What Color Should a Secondary Color Be? | Web Design Color Schemes That Support the Main Color

Once the main color is decided, the next question is often, “What color should the secondary color be?” In this article, we use “secondary color” to mean a supporting color with less visual priority than the main color. For beginners, a practical starting point is to choose a nearby hue and reduce its visual strength through lighter value or lower saturation so it works well for backgrounds and cards. Here, the main color is blue ■#2563EB and the secondary color is pale cyan ■#E0F2FE.

Choose a secondary color that does not compete with the main color

A secondary color is easier to manage when it supports larger surfaces such as backgrounds and supporting sections instead of competing with the main color at the same intensity. For example, use blue ■#2563EB for the primary CTA and important headings, and use pale cyan ■#E0F2FE as the background for feature or pricing sections.

Keep the overall page background off-white ■#F8FAFC and body text charcoal ■#1F2937. This leaves the main color as the strongest chromatic color while allowing the secondary color to cover larger areas without taking over the visual hierarchy. Giving the main and secondary colors different roles and visual strength is usually easier to control than using two highly saturated colors at similar scale.

On a service page, assign the main color to actions and the secondary color to surfaces

On a service page, use ■#F8FAFC for the normal background, ■#1F2937 for body text, blue ■#2563EB for the primary CTA, and pale cyan ■#E0F2FE for supporting section backgrounds. The contrast ratio, a numerical measure of the relative lightness difference between foreground and background, is about 14.03:1 for body text on the normal background and about 12.79:1 for body text on the secondary-color background.

For the CTA (Call to Action, the primary button that leads to an inquiry or sign-up), blue ■#2563EB with white text ■#FFFFFF has a contrast ratio of about 5.17:1. That exceeds the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 4.5:1 minimum for normal-size text. Using the secondary color as a supporting surface rather than another competing button color helps keep the main color’s role clear.

If the secondary color feels too strong, adjust lightness and area before adding more colors

If the secondary color attracts too much attention, first try making it lighter, reducing saturation, or using it over a smaller area before replacing it with another hue. If it becomes very pale, do not make the text equally pale. On the pale cyan background ■#E0F2FE, keeping body text charcoal ■#1F2937 still provides about 12.79:1 contrast.

Also, do not use the difference between the main and secondary colors as the only way to communicate meanings such as selected versus unselected, success, or error. Add text, icons, borders, weight, or other visible cues so the information remains understandable when colors are difficult to distinguish.

HueRoll shows analogous colors, tints, shades, and other palette suggestions, so it can help you expand from a main color when considering a secondary color. It also displays the selected color’s contrast against white and black, but it does not compare two arbitrary custom colors or automatically report WCAG AA or AAA conformance. After choosing a secondary color, check the actual body-text, background, and button color pairs separately.