I asked the palette extractor for 8 colors and got only 3; why?
Because the tool never invents colors. It splits the image's real colors into groups, and when the sample holds only three distinct colors there is nothing left to split. The result is correct, and it tells you your image really uses three colors.
The message you see
When this happens the tool writes something like this under the palette: 'Distinct colors in the sample: 3. That is fewer than the 8 requested, so only 3 are shown.' Nothing is hidden and nothing is miscounted. The number you choose, from 2 to 12, is a ceiling, not a promise of a fixed count.
An example in numbers
A simple 120 × 80 px PNG graphic split into three flat areas: red over half of it, navy and yellow. Because it is smaller than the 200 sample size, it is analysed as it is, without shrinking: 9600 pixels. Ask for 8 colors and you get:
- #C81E28 at 50%.
- #142878 at 30%.
- #F0C814 at 20%.
Those are exactly the graphic's three colors, with shares matching their areas. If eight colors appeared here, five of them would be made up.
When to expect this result
- Small flat graphics: icons, flags, simple logos saved as PNG, especially when they are smaller than the sample size, so they are neither shrunk nor smoothed.
- Images saved with a limited number of colors, such as an indexed-color PNG.
- An image where most pixels were excluded: turn on 'Ignore near-white' for a graphic on white and only two or three colors may remain.
Why a large copy of the same graphic shows more
Open a large copy of the same graphic, say 2400 × 1600, and the tool first shrinks it to the sample size with smoothing. Smoothing mixes colors where areas meet, creating in-between colors such as a blend of the red and the navy. Those are genuinely new colors in the sample, so the tool finds something to split and shows more swatches, some of them small transitional shades. A different result, but an honest one in both cases: every swatch shown exists in the analysed sample.
What to do with the result
- Open the image in the Image palette extractor extractor with any count, then read the analysis line that states the number of distinct colors.
- If it is below your request, treat the palette shown as the image's complete identity and download it as it is.
- If you want extra colors for your design, that is not the extractor's job: the tool does not suggest matching colors, it only reflects what is in the image.
Common questions
Will raising the sample size to 400 add colors?
For an image under 200 px nothing changes, because it is analysed as it is either way.
The shares add up to exactly 100 here. Is that always so?
No. Shares are rounded to one decimal, so in other images they can total 99.9 or 100.1.
Do the three colors exist literally in the image?
Yes in this case, because each group holds a single color, so its average is that color.