Why I Built Tintly.xyz: A Free Tool to Visualize HEX Colors on Real UIs

Musie Benti — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 21:04:14 +0000

Hey everyone,

As a developer and designer, one of the most frustrating parts of building UIs is the constant guesswork around colors. You pick a perfect HEX code, but once it's applied to a button or a background, it just... doesn't look right. This leads to endless fiddling with CSS, which is a massive time sink.

That's why I decided to build Tintly.xyz.

What is Tintly?

Tintly is a completely free web tool that lets you take your HEX color codes and instantly see how they render on a variety of common UI components. Think of it as a live sandbox for your color palettes, showing you exactly how they'll look in a real-world interface before you write a single line of code.

The Problem It Solves:

The "Swatch vs. UI" Disconnect: Colors behave differently when applied to different surface areas and contexts. What looks vibrant on a small swatch might be overwhelming as a background or too subtle on a button.

Wasted Iteration Time: Without an immediate visualizer, you're constantly jumping between your code editor, browser, and color picker to test variations.

Design-Dev Handoff Challenges: Ensuring designers' intentions translate perfectly to developed UIs can be tricky. Tintly provides a clear, shared visual reference.

How it Works (Simple & Focused on HEX):

You simply input your HEX color value, and Tintly immediately updates a set of UI elements on the page. You'll see your chosen color on components in real life.

This gives you an instant, practical preview of your color palette in its actual context.

Why I Built It Now:

I'm actually working on a Y Combinator application right now (deadline in 3 days!), and building Tintly was a direct response to a pain point I experienced firsthand. It's my latest effort to build something genuinely useful and iterate quickly.

Try Tintly Yourself!

I'd love for you to check out Tintly and share your thoughts. What are your biggest challenges with UI colors? Does Tintly help simplify your workflow?

Visit Tintly.xyz here: https://tintly.xyz

Feel free to leave any feedback in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

DEV Community: Musie Benti

Why I Built Tintly.xyz: A Free Tool to Visualize HEX Colors on Real UIs