How Should You Choose Colors for an App Introduction Website? | Choosing Colors That Showcase App Screenshots

On a website introducing an app, screenshots can communicate how the product works more directly than decorative colors alone. A screenshot is an image captured from the app’s actual interface. If the surrounding website uses too many strong colors, its backgrounds and buttons may compete with the interface images. This guide explains how to make screenshots the focus while keeping feature descriptions and the next action easy to find.

Start with the screenshots when choosing the website palette

First, decide which screens to show and what each one explains. You might lead with a home screen that makes the app’s purpose clear, then show an activity summary and a notification settings screen. Rather than giving every screenshot equal prominence, consider making the most informative one larger and grouping the others by function.

If the app has a predominantly white interface, a pure white surrounding website may make the screenshot’s edges difficult to identify. A highly saturated backdrop, on the other hand, might compete with buttons or charts inside the app. Choose a subdued page background and use spacing or an explicit border around the screenshot when needed. Do not rely entirely on a soft shadow to define its boundary.

You also do not need to repeat every accent color from the screenshot across the marketing website. Small decorative accents can echo the app’s identity, while headings, longer copy, and the primary action use colors suited to their own roles. Keep the screenshots faithful to what the app actually displays instead of recoloring the images in a way that could misrepresent its interface.

An example palette for a habit-tracking app website

Consider a fictional habit-tracking app. Use pale blue-gray ■#F7F9FC for its promotional website background and dark blue-gray ■#27384B for headings and regular text. A HEX code is hexadecimal notation used to specify a color. These foreground and background colors have a contrast ratio of about 11.36:1, leaving the surrounding content visually restrained so visitors can focus on the app screens.

Assume the featured home-screen screenshot has a white ■#FFFFFF app background. White differs from the surrounding website’s ■#F7F9FC by only about 1.05:1. Add a thin blue-gray ■#62798A border to mark the screenshot’s edge. That border contrasts about 4.31:1 with the website background and 4.54:1 with the white screenshot surface, helping the two similarly light areas remain visually distinct.

For the next screenshots, show different capabilities such as ‘Weekly activity’ and ‘Reminder settings.’ If the in-app chart uses a bright mint ■#53BAB4 on white ■#FFFFFF, the two colors have a contrast ratio of about 2.32:1. If the chart needs to distinguish completed and incomplete tasks, it should not communicate that distinction through this color alone: meaningful labels and symbols are also useful. Add a brief explanation outside each screenshot so visitors know what it demonstrates.

Use blue-gray ■#3D5062 for screenshot captions on the pale website background ■#F7F9FC, giving about 7.89:1 contrast. A panel explaining a group of features can use light blue ■#EAF1F5 and dark blue-gray ■#27384B lettering, which contrast about 10.49:1. Describe the result in words—for example, ‘Review daily habits in one list’—rather than expecting visitors to infer it from tiny controls inside a screenshot.

For the main ‘Explore app features’ button, pair a deep teal-blue ■#205D78 fill with white ■#FFFFFF text. The button label has about 7.25:1 contrast against its fill, and the button itself differs from the site background ■#F7F9FC by about 6.87:1. Keep the CTA (call to action, a control inviting the visitor’s next step) outside the screenshots so it is not mistaken for a button inside the app.

Check smaller screens and the readability of screenshot content

When a screenshot is scaled down on a phone, small in-app labels can become unreadable. Present essential information again in accessible headings or nearby explanatory text, and consider giving visitors a way to view the screenshot at a larger size. If several images explain a sequence, provide captions or numbers that make the order clear.

If the app also offers a dark interface, you could show a genuine dark-mode screenshot alongside the light ones. For example, a dark blue-gray ■#182D3E screenshot surface differs from a pale blue ■#EAF1F5 explanatory panel by about 12.40:1. Use screenshots of the actual interface rather than inventing a version of the app solely to suit the marketing palette.

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.2 Level AA, an accessibility conformance level, requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for qualifying large text. Meaningful non-text elements, such as an outline needed to identify a control, may also require 3:1 against adjacent colors. Give informative screenshots appropriate alternative text, which describes the image in words, and review the legibility of text shown inside them at the actual displayed size.

HueRoll lets you enter HEX codes, explore lighter and darker shades and palette suggestions, and compare a selected color against white or black. It cannot automatically compare arbitrary two-color pairs or determine Level AA compliance. The ratios here are calculations for the specified opaque solid-color pairs. Check the website’s text, borders, and CTA separately, and use their colors to support rather than overshadow the app screenshots.