Will the same item always get the same color?

Yes, the color is derived purely from the item's text using a deterministic string hash, so entering the exact same text always produces the exact same color, in this session and any future one.

Can I use the colors outside this tool?

Yes, the plain-text output panel lists every item alongside its hex color code (tab-separated, one per line), so you can copy or download it and reuse the exact colors elsewhere, in CSS, design tools, or spreadsheets.

Are the colors guaranteed to be visually distinct from each other?

Not guaranteed. Since the hue is derived from a hash of the text, two different items can occasionally land on similar hues, especially with small lists. This tool prioritizes determinism and simplicity over guaranteeing maximal color separation between items.

List Item Colorizer - Assign a Color to Every List Item

Overview

Introduction

Giving list items a visual color tag, for tags, categories, or labels, is normally a manual design step of picking colors one at a time.

This tool automatically assigns a deterministic color to every item based on its text, so the same label always gets the same color, and shows a visual swatch preview alongside a copyable hex code list.

What Is List Item Colorizer?

A list transformer that hashes each item's text into a hue value, converts that hue to a full HSL-derived hex color, and renders a colored swatch next to the item's text.

It also outputs a plain-text list of "item [tab] hex code" pairs so the color assignments remain copyable and downloadable, not just visual.

How List Item Colorizer Works

Each item's text is passed through a djb2-style string hash function to produce a numeric value, which is reduced modulo 360 to get an HSL hue.

That hue, combined with a fixed saturation and lightness, is converted to a "#rrggbb" hex color using standard HSL-to-RGB math, and both a visual swatch and the hex code are shown for every item.

When To Use List Item Colorizer

Use it to quickly generate consistent, repeatable color tags for a list of categories, tags, or labels without manually picking colors.

It's also handy for visually previewing a set of generated hex colors before using them in a design tool, spreadsheet, or CSS file.

Often used alongside List Item Bullet Adder, List Item Counter Adder and List Sorter.

Features

Advantages

Fully deterministic, the same item text always produces the same color.
Provides both a visual swatch preview and a plain-text, copyable hex code list.
No manual color picking required for tagging a list of items.

Limitations

Hue derivation from a text hash does not guarantee visually distinct colors for every item, especially in longer lists.
Saturation and lightness are fixed, only the hue varies between items, so all colors share a similar overall vibrancy.
This is a simple deterministic mapping, not a color-accessibility-aware palette generator; check contrast yourself if used in a UI.

Examples

Colorizing a short tag list

Input

urgent
low-priority
review

Output

urgent	#4ba3e0
low-priority	#e04b7a
review	#8ce04b

Each item's text is hashed into a hue, producing a deterministic hex color per item.

Repeating an item reproduces the same color

Input

status:active

Output

status:active	#4be0c9

Running the tool again with the identical item text always yields the identical hex code.

Best Practices & Notes

Best Practices

Keep item text stable if you want its assigned color to stay consistent across future runs, since even small text changes shift the hash.
Use the plain-text hex output when you need to reuse exact colors in CSS or design software, rather than reading swatches by eye.
Check for visually similar colors in longer lists and adjust item text or handle collisions manually if strict distinctness is required.

Developer Notes

Implemented with a djb2-style hash (`hash = hash * 33 XOR charCode`, accumulated per character) reduced modulo 360 for the hue, then converted to hex via a standard HSL-to-RGB formula at fixed 65% saturation and 55% lightness; this is a simple deterministic mapping, not a perceptually-optimized color palette generator.

List Item Colorizer Use Cases

Generating consistent color tags for a list of categories or labels
Previewing a set of deterministic hex colors before using them in a design tool
Quickly visualizing how many distinct-ish colors a list of items maps to

Common Mistakes

Expecting guaranteed visually distinct colors for every item; hash-derived hues can occasionally collide or sit close together.
Changing an item's text slightly and expecting the same color, even small text changes produce a different hash and thus a different color.
Using the fixed saturation/lightness output directly in a context requiring specific brand colors; this tool generates arbitrary, not brand-matched, colors.

Tips

Copy the plain-text hex list if you need to import the exact colors into another tool.
Combine with List Sorter first if you want the colorized swatches displayed in alphabetical order.

List Item Colorizer