Colorful Second Brain - Part 2: Excalidraw Color Palette Loader

A custom color palette workflow for Excalidraw is the centerpiece here: build palettes elsewhere, save them in an Obsidian vault, then use the “palette loader” script to repaint existing drawings with brand-matching or more/less vivid color schemes. The payoff is practical—switching palettes becomes a repeatable, one-click process instead of manually recoloring shapes.

The process starts with a quick grounding in color theory concepts that matter when generating palettes. The palette logic distinguishes the RGB color wheel used by computers (red, green, blue) from the RYB wheel used by artists (red, yellow, blue). From there, the video lays out common palette structures: monochromatic (one hue with multiple shades), analogous (a base color plus its neighbors), complementary (two colors opposite on the wheel), split complementary (three colors using the neighbors of the complement), triadic (three equidistant hues), and tetradic (four hues forming a rectangle/square). It also notes how shade generation can be driven by algorithms—changing lightness/darkness and, optionally, shifting hue to create warmer shadows and cooler highlights.

For palette creation, Palatin is presented as the most convenient generator because the palette loader script works best with Palatin’s output format (though it can handle other generators too). In Palatin, users pick a palette type (monochromatic, analogous, triadic, tetradic), optionally add complementary colors, and then tune parameters like hue position, saturation, and the angular distance between colors on the wheel. The result is a palette defined by a base color plus multiple shades per secondary color. Once the palette looks right, export is done via “Sketch palette,” which produces text that can be copied into Obsidian.

In Obsidian, palettes are stored as documents inside a dedicated folder (defaulting to an Excalidraw “palettes” folder). After saving the palette data, the first-time setup requires installing the palette loader script from the Excalidraw script library and running it once. When a palette is loaded, the script also fills in missing essentials—adding black, white, transparent, and two gray shades—so Excalidraw has a complete set of colors to map onto existing elements.

Switching palettes is then demonstrated by drawing a simple face and repainting it. If the new palette is compatible in size (e.g., both use the same number of base/secondary colors and shades), the script offers an option to “repaint” so the drawing’s colors remap line-by-line from the old palette to the new one. If the palette structure differs (such as moving between monochromatic and triadic), the script may skip the repaint prompt and simply replace the palette.

Finally, the workflow supports non-JSON palette sources. Users can export as text, then edit the output so only hexadecimal color values remain (without the “#” character) to avoid Obsidian treating them as tags. The palette loader can then import that edited list and repaint drawings accordingly.

Overall, the central insight is that palette switching in Excalidraw can be automated end-to-end—generation in Palatin, storage in Obsidian, and deterministic recoloring via palette loader—making iterative experimentation with color combinations fast enough to be genuinely useful for real projects and brand-aligned notes.