Pick colors from anywhere on your Mac screen
Color Picker reads the color of any pixel you click, and shows its hex value and an estimated brightness in nits beside the cursor. It is free in Phosphor for Mac.
Get Phosphor for MacHow to turn it on
Use the Color Picker button in the menu bar, or press the hotkey. There is no toggle, because the tool runs only while you are sampling.
A left click samples the pixel. A right click or Escape cancels, and so does pressing the hotkey again.
What you can change
Nothing. Color Picker has no settings. After a sample, the Color Picker card on the Features tab shows the last one with its hex value, RGB values and estimated nits. The last 20 samples are kept in memory only.
Hotkey
Control+Option+Command+C. This hotkey is fixed, and the app has no screen for changing it.
Permissions
Screen Recording, which lets it read the pixel under your cursor. It does not need Accessibility.
Good to know
- It starts on the display that holds the cursor and samples the display under the cursor when you click.
- Nits are an estimate, worked out from your screen brightness setting and the peak brightness of the panel.
- It does not copy the color to the clipboard.
- It works the same in Free and in Pro.
Phosphor for Mac is free to download. Add Pro when you want it.
Download or get Pro