How to Pick Colors for Your First Landing Page
A beginner-friendly guide to choosing colors for your first landing page, with simple rules and practical examples.
Building your first landing page is exciting but overwhelming—and one of the biggest questions stopping people in their tracks is: what colors should I use? The options feel infinite, the stakes feel high, and comparing your work to polished professional sites can be discouraging. This guide cuts through the complexity and gives you a simple, reliable process for choosing colors that work.
No design experience required. No color theory knowledge necessary. Just follow these four steps, and you will have a professional-looking color palette before the end of this article. The approach works for any type of landing page—SaaS products, personal brands, service businesses, creative portfolios, or anything else you are building.
Why Color Choice Feels Hard
Before diving into solutions, understanding why color selection paralyzes first-time builders helps you move past the mental blocks. The difficulty is real—but it is also solvable once you understand what is happening.
The paralysis of infinite options
With millions of possible hex codes and unlimited combinations, the sheer number of options creates decision fatigue. Unlike choosing between three options, choosing from millions feels impossible. Your brain cannot evaluate that many possibilities, so it freezes. The solution is constraint—limiting your options to a manageable number of good choices rather than searching for the perfect one among millions.
Professional designers do not evaluate millions of options either. They work within frameworks and systems that narrow choices quickly. This guide gives you the same framework, adapted for people without design backgrounds.
Fear of making the wrong choice
First-time builders often treat color choice as permanent and high-stakes. But colors are among the easiest things to change on a website. Changing your background from white to off-white takes seconds. Swapping your accent from blue to teal requires minimal effort. The fear of making a wrong choice is disproportionate to the actual stakes.
Here is the truth: good color choice is learnable, and you can do it today. More importantly, an adequate color choice that ships is infinitely better than a perfect color choice that never launches. Start with something reasonable, then refine based on real feedback.
Let Colorhero choose for you—generate palettes instantly → →
The Four-Color Framework
You need exactly four colors for your first landing page. Not three, not seven, not a complex system. Four colors cover every need while remaining simple enough to implement confidently. This framework has worked for thousands of landing pages across every industry.
The four essential roles
- Background: The canvas where everything sits. Covers most of your page surface.
- Text: Your primary content color. Headlines, body text, important information.
- Accent: Your attention-grabbing color. Buttons, links, highlights, calls to action.
- Subtle: Your secondary text color. Less important information, captions, helper text.
That is the complete system. Background provides foundation, text delivers content, accent draws attention to actions, and subtle differentiates secondary information. Every professional landing page uses this structure, whether consciously designed or intuitively implemented.
Step 1: Choose Your Background
The background is your easiest decision because you only have two meaningful choices: light or dark. For your first landing page, choose light. Light backgrounds are more forgiving, make text automatically readable, and hide mistakes better. You can always experiment with dark later.
Light background options
Pure white (#FFFFFF) is the safest choice—clean, professional, and works with any accent color. Off-white (#FAFAFA) adds subtle warmth while maintaining the same versatility. Warm white (#FFFBF5) creates a friendlier, more approachable feeling—excellent for personal brands and lifestyle businesses.
Any of these three options will work beautifully. Do not overthink it. If you cannot decide, choose pure white and move on. You can adjust later after seeing the complete palette in context.
Dark backgrounds (advanced)
Dark backgrounds create dramatic, sophisticated impressions but require more skill to execute well. If your brand absolutely requires dark—tech products, luxury items, creative portfolios—use charcoal (#1A1A1A) or dark slate (#1F2937) rather than pure black. Avoid pure black (#000000), which creates harsh contrast and feels oppressive.
For your first landing page, light is recommended. Dark can come later when you have more experience with contrast ratios and text legibility.
Step 2: Choose Your Text Color
Text color depends entirely on your background choice. The goal is high contrast for easy reading—dark text on light backgrounds, light text on dark backgrounds. Simple rules, reliable results.
Text on light backgrounds
Near-black (#1A1A1A) is the recommended choice—high contrast, professional, and softer than pure black. Charcoal (#374151) works well when you want slightly reduced intensity. Dark grey (#4B5563) provides good readability while feeling lighter and more modern. Any of these work; choose based on the feeling you want.
The key rule: never use pure black (#000000) on pure white backgrounds. The contrast is too harsh and creates eye strain. Near-black is always better—professional designers never use pure black for body text.
Text on dark backgrounds
Off-white (#F3F4F6) provides comfortable reading without the harshness of pure white. Light grey (#E5E7EB) reduces contrast slightly for a softer feel. Never use pure white (#FFFFFF) on dark backgrounds—it causes the same eye strain as pure black on white.
The principle is the same: avoid pure extremes. Near-white on near-black is always more comfortable than pure white on pure black.
Step 3: Choose Your Accent Color
This is where personality enters your palette. Your accent color appears on buttons, links, highlighted text, and calls to action. It is the color people associate most strongly with your brand—choose something you genuinely like.
Safe choices that always work
Blue (#2563EB) conveys trustworthiness and professionalism—the most universally effective accent color. Teal (#0D9488) feels modern and approachable while maintaining professionalism. Green (#16A34A) suggests growth, positivity, and success—excellent for products promising improvement or achievement.
If you have no preference or cannot decide, choose blue. It is the safest option that works for any industry. You can always change it later once you have a better sense of your brand identity.
Bolder choices for differentiation
Coral (#F97316) feels friendly, creative, and energetic—great for approachable brands. Purple (#7C3AED) suggests creativity and uniqueness—popular with tech startups and creative services. Red (#DC2626) creates urgency and power—use sparingly and intentionally, as it can feel aggressive.
Bolder colors help you stand out but require more confidence. If you are unsure, start with a safer option and experiment with bolder choices after your landing page launches.
The one non-negotiable rule
Your accent must be clearly visible on your background. Test this by placing accent-colored text on your background color. If you cannot read it easily, the combination does not work. Some bright colors that look great in isolation become invisible on white backgrounds. Test before committing.
Step 4: Choose Your Subtle Color
Subtle color serves secondary text—less important information that should be readable but clearly subordinate to main content. Captions, helper text, metadata, and secondary descriptions all use subtle color. The goal is visible but obviously less prominent than your main text.
Subtle on light backgrounds
Medium grey (#6B7280) is the recommended choice—clearly visible while obviously secondary. Light grey (#9CA3AF) works when you want subtler differentiation. Both options maintain readability while creating clear visual hierarchy between primary and secondary information.
A common mistake is making subtle text too light, which hurts accessibility and frustrates visitors trying to read it. When in doubt, err toward darker. Readability always beats aesthetics.
Subtle on dark backgrounds
Medium grey (#9CA3AF) provides good contrast while remaining clearly secondary. Darker grey (#6B7280) offers subtler differentiation if your design needs it. The principle is the same: readable but obviously less prominent than main text.
Assembling Your Complete Palette
You have made four decisions. Now combine them into a working palette and test how they work together before building your page.
The complete beginner palette
If you want a reliable starting point, use this combination: Background (#FFFFFF white), Text (#1A1A1A near-black), Accent (#2563EB blue), Subtle (#6B7280 medium grey). This palette is professional, readable, and works for almost any landing page. You cannot go wrong with it.
Testing your palette
Before building, create a simple test. Write a headline in your text color on your background. Create a button using your accent color. Write a caption in your subtle color. Does everything look good together? Is the text easy to read? Does the button stand out? If yes, proceed. If something feels off, adjust one element at a time until it works.
Common First-Timer Mistakes
Knowing what to avoid is as valuable as knowing what to do. These mistakes are common, understandable, and completely preventable once you recognize them.
Mistake 1: Using too many colors
Beginners often add colors because they look pretty or because they saw them on another site. Resist this urge. Four colors is enough. Every additional color makes your design harder to maintain and easier to mess up. Add more only when you understand exactly why a fifth or sixth color is necessary.
Mistake 2: Accent everywhere
Your accent color should appear on 10-20% of your page maximum—buttons, links, and key highlights. Using accent color on backgrounds, borders, multiple section headers, and decorative elements dilutes its impact. If everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized. Reserve your accent for moments when you genuinely want to draw attention.
Mistake 3: Low contrast text
Grey text that is hard to read is one of the most common beginner mistakes. It looks sophisticated in mockups but frustrates real visitors trying to use your site. When in doubt, make text darker rather than lighter. Test readability on mobile devices, where screen brightness and ambient light vary significantly.
Mistake 4: Copying without adapting
Taking colors directly from inspiration sites without understanding why they work leads to problems. Colors that work on a dark site may not work on a light site. Accent colors that pop against one background might disappear against another. Understand the principles, then adapt rather than copy exactly.
Avoid mistakes—let Colorhero generate proven palettes → →
Ready-to-Use Template Palettes
If you want to skip the decision-making entirely, these four palettes cover most common landing page needs. Pick the one that matches your industry or personality and start building.
Professional and trustworthy
Background: #FFFFFF (white), Text: #1A1A1A (near-black), Accent: #2563EB (blue), Subtle: #6B7280 (medium grey). Works for business services, SaaS products, professional services, and B2B offerings. Builds trust and signals competence.
Warm and friendly
Background: #FFFBF5 (warm white), Text: #292524 (warm dark), Accent: #0D9488 (teal), Subtle: #78716C (warm grey). Works for personal brands, creators, coaches, wellness, and lifestyle businesses. Feels approachable and human.
Modern and bold
Background: #F9FAFB (cool grey), Text: #111827 (near-black), Accent: #7C3AED (purple), Subtle: #6B7280 (grey). Works for tech startups, creative agencies, innovative products, and forward-thinking brands. Feels distinctive and confident.
Clean and minimal
Background: #FFFFFF (white), Text: #18181B (near-black), Accent: #18181B (same near-black), Subtle: #71717A (zinc grey). Works for portfolios, design studios, luxury products, and minimalist brands. Maximum sophistication through restraint.
What Comes Next
You have your palette. Now build your landing page. Do not overthink refinements before seeing the colors in context—what looks perfect in a color picker might feel different on an actual page. Start building, then adjust based on how the real page feels.
When to refine
After living with your colors for a few days, you might want small adjustments. Slightly warmer or cooler background. Different accent hue. Lighter or darker subtle text. These refinements are normal and healthy. Make them incrementally based on actual usage, not abstract speculation.
Learning more over time
As you gain experience, you can explore color theory, add secondary accent colors, create dark mode versions, and develop sophisticated color systems. But those skills build on the foundation you are creating now. Master four colors first. Everything else follows naturally.
For now, four colors is enough. Launch your landing page, gather feedback, and iterate. Every professional designer started somewhere—your first landing page does not need to be perfect. It needs to exist.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I already have brand colors?
Use your existing brand color as the accent, then choose background and text colors that complement it. The four-color framework still applies—you are just starting with one color already decided. Ensure your brand color has good contrast against your background for buttons and links.
Can I use just black and white?
Absolutely. Black and white with one accent color is a completely valid choice—professional, timeless, and surprisingly distinctive. Many prestigious brands use exactly this approach. The minimal palette forces excellent typography and creates sophisticated visual impact.
How do I know if my colors actually work?
If text is easy to read and buttons are easy to see, your colors work. Functionality first. Beyond that, ask someone unfamiliar with your project for their impression. Fresh eyes catch problems your familiar eyes miss. Test on mobile devices where conditions vary more.
What if I change my mind later?
Change it. Colors are not permanent. Swapping your accent color takes minutes. Adjusting your background shade takes seconds. The worst outcome is never launching because you cannot decide. Start with something reasonable and iterate. Every website evolves.
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Build a Color Palette from a Base Color →
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