Just Color Picker is a small free tool that allows anyone to capture colors from anywhere on the screen, providing their color codes in multiple formats. The program can be especially useful to professional designers and artists, albeit it can easily be used by any amateur.
Installation & Requirements
Just Color Picker is portable so no installation is needed. The application runs on Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, 7 and 8. Moreover, an older version of Just Color Picker (2.1) is available for individuals that still use older versions of Windows, namely 95, 98, ME and NT.
Interface
Just Color Picker has a really simple interface. It displays the current color and a magnified area around the cursor to help users easily capture the color they want. The capture action is hotkey-enabled (Alt+X) and all captured colors are shown as a list. Just Color Picker can display various color code formats, namely HTML, RGB, HEX, HSB/HSV and HSL. The Color Editor and Harmonious Color Finder offer RGB and HSV color adjustments, gradient transition between the two last picked colors , one set of contrasting colors and one with similar colors.
Useful settings are available in the Options menu such as changing the zoom level, size of the color sample area and the hotkey. From a designer’s perspective, but not only, the Tools can come in handy very often. This menu provides RGB and RYB color wheels with selectable number of colors and a Text tool that lets users see how a text with a specific font, size and color looks on a specific background.
From the Color List menu, the list of currently captured colors can be saved, opened or deleted. While Just Color Picker is really easy to use, the Help menu offers a link straight to the developer’s website where a detailed manual and a FAQ are available.
Pros
– Portable, small utility.
– Allows capturing multiple colors and saving them as a list.
– Various color code formats are offered including HTML, RGB, HEX, HSB/HSV and HSL.
– The Text tool allows users to assess the looks and readability of a text/background color combination.
– Other useful tools are available for color adjustments and for finding eye-pleasing combinations of colors.
Cons
– None worth mentioning.
Conclusion
Just Color Picker makes capturing any color from the computer screen very easy, but it’s not just a color picker. Other tools allow professionals and even users with less art skills to modify picked colors and find attractive color combinations.
