
Color Snapper: "The missing color picker for Mac OS X" - nicksergeant
http://colorsnapper.com/
======
efields
Hm… Digital Color Meter lives in /Applications/Utilities and works pretty much
the same way. Cmd-Shift-C to copy to clipboard.

EDIT: Also, DCM lets you adjust the size of the loupe, which is handy for
getting the aggregate when there's a slight variation in pixels (grain
textures and the like)

~~~
armandososa
Wow I didn't know DCM existed. Thanks for saving me 3.99 and --more important
for me-- precious menubar real estate

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bradleyland
Cool little utility, but €3.99 works out to US$5.50 for me. OS X includes the
DigitalColor Meter app by default, which -- as far as I can tell -- has most
of the functionality shown here. From what I can tell, the advantages include
a global keyboard shortcut and a menubar item, rather than an app window. Can
you tell us if there is any other significant difference?

~~~
stevelosh
I bought this app. Here's why it's better than DigitalColor Meter:

* The ability to have a global shortcut to activate it, and it hides nicely in the menu bar when you don't need it.

* The magnification loupe follows your cursor, so you don't have to keep swinging your head back and forth to see where you are.

* You can adjust the size of the loupe.

* You can set two formats for color copying, and use one with Cmd+C and the other with Cmd+Opt+C.

* It keeps a history of colors you've copied.

* It works properly when you screen zoom with Ctrl+Mousewheel.

~~~
pak
#3 is allowed by DCM. Besides #2 and #6, all of those other features could
probably be layered onto DCM with FastScripts (free for up to 10 global
hotkeys, <http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/>) and some trivial little
AppleScripts, certainly nothing that couldn't be done in half an hour by
anybody reading this site.

I think $5.50 is overkill for a system utility with some trivial extra
shortcuts and visual enhancements.

EDIT: re #3, you can change the magnification of the loupe, not its literal
size on the screen.

~~~
jacobolus
$5.50 is the price of 2 coffees, or one beer. If you use it all the time, a
simple app is certainly worth that kind of money. If you dump it in a drawer
somewhere to collect dust, maybe not.

~~~
bioinformatics
It costs more than XCode 4 and I saw some people here complaining about having
to pay 5 bucks for it. Just sayin'.

~~~
jonknee
Color Snapper isn't required to make Mac apps and hasn't been free for the
better part of 10 years (more if you count the Project Builder era).

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netghost
On a related note, for anyone using TextMate, try hitting Cmd-Shift-C while
editing css. It will popup a color picker right there for you. Really handy.

~~~
emehrkay
I love textmate. Thanks for this tip. There were times where I opened up
photoshop just for the color picker!

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DTrejo
Colors by Matt Patenaude is my favorite color picker [it's free!].

<http://mattpatenaude.com/>

Supports these formats: <http://grab.by/9tc3> and also copies to your
clipboard with a button <http://grab.by/9tcg>.

~~~
stevelosh
I tried Colors for a while (and Pochade, and others), and the part they all
suck at is the loupe. They all use that horrible, tiny, OS X default color
picker. It barely magnifies things at all, and half the time the mouse pointer
is still inside which makes it even harder to use.

This app's loupe is pointer-free and customizably large. It's fantastic!

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jp
Windows and Linux users can try this one (color logic was done by smarter
people than me btw): <http://teppefall.com/products/colorspace>

I know that the OS X build crashes. People complain about upgrades even when
they are not paying.

~~~
glenjamin
I've always used <http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.php> on windows.

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bugsy
I've been using iColors which is a standalone system color picker -
<http://www.fadingred.com/icolors/>

I use it in conjunction with various plugins to said system color picker such
as <http://wafflesoftware.net/hexpicker/> and
<http://lithoglyph.com/mondrianum/>. It is very nice that the OS X system
color picker supports adding plugins to /Library/ColorPickers because then you
have support for new color picker panels in every program that uses the System
Color Picker.

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guywithabike
Might want to hold off buying this until they fix the segfault:

    
    
        3/14/11 1:56:33 PM	com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[255]	([0x0-0x428428].com.koolesache.ColorSnapper[26028]) Job appears to have crashed: Segmentation fault
    

As it stands, I can't launch it at all.

~~~
elliotlarson
Yeah, bummer. I just contacted support about this. Apparently they gave Apple
the fix last week but are waiting for them to approve the update. If you're
interested in this, hold off for a couple of days.

~~~
drivingmenuts
Having to wait on Apple sounds like a distinct disadvantage. That alone will
keep me out of the app store.

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modality
You can also make your own with the standard Mac color picker. Open up
AppleScript Editor, and type this:

    
    
        choose color
    

From there, File -> Save As, and choose the "Application" file format. Done!

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JCB_K
Looks good - might be an idea to include the price on your page though.

~~~
beck5
Can be an issue with multiple countries, app store website shows €4 but I just
paid £3 for it.

I look forward to using it.

Edit - Can't actually get it to stay open for more than 4 seconds. Im running
10.6.6.

problem with the app store no try before you buy ;)

Edit 2 - Seems to work now I launched it from my applications folder rather
than the doc where the app store put it.....

~~~
terinjokes
Off-topic (somewhat) but related to your Edit 2, anyone know if it's possible
to disable the "install to dock" functionally of the App Store? I only have
applications I want on the dock.

~~~
guywithabike
It is not easily possible. Just drag them off the dock after they're
installed.

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dchest
Alternative - Developer Color Picker (plugin for the standard OS X color
picker) <http://www.panic.com/~wade/picker/>

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upinsmoke
Use Spot Color + Developer Color Picker + Hex Color Picker!

<http://zachwaugh.com/spotcolor/> <http://www.panic.com/~wade/picker/>
<http://wafflesoftware.net/hexpicker/>

All free plugins using Mac OS X Color Picker.

~~~
bugsy
It looks like SpotColor has been withdrawn as a free app and is now $5 at the
App Store as well.

I recommend checking out iColors which I've been using for years and has the
same functionality - <http://www.fadingred.com/icolors/>

~~~
upinsmoke
Fork it here. <https://github.com/0xced/SpotColor>

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jcampbell1
The biggest problem with the built in color meter, is that it puts the '#' in
front of the hex color when copying to the keyboard. This makes it impossible
to paste in applications that are expecting no more than 6 characters. e.g.
#[______] then when you paste you get #[#28382]

I switched to colibri for this reason. Does this application suffer the same
drawback?

~~~
stevelosh
Right now, yes. Myself and several others have tweeted at the developer about
it, so hopefully they'll listen and add it. I can't imagine it would be
difficult to add to the list of formats.

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gandalfar
Here's a free Hex Color Picker that 'works for me' -
<http://wafflesoftware.net/hexpicker/>

I run it through Alfred - cmd+space -> type "color picker" and it's in the
selected pane.

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jrockway
You know something is a bubble when people will pay $5 for xmag.

