Best Free Color Picker

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Last updated by Jojo Yee on 25. November 2020 - 11:59

Introduction

A color picker allows you to identify the color codes of any color present on your screen. This information can be helpful when editing an image, programming, writing HTML language or setting up a web page, etc.

There are many free color pickers to choose from. This review picks out a select few, based on the following features:

  • Color code support:
    - RGB (Red, Green and Blue)
    - Hex (hexadecimal in HTML mode, etc)
    - HSL, HSV, HSI or HSB (Hue, Saturation, Lightness/Value/Intensity/Brightness)
    - CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black)
  • Takes up little screen space  (in its "on-top" setting)
  • Provides useful features including a grabber (or eyedropper) to easily pick and copy a color, a magnifier to see precisely which color you want to pick, a color mixer to adjust colors, and a color palette to re-use picked colors.

 

Rated Products

Color Cop  

A screen color picker with a compact and powerful user interface

Our Rating: 
4.5
License: Free
Compact and powerful user interface, taking up a small space of desktop area. Features include grabber, magnifier, color palette and mixer, etc.
CMYK color space yet to be developed.
Read full review...

Color Archiver  

A color grabber provides RGB, CMY, CMYK, HSL and HSV color spaces

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free
Support RGB, CMY, CMYK, HSL and HSV color spaces. Features include grabber, magnifier, color palette and mixer, color names, etc.
Slightly bigger interface.
Read full review...

Color Selector  

A color picker with a converter built-in

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free
Supports RGB, HSL, HSB/HSV, CMY, Hex and Decimal, includes color picker, 9x magnifier, color preview, mixer, configurable color sliders and a Darker slider with a converter built-in.
Palette tool shown in a separate window, user interface takes up some desktop space as well.
Read full review...

CPick  

Pick a screen color behind a magnifier zooming from 1 to 10

Our Rating: 
3.5
License: Free
Support Hex, Decimal, RGB or HSV value, adjust color with slide bars, click and drag, magnifier, color lists, save image as icon or Bitmap.
CMYK color space not supported, slightly larger interface but collapsible.
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Just Color Picker  

A portable color picker and editor for web designers and digital artists

Our Rating: 
3
License: Free
Supports RGB, HTML Hex and HSB/HSV/HSL color codes, save picked colors in text files.
Use hot keys to grab colors.
Read full review...

ColorMania  

A color grabber with a magnifier, a mixer and sliders for RGB and HSV

Our Rating: 
3
License: Free
Supports CMYK in addition to RGB and Hex codes in various modes. Features include color grabber, magnifier, mixer and sliders, color palette, predefined HTML colors.
Take up slightly larger desktop area, no modules are collapsible.
Read full review...

Pixeur  

Keeps a history of colors you've picked with all necessary tools

Our Rating: 
3
License: Free
Support CMYK, RGB, HSB and Hex color values. Features include color grabber, magnifier, color mixer, color scheme, slider, etc.
Take up relatively larger desktop area.
Read full review...

gcolor2  

A simple color selector provides a quick and easy way to pick a color on the screen for Linux

Our Rating: 
2.5
License: Free (Open source)
Open Source, a quick and easy way to pick a color, supports HSV, RGB and HTML codes with an opacity slider, color grabber, allows for naming and saving picked colors.
No magnifier is supported.
Read full review...

Other Color Pickers

These are a number of other free color pickers which were brought up in comments here or noted from other sources. As they are not rated in this review, I am listing them here with brief descriptions and links to their sites for ease of reference.

  • Visual Color Picker supports RGB, HSL and CMYK color codes with complete sliders and 2D color mixers. Features include grabber, zoom and color preview with codes. It takes up a relatively large desktop area.
  • ColorPic supports RGB, HSV and CMYK codes with features including sliders, palettes and advanced mixers. It takes up a relatively large desktop area and uses hot keys to pick colors.
  • ColorPix supports RGB, HEX, HSB and CMYK codes and has a very small user interface, but it lacks quite a lot of features such as a color grabber, color mixer, slider, color palette, etc.
  • Pixie is a small and simple program. A portable version weighs in at only 11KB. Pixie shows you Hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV color values when you point to a pixel on the screen. It allows you to use hotkeys to copy HTML codes, call up Windows' default color mixer and show a floating magnifier. If you don't remember the hotkeys, the program will show them up when you move the mouse cursor over the interface.
  • ColSel (homepage not in English) supports HEX and RGB color values, but CMYK and HSV values are not supported. The program features color mixers, websafe color, etc., but its color grabber together with a magnifier is located at the secondary user interface and requires more steps to just pick a color from the screen.
  • Pickard lets you drag an eyedropper on the screen, then pick a color from a magnified area in the applicaton. Supports RGB, HSL, CMY and YUV color spaces. A relatively large user interface area and no color palette is available.
  • Color Puller is portable freeware, completes with various useful features such as a grabber, a color palette, and a magnifier up to 50 times. The program supports RGB, CMY, CMYK, HSV, HSL, HSI and Hex values. Its user interface is relatively larger but can be minimized when you choose a color code to display with the On-top option.
  • Pipette runs straight from the executable and provides Hex, RGB, CMY, CMYK, HSV and other values. Large user interface, no color sliders nor a magnifier are supported.

 

Related Products and Links

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Editor

This category is maintained by volunteer editor Jojo Yee. Registered members can contact the editor with comments or suggestions by clicking here. You can visit the Google+ profile page of Jojo Yee here.

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Comments

I'm a terrible judge of colours, I need something that will pick colours that "go" together.

ColorBug seems to be much better than the rest. Wonderful interface and you can define your own color palettes (or color lists) and save them in an XML files. Haven't tried all color pickers around but never found one that allows you to save your color palette. The link is this: http://www.martinstoeckli.ch/colorbug

The best free color picker for me is not even a color picker program (at least that's not its primary function) -- it's a screen loupe utility called Zzoom (http://www.omiod.com/product-zzoom.asp). It's portable (just one 30KB exe), has a tiny memory footprint (consumes about 1.2MB of RAM), you can use it as a color picker (press 'C'), plus you can use it as a resizable, grid-toggable screen loupe for aligning elements with pixel precision. This program belongs in every web developer's toolbox.

Color comes in 3 dimensions, red, green, and blue. Hence, color is best visualized in 3d. It allows for a common sense visualization throughout the spectrum.

http://www.technologicalutopia.com/colorpicker.htm