Palettes, families and how to read them
The 12 color season palettes
· By the Hue & Shape team
The twelve seasons come from three questions: is the undertone warm or cool, how deep is the coloring, and how clear or muted is it. Each combination has a palette, and each palette page lists 36 colors with hex values, the colors to avoid, outfits, hair color and makeup.
Three questions, twelve answers
- Undertone
- Warm, cool or neutral. The first split, and the one a photo most often gets wrong.
- Depth
- Light, medium or deep, from the hair and skin together.
- Clarity
- Clear or muted, set by the contrast between hair, skin and eyes.
The system
12 season color analysis, explained
Seasonal color analysis started with four seasons, one per undertone and depth pairing. The twelve season version splits each family by its leading trait, so a summer can be led by lightness, by coolness or by softness. Every one of the twelve sits at a fixed point on three axes, and the map shows all of them at once.
- Undertone, the first split
- Warm undertones carry gold, peach or yellow under the skin; cool undertones carry pink, red or blue. Spring and autumn are the warm families, summer and winter the cool ones. On the map below that is the left to right axis, and the free test weights it most because it is the split people feel most clearly when they see a color next to their face. Neutral and olive skin sit near the middle line and usually land in a soft season.
- Depth, light to deep
- Depth is how light or dark the coloring is overall, set mostly by the hair and then the skin. Light spring and light summer sit at the top of the map; deep autumn and deep winter at the bottom. Depth decides how much darkness a palette can carry near the face: a light season looks swallowed by black, while a deep season looks washed out in pastels.
- Clarity, clear to muted
- Clarity is how much contrast there is between hair, skin and eyes, and so how saturated the right colors are. On the map it is the size of the dot. Bright spring and bright winter are the clearest; soft summer and soft autumn the most muted. Clarity is the trait a photo reads least reliably, which is why the quiz asks about contrast directly.
Names
Alternate season names and neighbors
Different systems name the same seasons differently. The neighbors are the seasons each page compares itself with, because those are the ones it is most often confused with.
| Season | Also called | Family | Compared with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Spring | None in common use | Spring | Light Summer, Warm Spring |
| Warm Spring | true spring | Spring | Warm Autumn, Bright Spring, Light Spring |
| Bright Spring | clear spring | Spring | Bright Winter, Warm Spring |
| Light Summer | None in common use | Summer | Light Spring, Soft Summer |
| Cool Summer | true summer | Summer | Soft Summer, Cool Winter |
| Soft Summer | None in common use | Summer | Soft Autumn, Cool Summer, Light Summer |
| Soft Autumn | soft fall | Autumn | Soft Summer, Warm Autumn |
| Warm Autumn | true autumn | Autumn | Warm Spring, Deep Autumn, Soft Autumn |
| Deep Autumn | dark autumn, deep fall | Autumn | Deep Winter, Warm Autumn |
| Deep Winter | dark winter | Winter | Deep Autumn, Cool Winter |
| Cool Winter | true winter | Winter | Cool Summer, Deep Winter, Bright Winter |
| Bright Winter | clear winter | Winter | Bright Spring, Cool Winter |
Spring family
Spring color season palettes
Spring color analysis looks for warmth and clarity with light to medium depth. Peach, coral and golden yellow lead.
Summer family
Summer color season palettes
Summer color analysis looks for a cool base and a soft finish, with light to medium depth. Powder blue, rose and sage lead.
Autumn family
Autumn color season palettes
Autumn color analysis, or fall color analysis, looks for warmth and a muted finish, with medium to deep depth. Rust, olive and camel lead.
Winter family
Winter color season palettes
Winter color analysis looks for a cool base and a clear finish, with medium to deep depth. True red, navy and emerald lead.
Beyond twelve
Other season names
Some systems use sixteen seasons, adding names such as soft spring, soft winter, deep summer and light autumn. Those sit between two of the twelve here rather than outside them: a soft spring, for example, falls between light spring and soft autumn on the map above. The systems do not agree on exactly where the extra four sit, so this site keeps to twelve and shows the neighbors on every page instead.
If you were typed as one of the extra names elsewhere, start with the two seasons on either side of it and use the comparison sections on those pages to choose. The colors in the overlap work for you either way.
Questions
About the seasons
What are the 12 color seasons?
Three in each family. Spring: light, warm and bright. Summer: light, cool and soft. Autumn: soft, warm and deep. Winter: deep, cool and bright. Each has a palette page with 36 colors and hex codes.
Is 12 better than 16 seasons?
They are different levels of detail. Twelve is enough to choose colors with and simple enough to remember. A 16 season system splits each family further, which helps professionals and can overwhelm a first reading.
Which color season is most common?
No reliable population data exists, so any answer would be a guess. What can be said is that no season is better than another; each is a different set of colors that flatters a different combination of undertone, depth and clarity.
Can my color season change?
Not with a tan or a hair color, though both change what a photo shows. If you dye your hair very differently, the contrast and depth of your coloring can read differently, and the palette that suits you may move.
How accurate is the free color tool?
It is a good starting point. The photo sample is affected by camera color, which is why seven quiz answers carry the other half of the reading. Use the palette page to check against clothes you already own.
What is the difference between a family and a season?
A family (spring, summer, autumn, winter) shares one undertone direction and a broad mood. A season is one of the three types inside it, set by which trait leads: depth, warmth or coolness, or clarity. The family page helps you choose between its three.
Why do some seasons have two names?
Different color systems name the same position differently. Cool summer is also called true summer, deep autumn is dark autumn, bright winter is clear winter, and so on. The table above lists every pairing used on this site.
How we measure. The seasons on this site come from fixed positions for warmth, depth and clarity, and the free test matches you to the nearest one. Read the method
Not sure where to start? The skin tone chart separates depth from undertone, and the undertone test answers the first split in a minute.