Material You's Dynamic Color system analyzes the user's wallpaper to generate a custom color palette for the device's user interface13. It uses artificial intelligence algorithms to extract key colors from the chosen image and create a personalized color scheme1. This palette is then applied throughout the UI, including to apps that support dynamic coloring. The system generates five main key colors with specific hue, saturation, and brightness relationships to meet accessibility standards1. Instead of focusing on exact color values, designers should pay attention to color roles and relationships between components and surfaces to ensure the design looks cohesive regardless of the generated palette1. This approach allows for a more personalized and adaptive user experience while maintaining brand consistency and accessibility across different color schemes2.

Hue, saturation, and luminance (also called lightness or brightness) are the three fundamental characteristics used to describe color12. Hue refers to the specific spectral color or dominant wavelength, such as red, green, or blue1. Saturation indicates the purity or intensity of a color, ranging from fully saturated (no white) to desaturated (diluted with white)14. Luminance measures the perceived brightness of a color, from dark to light12. These three attributes allow for precise color representation and manipulation in digital systems. For example, in the HSL color model, hue is often represented as an angle on a color wheel (0-360 degrees), while saturation and luminance are typically expressed as percentages (0-100%)24. Understanding these components is crucial for designers and developers working with color in digital interfaces, as they provide a more intuitive way to describe and adjust colors compared to RGB values35.

While Dynamic Color offers exciting personalization opportunities, it can present challenges for developers trying to balance brand identity with user customization24. The conflict arises when apps have established brand colors that may clash with the dynamically generated color schemes4. To address this, developers can implement a hybrid approach, selectively applying dynamic colors alongside custom brand colors45. The Material Theme Builder tool helps create custom color experiences that work harmoniously with dynamic color systems5. For instance, Chrome maintained its recognizable Incognito mode colors while adopting dynamic colors elsewhere in the app4. Developers can also extend color schemes by adding custom colors that harmonize with user-generated palettes, ensuring visual balance and accessibility4. This approach allows apps to preserve their brand identity while still offering the personalization benefits of Material You's Dynamic Color system.

The Material Theme Builder is a Figma plugin that allows designers to create custom Material Design 3 themes directly within Figma14. This tool helps visualize and generate color schemes, design tokens, and styles based on Material Design principles45.

Key features of the plugin include:

• Generating Material Design tokens as Figma styles1

• Creating custom color schemes based on brand colors or images45

• Visualizing themes in both light and dark modes4

• Generating tonal palettes from 0 to 1004

• Exporting themes as code for easy implementation4

Designers can use the plugin to create themes by selecting inspiration colors, uploading images, or customizing individual color components4. The plugin automatically generates corresponding Figma styles for text and colors, which represent the design tokens4. This streamlines the process of creating consistent, Material Design-compliant themes and facilitates smoother collaboration between designers and developers working on Material Design projects145.