Color Match: Color Picker

Matching touch-up paint, yarn or a brand swatch is easier when the color becomes a number you can check. Capture a color from the camera or a photo, read its codes in six formats and see how far each sample is from your reference. Keep what you find in palettes for the next project.

▶ CAMERA: ONE SHOT, A STEADY VALUE
• Take a single still and read the color inside the marked square. Move the square anywhere on the photo and choose a small, medium or large area.
• Optional white or grey card: photograph a neutral card once and the app removes the color cast of your lighting. Cards that are clipped, too dark or tinted are refused, and the unadjusted value is always kept.

▶ PHOTOS AND SCREENSHOTS
• Tap any point for the exact pixel or a 5×5 average, with a magnifier loupe for precise picking.
• Extract the dominant colors of a picture, from 2 to 8, each with its share in percent.
• Wide-gamut photos with an embedded color profile (such as Display P3) are converted to sRGB before reading. Files the app cannot read correctly are refused instead of showing a wrong value.

▶ MATCH: IS IT THE SAME COLOUR?
• Set one reference color and add up to 24 samples from the camera, photos or typed HEX codes.
• Samples are ranked by Delta E 2000 (CIEDE2000), the standard color-difference formula, with a pass or fail against your tolerance (0.5 to 10, default 2).
• A plain-word note explains each difference, for example darker and slightly greener.
• Useful for touch-up paint, fabric and yarn, printed samples, make-up shades and brand colors.

▶ NAMES AND VALUES
• Everyday color name plus the nearest web (CSS) color name.
• HEX, RGB, HSL, HSV, CMYK and CIE Lab for every color, one tap to copy or share.

▶ PALETTES
• Up to 100 palettes with 40 colors each. Rename, reorder and delete.
• Color harmonies for any swatch: complementary, analogous, triadic, split-complementary and tetradic, plus lighter and darker steps.
• Export a palette as CSV or share it as text.

▶ PRIVATE BY DESIGN
• Photos are analysed on your device. Camera stills are deleted after use. No account needed.

GOOD TO KNOW
• A phone camera is not a measuring instrument. Lighting and screen settings change what you see, and the white card helps but cannot make a camera into a spectrophotometer.
• HEIC photos are not read directly; choose the Most Compatible camera format or send the picture as JPEG or PNG.
• Color names are approximate and paint brand codes are not included.

Recent changes:
• Camera: aim the square at a colour, tap Grab colour, and use Set reference card so new readings are adjusted to the light you are in.
• Match: line up samples against one reference colour, set your Tolerance and see each marked PASS or OFF, closest first.
• Palettes: keep swatches, explore Harmonies and Lighter & darker, then Export CSV.