"poline" is an enigmatic color palette generator using polar coordinates
28 comments
·June 14, 2025nemomarx
caseyohara
What don't you understand? It defies conventional color science and is steeped in the esoteric knowledge of the early 20th century.
It is a very nice palette generator, but I really dislike all the talk of magic/mysticism/sorcery/witchcraft. It's a dang color generator, ease up on the dungeon master language.
nemomarx
It feels a little bit ai generated there, or maybe just padded out marketing copy - more adjectives and superlatives than I'd expect from a technical site at least. Telling you how to call it to get a "mesmerizing" palette for example
I can handle some purple mysticism prose but I did want like a comparison of a few palettes from this polar system vs some traditional plane ones. If the creator reads this thread that's my note
epiccoleman
on the other hand, i like the "theme" - i'm a sucker for that mix of "wizardry" metaphor with programming stuff.
I'm reminded for instance of this fun little post:
macrocosmos
It defies explanation. This is followed up by an explantation.
cardiffspaceman
Defied unsuccessfully.
null
SkyBelow
It feels a bit satirical or otherwise done for fun, especially with sections like the following.
"And thus, the tome of "poline" has been written. Its mystical powers, steeped in the arcane knowledge of the ancients, now reside within these pages. May this compendium serve you in your quest for the ultimate color palette."
Either way, I wasn't expecting to encounter Poe's law inside a color palette maker.
humanfromearth9
It's enigmatic, hence you don't understand.
sram1337
There's no science behind it. You're reading ai generated text.
My guess is the prompt was something like this:
"describe a color palette generating tool that uses the magic of polar coordinates to make pretty color palettes"
haiku2077
It's not AI generated; it's a joke by the creator, as explained here a couple of years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34665584
nemomarx
Ah, thanks for the cite!
altairprime
Previously on HN (2 years ago) with creator’s replies: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34662722
pseudocomposer
Super cool! If the author/creator happens to be reading, I’d suggest that, when the user is at the top of the page (ie on first load), the default demo wheel’s should animate between a few different curves. At first glance (before scrolling down), it looks somewhat primitive, and less interesting than it really is.
jonathaneunice
It's cool.
Though I am unsure if I am a sufficiently modern generative sorcerer to appreciate its eldritch, enigmatic nature.
kazinator
It makes sense. When you have complementary colors in the palette, you need to include more darks so that in your design you can separate the two. This is achieved because the line has pass near the centre.
onli
Doesn't seem to work on Firefox - I tried with adblocker and tracking protection disabled. Console complains:
Uncaught SyntaxError: The requested module 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/highlight.js/11.7.0/e...' doesn't provide an export named: 'default'
bogdanoff_2
I'm impressed by the naming of colors at the very end.
ChrisMarshallNY
Nicely done, but I'm a bit puzzled by all the alchemical stuff (which, to be fair, is probably the point).
stevenhuang
What an obnoxiously unclickable interaction on mobile. A very strange choice of ux for something that insists to be so prominent on my screen that follows my scroll, yet clicking on the palette does nothing.
rambambram
Hats off! I never experienced a colorcombo generator that only turned up good palettes.
basisword
Nice. Hard to generate an unpleasant palette with this at all.
Teever
The favicon updates to match the palette. That's a nice touch.
>"poline" is an enigmatic color palette generator, that harnesses the mystical witchcraft of polar coordinates. Its methodology, defying conventional color science, is steeped in the esoteric knowledge of the early 20th century. This magical technology defies explanation, drawing lines between anchors to produce visually striking and otherworldly palettes. It is an indispensable tool for the modern generative sorcerer, and a delight for the eye
I'm not totally sure I understand this intro - what's different here compared to normal color science palette makers?
I do like the visual presentation and animation a lot though.