36 palettes

Tetradic Color: Every Square and Rectangle on the Wheel

Press the button for one tetradic palette: four colors in two opposite pairs, as swatches with hex codes.

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Red-orange, yellow-orange, blue-green and blue-violet, all palePale set. Yellow-orange leads; its opposite, blue-violet, and the pair red-orange and blue-green stay small.#F9C4B4 · #FDE7B4 · #BEEDEF · #B6AFF4

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All 36 palettes

Square 12

Orange, yellow-green, blue and red-violet Two opposite pairs. Orange leads; its opposite, blue, and the pair yellow-green and red-violet stay small.
Orange, yellow-green, blue and red-violet, all deep Deep set. Blue leads; its opposite, orange, and the pair yellow-green and red-violet stay small.
Orange, yellow-green, blue and red-violet, all muted Muted set. Red-violet leads; its opposite, yellow-green, and the pair orange and blue stay small.
Orange, yellow-green, blue and red-violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow-green leads; its opposite, red-violet, and the pair orange and blue stay small.
Red, yellow-orange, green and blue-violet Two opposite pairs. Red leads; its opposite, green, and the pair yellow-orange and blue-violet stay small.
Red, yellow-orange, green and blue-violet, all deep Deep set. Green leads; its opposite, red, and the pair yellow-orange and blue-violet stay small.
Red, yellow-orange, green and blue-violet, all muted Muted set. Blue-violet leads; its opposite, yellow-orange, and the pair red and green stay small.
Red, yellow-orange, green and blue-violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow-orange leads; its opposite, blue-violet, and the pair red and green stay small.
Red-orange, yellow, blue-green and violet Two opposite pairs. Red-orange leads; its opposite, blue-green, and the pair yellow and violet stay small.
Red-orange, yellow, blue-green and violet, all deep Deep set. Blue-green leads; its opposite, red-orange, and the pair yellow and violet stay small.
Red-orange, yellow, blue-green and violet, all muted Muted set. Violet leads; its opposite, yellow, and the pair red-orange and blue-green stay small.
Red-orange, yellow, blue-green and violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow leads; its opposite, violet, and the pair red-orange and blue-green stay small.

Show all 36 palettes (24 more)

Rectangle 24

Orange, yellow, blue and violet Two opposite pairs. Orange leads; its opposite, blue, and the pair yellow and violet stay small.
Orange, yellow, blue and violet, all deep Deep set. Blue leads; its opposite, orange, and the pair yellow and violet stay small.
Orange, yellow, blue and violet, all muted Muted set. Violet leads; its opposite, yellow, and the pair orange and blue stay small.
Orange, yellow, blue and violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow leads; its opposite, violet, and the pair orange and blue stay small.
Red, orange, green and blue Two opposite pairs. Red leads; its opposite, green, and the pair orange and blue stay small.
Red, orange, green and blue, all deep Deep set. Green leads; its opposite, red, and the pair orange and blue stay small.
Red, orange, green and blue, all muted Muted set. Blue leads; its opposite, orange, and the pair red and green stay small.
Red, orange, green and blue, all pale Pale set. Orange leads; its opposite, blue, and the pair red and green stay small.
Red, yellow, green and violet Two opposite pairs. Red leads; its opposite, green, and the pair yellow and violet stay small.
Red, yellow, green and violet, all deep Deep set. Green leads; its opposite, red, and the pair yellow and violet stay small.
Red, yellow, green and violet, all muted Muted set. Violet leads; its opposite, yellow, and the pair red and green stay small.
Red, yellow, green and violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow leads; its opposite, violet, and the pair red and green stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green and red-violet Two opposite pairs. Red-orange leads; its opposite, blue-green, and the pair yellow-green and red-violet stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green and red-violet, all deep Deep set. Blue-green leads; its opposite, red-orange, and the pair yellow-green and red-violet stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green and red-violet, all muted Muted set. Red-violet leads; its opposite, yellow-green, and the pair red-orange and blue-green stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green and red-violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow-green leads; its opposite, red-violet, and the pair red-orange and blue-green stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-orange, blue-green and blue-violet Two opposite pairs. Red-orange leads; its opposite, blue-green, and the pair yellow-orange and blue-violet stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-orange, blue-green and blue-violet, all deep Deep set. Blue-green leads; its opposite, red-orange, and the pair yellow-orange and blue-violet stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-orange, blue-green and blue-violet, all muted Muted set. Blue-violet leads; its opposite, yellow-orange, and the pair red-orange and blue-green stay small.
Red-orange, yellow-orange, blue-green and blue-violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow-orange leads; its opposite, blue-violet, and the pair red-orange and blue-green stay small.
Yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet and red-violet Two opposite pairs. Yellow-orange leads; its opposite, blue-violet, and the pair yellow-green and red-violet stay small.
Yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet and red-violet, all deep Deep set. Blue-violet leads; its opposite, yellow-orange, and the pair yellow-green and red-violet stay small.
Yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet and red-violet, all muted Muted set. Red-violet leads; its opposite, yellow-green, and the pair yellow-orange and blue-violet stay small.
Yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet and red-violet, all pale Pale set. Yellow-green leads; its opposite, red-violet, and the pair yellow-orange and blue-violet stay small.

How this list was compiled: Own work, written for Draw This Next on 2026-10-01: the three squares (four hues three steps apart) and the six rectangles (two opposite pairs with one hue between them) of the painter's twelve-hue color wheel, each at four strengths. Two opposite pairs that sit side by side on the wheel are left out. The hues are worked out from places on the wheel. Which color leads is our suggestion and moves around the four from one strength to the next. Checked on 2026-10-01 against Wikipedia, Color scheme (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_scheme): a tetradic scheme, also called double complementary, is four colors in two complementary pairs; the rectangle is a base color and the colors 60, 180 and 240 degrees from it, and the square is four colors 90 degrees apart; and Color wheel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel): the wheel has twelve main divisions, so one step is 30 degrees. The hex codes are the wheel table of our Art Color Challenge list, chosen for a screen; with paint or pencils, take the nearest color. Licence: own work

How it works

A tetradic color scheme is four colors in two opposite pairs on the color wheel: a quarter turn apart in a square, closer together in a rectangle. The squares and rectangles of the painter's wheel are here, with hex codes.

Read the full guide

Pick a shape

A menu under the button keeps to squares or to rectangles. Each set of four comes at full strength, pale, deep and muted. The strip shows the four in wheel order, with their codes under the name.

Let one color lead

The line under each name picks one color to lead and keeps the other three small. For tetradic color harmony that pick is ours; which one leads is up to you.

Questions and answers

What are tetradic color schemes?

Sets of four colors made of two opposite pairs. In a square the four are a quarter turn apart, such as red, yellow-orange, green and blue-violet. In a rectangle one color lies between the pairs, such as red, orange, green and blue.

Are double complementary colors the same as tetradic?

Yes. Two opposite pairs are two complementary pairs, so double complementary is another name for the scheme. Searches for a quadratic color scheme, or quadratic colour scheme, most likely mean it too; the usual names are tetradic, square and rectangle.

What are the tetradic colors of blue?

On the painter's wheel, the square puts blue with red-violet, orange and yellow-green. The rectangles put it with violet, orange and yellow, or with green, red and orange. Orange, the opposite of blue, is in all three.