ColorPic
Rating: 5
pick
Version tested: 4.1
ColorPic is a free app that allows you to pick any color from the screen and displays its code in HEX and decmial. It features a versatile color mixer and the ability to create and save color palettes. It also offers a number of others functions such as a customizable magnification area and the ability to snap to the nearest websafe color.
Most people working with websites and/or with design will invariably need a “color picker” program that can identify the color code of any pixel on screen. There are many such free programs, but of all that I have tried ColorPic is by far the best. Here’s what I like about it:
- Allows you to store captured colors inside pallets which you can come back to later (to the tune of 16 colors per pallet). You can create as many of these as you like.
- Snap to nearest websafe color: once you grab your color a little “websnap” button will appear close to its code on the ColorPic interface. Clicking on this will snap to the nearest websafe color. Very cool.
- Magnifier: this is available as part of the ColorPic interface. You can increase/decrease magnification or overlay a grid.
- Color mixer: click a tab in order to switch between the 4 nifty color mixer tools that are available.
- I like that you do not select your desired color using the mouse button; this means you can run ColorPic then go in and out of windows/pages until you find the color you want. Once found you can use the mouse or you can use hotkeys to capture it (use alt-tab to get back into ColorPic, F1-F12 to pick one of the available color slots, and CTRL-G to grab it).
There are many freeware color-picker programs around; I’ve tried a number of these from tiny, minimal programs to feature laden and top-heavy ones. What I like about ColorPic is that it manages to pack a very nice set of features into a very small app that uses just over 1 meg of memory.
Compatibility: Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, Me, XP, Vista (make sure to download the correct version for your OS).
Go to the program page to get the latest version (approx 579K).
[...] Windows only: Freeware application ColorPic is a simple but powerful utility for designers that determines the HEX and decimal code of onscreen colors and manages color palettes for broad design or web-safe color use. Not only is ColorPic strong on features and simple to use—it’s also very light on system resources (which is a nice bonus if you’re used to having system-heavy image editing programs open). Another nice aspect of ColorPic is that it doesn’t grab colors based on mouse-clicks, but rather through the keyboard, meaning you can still interact with open windows while you’re looking for that perfect color. ColorPic is a free download, Windows only. On the other hand, if you don’t need a full-fledged color picker, here’s how you can grab colors from anywhere on your desktop with Photoshop. ColorPic [via FreewareGenius] [...]
[...] Featured Windows Download: Build a good color palette with ColorPic Technology July 30th, 2007 Windows only: Freeware application ColorPic is a simple but powerful utility for designers that determines the HEX and decimal code of onscreen colors and manages color palettes for broad design or web-safe color use. Not only is ColorPic strong on features and simple to use—it’s also very light on system resources (which is a nice bonus if you’re used to having system-heavy image editing programs open). Another nice aspect of ColorPic is that it doesn’t grab colors based on mouse-clicks, but rather through the keyboard, meaning you can still interact with open windows while you’re looking for that perfect color. ColorPic is a free download, Windows only. On the other hand, if you don’t need a full-fledged color picker, here’s how you can grab colors from anywhere on your desktop with Photoshop. ColorPic [via FreewareGenius] [...]
Its good
It says “Couldn’t read TOC. Aborting” whenever I try to downlaod it HELP! Email me @ banana.cream@hotmail.com
A handy little app. Works flawlessly for what I need.
Thanks