Random Eye Color Generator: 25 Real Shades and 17 Fantasy Colors: how it works
This random eye color generator opens on 25 real shades, from pale blue to black, and draws one with its swatch, its hex code and a badge that says common, uncommon or rare. Tap Fantasy eye colors for 17 that no human iris has, made for character design, or switch to Wheel and spin.
Where the 25 real shades come from
Twenty are the steps of the Martin-Schultz scale, a chart anthropologists drew up in the early 1900s. It runs from 1a, pale blue, to 16, black, and the lower the step, the lighter the eye. Six of the 20 are browns. The other five cards are pinkish red and violet, which occur only with albinism, and three kinds of heterochromia.
What common, uncommon and rare mean
The American Academy of Ophthalmology says more than half of all people have brown eyes and about 2% have green, the rarest. Worldwide, blue is 8 to 10 in 100, hazel near 5 and gray near 3. A US poll the Academy reports differs: 45% said brown, 27% blue, 18% hazel and 9% green. The bands on the cards follow the world figures.
Tips
Equal odds match no real crowd. For a realistic cast of ten, draw eight from Common, which holds the six browns, and two from Uncommon or Rare.
Green and hazel are pigment plus scattered light, so they shift with the light. A hazel-eyed character can look green-eyed in one scene and brown-eyed in the next.
Painting an iris? The hex is a base coat. Many irises carry one color near the pupil and another at the edge, so add a darker rim.
Questions and answers
Is this an eye color randomizer or a wheel?
Both. The list draws a card, and nothing repeats until you have seen every shade your chips allow. Switch to Wheel and the same shades sit on equal slices: all 25 real colors, or all 17 fantasy ones. The wheel only avoids the same slice twice running, so it can repeat.
Why is blue on the list if eyes hold no blue pigment?
The color is real even though the pigment is not. The Academy explains that a blue iris has no pigment in its front layer, so it scatters light and more blue comes back out. It adds that before blue eyes appeared, 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, everyone had brown eyes.
Why are red and violet on both lists?
The real and storybook versions are different colors. Real red and violet eyes occur only with albinism and are pale: you are seeing blood vessels through an iris with almost no melanin. Crimson and amethyst purple are saturated, and each fantasy card names its nearest real shade.
Random People and History Generators6 tools: Each page here draws a name or a moment from a list checked against its sources entry by entry, and every…
AmberStep 9. Solid gold or copper, no green. Uncommon: the 5 in 100 quoted for hazel takes in amber. Hex #B5791F.
BlackStep 16, the darkest. Really a brown so deep that the pupil is hard to pick out. Common. Hex #17100B.
Black-brownStep 15. So dark it reads as black until bright light brings out the brown. Common. Hex #2E1C12.
BlueStep 2a, the plain mid blue. Uncommon: 27 in 100 in a US poll, 8 to 10 in 100 worldwide. Hex #5B92C9.
Blue-grayStep 3. Sits between blue and gray. Uncommon is our band, as no survey counts it alone. Hex #7F97A8.
Blue-gray with yellow-brown spotsStep 5. A blue-gray iris dotted with yellow-brown flecks of pigment. Rare. Hex #7F97A8 and #B08D3C.
Central heterochromiaA ring or spikes of a second color around the pupil, such as gold inside green. Rare. Hex #6B8E4E, #B5791F.
Complete heterochromiaEach eye is a different color, such as one brown and one blue. Rare: under 1 in 100. Draw twice for the pair.
Dark blueStep 2b, the deepest blue on the scale and the last step before blue-gray. Uncommon. Hex #3D6A9E.
Dark brownStep 13. Common: dark browns that border on black are the most widespread eyes on Earth. Hex #54321A.
Dark grayStep 4b. Slate or storm-cloud gray. Rare: gray is the second rarest color after green. Hex #6E7B85.
Gray-green with yellow-brown spotsStep 6. Gray-green with light brown flecks, the first green on the scale. Rare. Hex #7C8F78 and #B08D3C.
GreenStep 7. Rare: about 2 in 100 worldwide, the rarest of the main colors. Hex #6B8E4E.
Green with yellow-brown spotsStep 8. Green with yellow-brown flecks, the last green before amber. Rare. Hex #6B8E4E and #A9822F.
HazelStep 10. Brown by the pupil, green at the edge. Uncommon: about 5 in 100 worldwide. Hex #8E7B3F, #6F8450.
Light blueStep 1b. Clear and light, with no gray in it. Uncommon, like every blue. Hex #9CC3E4.
Light brownStep 11, the first brown. Common: browns of every depth are about 79 in 100 worldwide. Hex #9A6B3F.
Light grayStep 4a. Pale and matte, with no blue cast. Rare: gray eyes are about 3 in 100 worldwide. Hex #A9B4BB.
MahoganyStep 14. A dark brown with a red cast, like the polished wood it is named for. Common. Hex #4A2418.
Medium brownStep 12. A warm mid brown, lighter than the dark browns most of the world has. Common. Hex #7B4F2A.
Pale blueStep 1a, the lightest of the scale's 20. Uncommon: blues are 8 to 10 in 100 worldwide. Hex #B9D6EC.
Pinkish redSeen only with albinism: an iris with almost no melanin lets blood vessels show through. Rare. Hex #C9707F.
Sectoral heterochromiaA wedge of one iris is a second color, such as a brown slice in a blue eye. Rarer than the complete kind.
Sky blueStep 1c. The blue of a cloudless noon, made by scattered light and no blue pigment. Uncommon. Hex #7DB1DE.
VioletTrue violet occurs only with albinism. Rare: red and violet eyes together are under 1 in 100. Hex #8D7FC4.
Fantasy eye colors 17
Amethyst purpleA deep gem purple. Real violet eyes are far paler and occur only with albinism. Hex #8E44AD.
Burnished copperA metallic red-brown with an orange shine. Its real neighbors are amber and mahogany. Hex #B5651D.
CrimsonA flat, saturated red. Real red eyes are a pale pinkish red, seen only with albinism. Hex #C1121F.
Electric blueA saturated screen blue. Real blue eyes hold no blue pigment and look softer and grayer. Hex #1F8BFF.
Ember orangeA glowing orange, hotter than amber, the warmest shade on the real scale. Hex #F2711C.
EmeraldA deep jewel green. Real green irises are paler: yellow pigment mixed with scattered blue light. Hex #00A86B.
GlacierA blue so pale it is almost white, one step lighter than pale blue, the lightest real shade. Hex #D6F1FF.
Hot pinkA loud magenta pink. The pale pinkish red seen with albinism is the only real color near it. Hex #FF3E9A.
Indigo nightA dark blue-purple, deeper than dark blue, which is the last blue step on the real scale. Hex #2B2A8F.
Lemon yellowA clear, bright yellow. A human iris stops at amber, which is darker and more orange. Hex #FFE44D.
LilacA pastel purple. Its nearest real color is the pale violet sometimes seen with albinism. Hex #C3A6F0.
Liquid silverA pale gray with a metal shine. Real gray irises are matte. Hex #C8CED6.
Molten goldBright metallic yellow-gold, lighter than any human amber. Owls, eagles and cats come closest. Hex #FFC42E.
Neon greenGlow-stick green. Real greens are muted, often gray-green or flecked with brown. Hex #39FF14.
Rose pinkA soft pastel pink. Draw a darker ring at the edge of the iris so it still reads as an eye. Hex #F4B6C8.
Snow whiteAn iris nearly as pale as the white of the eye, so the pupil sits alone like a dot. Hex #F4F6F8.
TurquoiseHalfway between blue and green, like shallow sea water. No step of the real scale sits here. Hex #1CC9B7.
How this list was compiled: 42 eye colors in two lists that are never mixed: 25 real and 17 fantasy. The real list is the 20 steps of the Martin-Schultz scale used in physical anthropology (1a pale blue to 16 black; the lower the step, the lighter the eye), read from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin%E2%80%93Schultz_scale, plus the two colors seen only with albinism and the three kinds of heterochromia, read from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterochromia_iridum. All three were checked on 2026-09-19. How often a color occurs: the American Academy of Ophthalmology says more than half of all people have brown eyes and about 2% have green, the rarest (https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/eye-color-unique-as-fingerprint), and reports a 2014 Harris Poll of more than 2,000 Americans as 45% brown, 27% blue, 18% hazel, 9% green and 1% other (https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/your-blue-eyes-arent-really-blue); both pages checked 2026-09-19. The worldwide figures for brown (about 79%), blue (8 to 10%), hazel (5%, a figure that takes in amber), gray (3%), and red, violet and heterochromia (each under 1%) are the ones the Wikipedia eye color article gives. The same AAO page is the source for blue eyes having no blue pigment and for green and hazel eyes looking different as the light changes. The bands are our own grading of those figures: common is more than half the world, uncommon is 5 to 10 in 100, rare is 3 in 100 or fewer. No survey counts steps 3, 5, 6 and 8 on their own, so blue-gray is banded with blue and the flecked steps with gray or green; that placing is ours. The fantasy list is written by us for character design, and each card names the real color nearest to it. Every hex value is our own pick for a flat swatch. A real iris is patterned and changes with the light, so no hex is a measurement. The swatch on a two-color card shows both colors as rings, the outer color first. That drawing is ours: it shows which two colors the card means, and is not a picture of an iris. Licence: own work