How to play Shades
Shades is a color memory game. Each color shows for 5 seconds, or 3 in Blitz, and then hides. Mix it again with hue, saturation and brightness dials and see how close you came. Five colors make a game, scored out of 50, and a game takes about 2 minutes.
Play Shades freeShades at a glance
- Players
- 1
- Colors
- 5 a game, 10 points each
- Goal
- Mix every color as close as you can
- Game length
- About 2 minutes
How to play Shades
Look
A color appears for 5 seconds, or 3 in Blitz. Take it in.
Mix it again
Turn the hue, saturation and brightness dials until your mix matches what you remember.
Lock it in
Each color scores up to 10 points. Five colors make a game out of 50.
Complete Shades rules
The palette
Each game has 5 colors. The daily palette is the same for everyone and never pairs a red with a green.
Look, then mix
Each color shows on its own, then hides. Mix it again with the hue, saturation and brightness dials, then lock it in.
Scoring
Each color scores 0 to 10, to two decimals, from how different your mix looks. The same mix always scores the same.
Winning
Score 35 or more out of 50 to win. The daily ranks the best score, then the fastest.
Tips to win at Shades
- Give each color a name in your head, like “cider sky”. Names are easier to remember than shades.
- Get the brightness right first. It changes the score more than you’d think.
- Compare each color with the one before. Was it lighter, darker or warmer?
Ways to play Shades
Classic and Blitz
Look for 5 seconds, then mix in 25 seconds in Classic, or look for 3 seconds and mix in 10 in Blitz.
Zen
No timer. Look as long as you like. Practice, not scored.
Shade mode
Match lightness only, or type the values. Color-vision friendly, with its own daily board.
Play by your house rules
- ModeClassicZenBlitzShade mode
About Shades
Remembering a color exactly is harder than it seems, because we keep the name of a color better than the shade itself. Painters, printers and designers train this skill. Color scientists measure how different two colors look with formulas such as CIEDE2000, the one this game scores with.
Rules reviewed by the tavlo.gg game team · Updated October 10, 2026Questions about Shades
How is my score worked out?
Can I play if I’m color-blind?
Is there a daily game?
Is Shades free to play?
Why does the color look different on my phone?
- How is my score worked out?
- The game scores each color from 0 to 10 by how close your mix is to the real color, using a standard measure of how different two colors look. The same mix always gets the same score.
- Can I play if I’m color-blind?
- Yes. Shade mode asks you to match lightness only, and you can type the H, S and B values instead of turning the dials. It has its own daily leaderboard.
- Is there a daily game?
- Yes. One palette a day, the same for everyone, with a leaderboard for the best score.
- Is Shades free to play?
- Yes. Shades is free in your browser, with no download and no sign-up. You can start as a guest, and your progress saves on this device.
- Why does the color look different on my phone?
- Screens differ, and night modes and auto-brightness change how colors look. Everyone on the same screen plays fair, and the game is always optional in quests.