Colour Picker from Image (Get the Hex Code)
Tap anywhere on a picture to get its exact hex, RGB and HSL code, and pull a palette of the colours that actually dominate it.
Tap or drag anywhere on the picture. The magnifier shows the exact pixel under your finger, so you are not guessing at a boundary.
Sorted by how much of the picture each one covers, not by brightness. Tap any swatch to copy its code.
Copied
Free forever, no sign-up and no limits, and this tool installs on its own so you can keep it on your home screen.
Tap anywhere on a picture and get that exact colour as hex, RGB and HSL, ready to copy. Underneath, a palette of the colours the picture is genuinely made of, each with the share of the image it covers.
How to use it
- Choose a picture, or fiftyA photo, a screenshot, a logo, anything. A batch skips the tapping and gives every picture its own palette.
- Tap the colour you wantDrag to move around. A magnifier follows your finger showing the exact pixel being read, so a boundary is not a guess.
- Copy the codeTap HEX, RGB or HSL to copy it. Palette swatches copy on tap too, and Copy all takes the whole set.
Two different questions about colour
The first is precise: what is that colour, the one in that spot. You are matching a button to a logo, or pulling a brand colour out of a screenshot because nobody can find the brand guidelines. That needs an exact pixel, which is why the magnifier exists: at screen scale a pixel is a fraction of a fingertip, and a colour picked one pixel to the left of a boundary is the wrong colour entirely.
The second is broad: what colours is this picture. You are building a palette from a photograph, or checking that a set of images sit together. That is a different question, and it has a different answer.
Why the palette counts rather than averages
There are two tempting ways to summarise a picture's colour, and both give bad answers. Averaging every pixel returns a muddy brown for almost any photograph, because that is genuinely what the average of a varied image is. Taking the most saturated pixels returns a bright highlight that might be four pixels of reflected sunlight.
Counting is what matches how a person would describe the picture. Every pixel is sorted into a coarse group, the fullest groups win, and each swatch shows the share of the image it covers. A colour that accounts for 30 per cent of a photograph is one you would name if asked; one that accounts for 2 per cent is not, and the number tells you which is which.
Hex, RGB, HSL, and when each is useful
Hex is the currency of design tools and CSS. RGB is the same three numbers written in decimal. HSL is the one worth knowing about: it separates hue from saturation from lightness, so if you have a colour and need a lighter version of the same colour, you change one number instead of guessing at three. All three are given for every pick, and each copies on tap.
What this tool will not do
It does not edit the picture or change any colour in it. It does not convert between colour spaces beyond the three shown, or handle CMYK, which is a print concern and cannot be derived from a screen image without knowing the paper and the press. And it will not tell you a colour's name, because colour names are not standardised in any way that would make the answer worth trusting.
Free forever, with no account, and every tool here installs on its own.
Questions people ask
How do I find the hex code of a colour in a picture?
Drop the picture in and tap the colour. The hex code appears immediately along with RGB and HSL, and tapping the code copies it. On a phone, drag rather than tap and watch the magnifier: it shows the single pixel under your finger, which is much finer than a fingertip.
How accurate is the colour it reads?
For the picked colour it is the exact pixel value, unchanged. One thing worth knowing: photographs are compressed in blocks, so the colours near a sharp edge in a JPEG can differ slightly from what was photographed. That is in the file, not in the reading. A PNG or a screenshot has no such artefacts.
How is the palette worked out?
By counting. Every pixel is sorted into a coarse colour group, the fullest groups win, and each is shown with the share of the picture it covers. That matters because the two obvious alternatives are both wrong: averaging the whole picture gives you mud, and picking the most vivid pixels gives you a highlight nobody would say the picture was made of.
Why does the palette show a colour I cannot see in the picture?
Usually because it covers a lot of area quietly, like a sky that is a slightly different blue at the top than at the bottom, or a shadow that is a distinct colour from the thing casting it. The percentage next to each swatch tells you how much of the picture it accounts for, so a small number means exactly what it looks like.
What is the difference between hex, RGB and HSL?
They describe the same colour three ways. Hex is what design tools and CSS mostly use. RGB is the same numbers in decimal, which some software prefers. HSL splits it into hue, saturation and lightness, which is the useful one when you want a lighter or a more muted version of the same colour, since you can adjust one number and leave the others alone.
Does it work on transparent PNGs?
Yes. Transparent areas are ignored when the palette is worked out, so a logo on a transparent background gives you the logo's colours rather than a palette dominated by nothing.
Can I get palettes for a whole folder at once?
Yes, up to 50. Each picture gets its own row and its own palette, every swatch copies on tap, and Copy every palette takes the lot as a list of filenames and codes, which is the form you want when you are matching a set of images to a design.
Why does a very large photo look smaller in the tool?
It is fitted to the panel for display and read at a capped size, because a 48-megapixel photograph does not need to be held at full size in order to answer a question about colour, and doing so would cost a phone dearly. The colours are unaffected.