Palette Extract

What is it for?

• Reuse colors from an existing image unchanged
• Check how many colors are used
• Automatically create the source palette for Palette Swap
• Merge nearby colors into a representative palette for quantizing

Overview

Collects colors from an image into a palette. Reusing a pixel-art color scheme, checking the color count, or making the source palette for palette_swap—every image → palette conversion belongs here. The reverse palette → image direction uses quantize or gradient_map.

Usage tips

• Choose by source: finished pixel art → Exact for actual colors ordered by frequency; photograph or complex image → Representative for representative colors.
• To borrow only a reference image's scheme: chosen image → Representative with 4–8 colors → use that palette to gradient_map / quantize your own asset.
• It also checks color counts. source_color_count reports distinct source colors before merging or truncation, while _count reports colors actually emitted in the palette. Comparing them shows whether max_colors omitted or merged colors.

Common pitfalls

• Colors are not ordered by brightness: Exact extraction orders by frequency. A gradient_map ramp needs dark → light order, so reorder it with palette_edit or rebuild it with palette_create.
• Tiny color differences inflate the count: anti-aliasing or translucent edges are responsible. Reduce max_colors or merge them with Representative.

Notes

• Extraction order is deterministic. The same image always produces the same result.
• 実色抽出 returns only colors that exist in the source.
• 代表色抽出 merges nearby colors, so it can produce a representative color not present verbatim in the source.
• With include_transparent = false, fully transparent pixels are ignored.
• _count is the number of colors actually emitted, after representative merging and max_colors truncation.
• source_color_count is the number of distinct colors considered after applying the transparent-color setting but before merging or max_colors truncation.

Examples

1. Extract a palette from existing pixel art.
2. Prepare a recoloring workflow with Palette Extract -> Palette Swap.
3. Use source_color_count to confirm that an asset uses no more than 16 source colors.
4. Include transparent colors to inspect the color composition of a UI asset.
5. Summarize a photograph or complex image as a small palette with 代表色抽出.

Related nodes

• palette_swap — replace a color scheme using the extracted palette as a starting point
• palette_quantize / dither — extract and quantize together
• palette_edit — reorder or adjust extracted results
• palette_save — save the extracted palette to a file