Just Color Picker
Quick links: Download, Online Manual, FAQ
Graphic designers, digital artists and web-designers tend to look at things differently. They see the arrangement and colour scheme of things that mere mortals would just take for granted. Anything can be a piece of art or an inspiration, but it takes a discerning eye to really see it sometimes. While taking part in any computer routine, designers may see colours and colour combinations that they would like to use in their projects. With Just Color Picker, identifying the colours, picking, editing and combining them into beautiful colour combinations is a quick and simple job.
Features:
- Five formats of colour values: HTML, RGB, HEX, HSB/HSV, and HSL.
- Averaged colour sampling for handling colour noise easily.
- 3x, 9x and 15x magnifier provides great precision.
- Colour list to save and reuse picked colours.
- User’s comments and notes for each picked colour.
- Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and Red-Yellow-Blue (RYB) colour wheels with marked triads and complementary colours.
- Two harmonious colour finders. With this feature you can quickly find a good combination of colours, for example, for your web site. Simply choose the primary colour of your design, and the colour picker will offer colours harmoniously matching with it.
- RGB and HSV colour editors to adjust and edit picked colours.
- Gradient transition between two latest-picked colours to allow you to pick a colour from a wide range of hues between the chosen colours.
- Optional stay-on-top behaviour.
- User-defined hotkey to capture colour info (Alt+X by default).
- Copying the colour code or its selected part to the clipboard just by one button click.
- Conversion of HTML, HEX or RGB colour codes into corresponding colours.
- No installation required. Just Color Picker is a portable application and can be run directly from a USB stick.
- Multilingual interface: Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Taiwanese, Thai and Turkish.
Supported platforms: Windows 2000, Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista 32 bit & 64 bit, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 32 bit & 64 bit.
Portable software, no installation required.
License: the best – freeware.
Latest version: 2.6 (1 September 2011).
What’s new: full red-green-blue (RGB) and red-yellow-blue (RYB) colour wheels with user-defined number of colours can be created for each picked colour.
Minor updates of version 2.6:
9 September 2011. Colour wheel windows have been changed slightly: now they can be minimised and raised again, which, besides some extra convenience in working with multiple colour wheels, adds the means of redrawing the colour circles if required.
7 November 2011. Japanese interface has been added, Taiwanese translation updated.
Download free Just Color Picker 2.6 (EXE), size 419 KB
Download free Just Color Picker 2.6 (ZIP), size 399 KB
Please contact the author if you have any questions. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
1 November 2009: Just Color Picker became Unicode, so all the languages should now be displayed correctly. If some parts of the interface are not displayed in your language, it means the translation is old or incomplete. You can correct or complete the existing translations; your help is always appreciated.
Please note, earlier versions of Windows do not support Unicode, so if you use Windows 95, 98, ME or NT, you should download non-Unicode version 2.1:
Download Just Color Picker 2.1 (EXE), size 286 KB
Download Just Color Picker 2.1 (ZIP), size 267 KB
Online Manual
Download a copy of online manual (PDF) | Manual en Español - Spanish Manual for Just Color Picker 2.5 (PDF)
Main window (Compact mode)
Just Color Picker is a tool that captures the colour of any pixel in any screen area and displays its code in a variety of formats: HTML, RGB, HEX, HSB/HSV and HSL.
To pick a colour and its code, choose the desired format in the colour code formats list, then point the mouse cursor at the pixel/area and press the hotkey to capture this colour. The default hotkey combination is Alt+X.
To copy the code of the colour to the clipboard, click the Copy Value button. The Copy Value button copies the whole content of the colour code field or its selected part if you selected a part of the code with the mouse cursor beforehand.
Colour list
All the colours you have picked since you launched the program are displayed in the colour list.
To select a colour from the list, simply click the colour line in the list and the colour will become active and its colour code will be displayed in the colour code field ready to be copied or edited. A right-click on a colour line will allow you to copy the code of the colour to clipboard, add/edit a comment for the colour in the list, or delete the colour from the list. You can also delete a colour from the list by left-clicking it and then pressing the Delete key.
Main window extension (Extended mode)
The button with up/down arrows expands the program window and opens the RGB/HSV colour editor, gradient and harmonious colour finder.
The RGB/HSV colour editor contains the latest picked colour or the selected colour, which you can modify and then pick the resulting colour for your further needs. Use the RGB mode to change red, green or blue components of the colour. Switch to HSV mode if you need to change the colour’s hue, saturation or value.
Two harmonious colour finders (contrasting and similar) suggest six colours that may be a good combination with the picked, selected or edited colour. The colour finders are a suggestion, a guide, while the final choice of harmonious colours is up to you, your creativity and your taste.
The gradient feature provides you with a wide range of nuances and gradations between the two latest-picked or selected colours, in case if you need to pick something in-between.
Code-to-Colour conversion
For the inverse process of conversion of colour codes into corresponding colours, enter the colour code into the colour code field and press Enter. The colour will appear in the colour list and its code will be shown in the colour code field, in exactly the same way as if you picked it with the mouse from your screen.
Just Color Picker can convert HTML, HEX and RGB codes into colours:
- To convert an HTML code, enter the six-character colour code with or without the preceding # symbol and press Enter.
- To convert a HEX code, enter the six-character colour code with or without the preceding 0x symbols and press Enter.
- To convert an RGB code, enter the three digital parts of the colour code (from 0 to 255) separating the parts with commas and/or spaces and press Enter.
If Just Color Picker does not display the colour after you pressed Enter, it means the colour code has been entered incorrectly. Correct the input and press Enter again.
Main menu
Options
There is 3x, 9x and 15x zoom of the mouse cursor area. Use the Zoom menu item to change zoom magnification or to switch it off.
Colour Sample Area menu item offers an option for picking either the exact colour of a single pixel, or an average colour value of either 3 by 3 or 5 by 5 pixel area with the pointed pixel in the centre of the area. When the 3 by 3 Average or 5 by 5 Average option is chosen, a grey rectangle bounding the averaged area and a “3x3 Avg” or “5x5 Avg” label will appear in the zoom field.
Enabling the Stay on Top feature will keep Just Color Picker window over all other programs until you close or minimize it.
To change the hotkey, go to the Hotkey menu item. Select a new hotkey combination by pressing the keys (will be displayed in the window), then click OK. Be careful: do not choose a combination that is already assigned to another program, as the combinations will clash and may not work correctly in either of the programs.
Show # in HTML code option shows or hides the hash symbol in HTML colour codes.
Colour Wheels
The Colour Wheels menu contains items for displaying RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and RYB (Red, Yellow, Blue) colour wheels for the latest picked or selected colour. The colour wheels have the selected colour, triads and complementary colours marked, and contain as many colours as the user defined in the Number of Colours option. You can open any number of wheel windows to compare the colours. Please note that white, black and shades of neutral grey do not have saturation, and, therefore, they cannot be used to generate a corresponding colour wheel.
RGB colour circle can be used for finding harmonious colour combinations within additive colour model and digital output devices like computer screens. RYB colour circle is used for working with colour mixing and colour harmony in subtractive colour model, which is a classical theory of colour vision and pigment mixing still widely implemented in fine art, particularly in painting, and design.
Colour List
If you want to keep the list of picked colours after you close Just Color Picker or need the chosen colours for a future use, use the Save As menu item to save the colour list to a file, and the Open menu item to load it back later. The Clear All command clears the list.
Colour code formats
HTML, HEX and RGB colour codes consist of three parts that define the combination of Red, Green and Blue colour values. The first two characters of HTML/HEX code (or the first number of RGB code) define the red component, the next two characters (or the second number) define the green component, and the last characters/number define blue. The value of each part of the colour code can vary from 00 to FF for HTML/HEX, from 0 to 255 for RGB, and from 0 to 1 for RGB [0,1].
HSB/HSV. The HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) or HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) colour code defines a colour in terms of three components:
- Hue (H) is the name by which colours are distinguished, such as red or yellow. Hue ranges from 0 to 360 degree, with red at 0 degree, green at 120 degree, blue at 240 degree and so on.
- Saturation (S) is the purity of a colour. The lower the saturation of a colour, the more grey, faded and dull the colour looks. The higher the saturation, the purer, brighter and more intense the colour appears. Saturation ranges from 0 to 100%.
- Brightness (B)/Value (V) of a colour refers to its lightness or darkness. As this component is called Brightness sometimes, it makes it a bit confusing with Saturation. Value ranges from 0 to 100%.
Some applications use different ranges of the components. For example, S and V/B can vary from 0 to 1, H may be normalized to 0–100%, or all three components can vary from 0 to 255. Just Color Picker uses the “degree, percent, percent” notation.
HSL. The Hue, Saturation, Lightness (Luminance) code is similar to HSB/HSV. The main difference is that L is a linear parameter while B/V is a non-linear one. Just Color Picker sets the value of every HSL parameter from 0 to 255, and from 0 to 240 for every parameter in HSL(Win).
If your application requires a parameter in 0–1.0 range while Just Color Picker shows it in the 0–100% range, you can easily convert one to another: e.g. 73% = 0.73.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. I press the default hotkey combination (Alt+X), but the Color Picker doesn’t pick the colour.
Sometimes the hotkey combination may be already assigned to another application installed on your computer. To fix the problem, simply choose a different hotkey combination in the Color Picker’s Options menu.
2. When I run Just Color Picker from my USB stick, it creates jcpicker.ini file. What is it?
Just Color Picker recognizes when it is run from a portable device and creates jcpicker.ini file that contains all its settings. It saves you tuning of Just Color Picker every time you run it on a new computer from a portable device.
When you run Just Color Picker from your computer’s disk, it does not create the settings file, because all the settings are saved on that computer in this case.
3. How to uninstall Just Color Picker? I can’t find it in the list of installed programs.
Just Color Picker is a portable software and, therefore doesn’t need to be installed or uninstalled. To start using Just Color Picker, simply download the jcpicker.exe file and run it: nothing is being installed, and this is why Just Color Picker doesn’t appear in the list of installed software. To delete Just Color Picker from your computer, just delete the jcpicker.exe file.
More thorough users may also like to delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AnnyStudio\ColorPicker registry key, if they didn’t run Just Color Picker from a portable device.
4. May Just Color Picker be used in a process of creation of commercial products (in a professional design studio, for example)?
Yes. You may use Just Color Picker wherever you like. The only condition is that the program should not be modified or used in malicious activities.
5. We would like to publish a note about your software in a magazine/ include your software into cover CD/ publish on a web-site/ etc and want to ask your permission.
You may give this software to your friends, burn it onto CD-ROMs or other media, include it onto cover CDs, publish notes in magazines and upload it to software archives without asking author’s permission. Any web links to the author’s website are appreciated. Thank you for making Just Color Picker more popular. Also you are very welcome to send me a link to or a copy of the publication.
As long as the program file remains unmodified and is not used in malicious activities, Just Color Picker has no limits on its usage and distribution.
6. What is the relation between Anry Color Picker, TakeColor and Just Color Picker? They look quite similar.
These are different names of the same Color Picker created by the same person. The program changed its name with time as well as new features were added. It was TakeColor in 2003–2005, Anry Color Picker in 2005–2007, and it became Just Color Picker in 2007 along with changing its location to annystudio.com.
7. I like your free software. What can I do for you?
A happy user is already a sufficient reward for me, however, if you have 15–20 minutes of free time, you can make Just Color Picker better for some users by translating its interface to your native language, or by correcting/completing the existing translations.
Just Color Picker has Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Taiwanese, Thai and Turkish interfaces at the moment. Some of these translations need to be updated and completed. Also, I would also be glad to add new languages.
To translate the interface, you need to download the zip-archive with language text file and translate the words and sentences after the “=” signs in each line. After that, save the text file as UTF-8 and send it to me via the form at the Contacts page. Please contact me if you have any questions regarding translation.
Also, if you wish, you can make a PayPal donation.
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Download3K.com has downloaded from annystudio.com and tested Just Color Picker, JPEG Lossless Rotator and Domino Solitaire with 4 of the best antivirus engines available today and found the software to be clean of any form of badware (viruses, spyware, adware, etc.)
Softpedia.com guarantees that Just Color Picker and JPEG Lossless Rotator, when downloaded from annystudio.com, are 100% Clean, which means they do not contain any form of malware, including but not limited to: spyware, viruses, trojans and backdoors. These software products were tested thoroughly and were found absolutely clean; therefore, they can be installed with no concern by any computer user.
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