantone). Give the nearest TCX code from a physical swatch book as a reference, and say clearly that the approved strike-off is the final colour.

Warning: Two colours can match in daylight and look different under shop lights. Textile colour checks use daylight (D65) and a store light such as TL84 to catch this (3NH). Look at the strike-off under both if your printer has a light box.

Expect the fabric to change the colour

The same file prints brighter on some fabrics and duller on others. Shiny polyester, matte cotton and sheer georgette each show a ground in their own way. Our guide on why print colour differs from the screen explains the reasons.

For screen printing, keep the number of colours the same as the original so no extra screen is needed. See reducing colours for screen printing.

When you need Photoshop

Color Variation changes the ground only. It does not recolour the motifs. Use Photoshop or your usual design software when the buyer asks for things like these:

• Change the flower colour from red to yellow and keep the ground.
• Make the leaves dusty green to match a new ground.
• Change only the border or pallu of a saree. Our guide on changing a saree border or pallu colour shows the steps.

In Photoshop, Select > Color Range picks every pixel of one motif colour, and an adjustment layer on that selection changes it (Adobe Help). A practical way is to use both tools: try many grounds first with Color Variation, then change the motif colours by hand only on the two or three colourways the buyer picks.

Common mistakes

• Sending 20 or more options that differ only a little. The buyer cannot decide.
• Only light grounds, or only dark ones. Give a spread.
• A ground with the same lightness as the motif. Check in greyscale.
• Approving colour on the phone screen. Approve on a strike-off.
• Resizing the file while recolouring. Keep the original pixel size and DPI.
• Sending the WhatsApp JPG to the printer instead of the full-size file.

Next step

Take one print a buyer liked this month and upload it to Color Variation. Keep two or three colourways from each group, check them in greyscale, and send a clean sheet of 6 to 10 options with design numbers and codes.