gizmodo.com: Check the camera roll on any designer’s smartphone and you’ll find hundreds of random images they snapped for inspiration or because they simply liked a color. But it’s not the best tool for the job. A dedicated color detector is far more accurate, and with Datacolor’s new ColorReader EZ, it’s no longer an obscenely expensive tool accessible to only professional designers.
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I decided to check out this article because I am always inspired by the ways we can make tools in design more affordable, and therefore more accessible. I have been interested in having Pantone swatch cards in my kit for a while now, but their hefty price tags always left me putting off the task. Investing in all of these supplies are stressful for new artists, so instead I filled my kit with paint swatches from Lowes at the advice of Susan. This tool, priced at $85 dollars allows artists and smaller theatres the ability to match colors at an easier price point- as compared to their $250 model. $85 may still turn some young professionals away, but it is a good first step from this company to sell something that will help people get the tools they need at a price point that allows room for growth.
I really had no idea any device like this existed because I have never found a time in my life when I would have ever wanted this. And I can’t say I think there will ever be a time that I have ever wanted this, but I did think this article was very interesting, and I do definitely recognize how a tool like this will be helpful and necessary for designers and artists. I think it is exciting that this company has developed a much less expensive option to their other design because this will allow artists and designers who don’t have the funds to still have resources to be the best artist they can be. I see this cheaper option being a very good tool for early professionals because I think the color matching can be super important for some projects so having this resource will help early-career professionals build their business and reach a point where they can afford the more expensive and more accurate tool the company makes.
I am not one who would really need this product, so I think that something that is most exciting about it to me is the accessibility. The fact that the price has been brought down enough that it can support artists who may not have the means to have the expensive version or the ability to carry around and sort through hundreds of paint swatches all the time. I think that $85 can still be out of reach for many, but the significant price decrease from the $250 models is a really great step. This cheaper tool could also be really useful for new artists who are not as comfortable in their own ability to generate their own colors to start to gain command of that skill. I really want to get my hands on one because honestly I am so curious about the accuracy of this tool and how well it can transfer to different programs.
I came to because I never really had thought about having a color picker as a tool in one’s tool box before. Most artist I’ve meet always mix their own paints but I guess products like this maybe come more from home interior designers. In that industry I feel like the color picking is seen less as an art and more exact science. That being said I could see this kind of product especially at the reduced price being used in the entertainment industry. I really could see it being used by other parts of our industry as well l not just artists but perhaps more technically minded individuals like myself or perhaps like Emma said above less experienced artists who want some reassurance. The interesting thing to me in further research is looking at certain color pickers that companies like Sherwin Williams gives out for free for a phone and how they would perform compared to a product like this.
The first thing that caught my eye about this was the title of the article saying “starving artists” and “cheap” so naturally I had to read more about it. I’ve seen other devices somewhat similar to this one that could detect colors as well but like the article says they’ve all been pretty expensive. I think the biggest benefit of the ColorReader EZ would be saving time on figuring out the colors since paint mixing can sometimes take a fair bit of time. But while I think this tool could be useful to some people, I don’t think $59 is worth it for me. That much money can buy a lot more art supplies like paints, markers, etc. and ultimately I would rather spend my money on those than something like this; maybe if it was closer to $20 I may consider. I also think that knowing how to mix and/ or adjust colors on your own is a valuable skill that you learn through experience figuring out lighting, time of day, etc. and not just clicking a button - but maybe that’s just me being stubborn..
As an individual with colorblindness, a color picking tool like this would be great to have at my disposal! There are really exciting implications for accessibility with an affordability color picker. However, I am not convinced that this is a tool I especially need. Further, the title is very clickbait-y, which really turns me off. A 'starving artist' is a pretty harmful trope insofar as it creates the expectation that many artists cannot truly make a living by creating art. Further, a lot more 'critical' art supplies can be bought for the same price point, as Ari mentioned. Ignoring that, though, they do have a pretty impressive cost to quality ratio, especially at a price point of $59 vs the multiple hundreds of dollars that most competitors' products would put one back. Having learned of Rosco's LED swatch book earlier this week, I am interested in seeing whether digital / electronic devices like these will catch on in the coming years.
This seems like such a great and useful tool to have especially for the price point. Just recently, I wanted to paint my nightstand to match a color on my rug. I took multiple photos of it with different lighting and picked up a handful of paint swatches. I thought I found one that really worked. It looked almost identical to the rug, so I painted the entire nightstand only to hate it in the morning. The lighting, which I thought I had accounted for, completely changed it. I wish I had that tool! It’s really cool that technology like this is becoming more accessible. There’s no way I would even consider buying the $250 version because I wouldn’t use it enough to get my money's worth. This $59 one makes more sense for people like me, although I would still be hesitant to make the purchase. While the price can still seem expensive, I understand it's an investment.
When I first read "Starving Artists and Design Students Can Afford This Cheap but Accurate Real-Life Color Picker", I thought it meant that during this time of covid, while artists are starving for work and to keep a living, can still afford this gadget. But upon reading it I quickly realized that this was not what the article was about, which is kind of a fresh air as many entertainment articles are just about how one company is failing to survive or how another needs more funding. However I do not like the misleading hook, and the writer should have thought about the current climate for artists before making it that title.
Anyways, I think that this color picker is a useful and cool gadget to use! They give an example about an apple, and when you think about it apples come in various shades, multicolored, and saying apple red just won't communicate what color you want. Being able to convert color you see to the hex code is very useful, as it allows us to convert the colors we want into a digital and accurate form. I also appreciate how it can even match to paint colors and specific brands, so you get exactly what you want. I think $59 is quite expensive, but for serious artists I think this could be very useful and worth it. However, I do not believe their more advanced ColorReader Pro at $249 is worth a cent. That is definitely over priced and I do not think anyone needs to know the digital pigment of a color that bad. I would rather do my best at manually picking. Also, as technology advances in a few years this device will be much more affordable and cheap. I think artists who are interested should wait two years or so for the prices to drop before purchasing this gadget.
While this device is incredibly intriguing, and looks like a very fun addition to a design classroom, I want to first comment on the solemn title of this article. What world do we live in where acknowledging that artists aren’t making enough income to survive and teenagers accrue hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt is the headline for an article about a neat little color device? I would much rather see people actively trying to combat those issues instead of working under capitalism to create cheap materials for these artists and students to keep working- and only work, spend their money on these materials, and not make enough income (if any) to support themselves, thus going into even more debt. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m actually really glad I found this article, as this looks like a nice addition to an artist’s bin of materials. I’m thinking about buying this device for my little sister, who loves to create digital art and sell stickers online. This way, she doesn’t have to agonize over color-matching the things she wants to draw.
This is new added to my Christmas list!! As a future scenic designer/painter, it’s super important that you get the color that you want because if it’s just a little too dark or a little too green then it’ll change the mood of The whole show. It’s also very difficult to find the exact shade that you are imagining by just looking at paint swatches. I once bought a huge Sherman Williams catalog with hundreds of pages of color. It’s honestly pretty overwhelmingly when you have like 20 blues that could work. It’s a lot easier to find the color you want while in the research phase and then scan it and itll give you the most accurate paint color. I felt pretty called out when the author said: “Check the camera roll on any designer’s smartphone and you’ll find hundreds of random images they snapped for inspiration or because they simply liked a color” because I have so many random pictures that might help me with inspiration on a future project. I definitely think I need this.
Wow! I think I’ve seen something like this circulate around the internet when I was in middle school, but I didn’t know it was an actual product! I think this product is really useful, especially as a scenic designer, but also for lighting designers as well to get that perfect color. I think color is really interesting because it can affect the mood so much. I also like that (for the most part) it is at a pretty accessible price. I love it when new tech comes out for creatives because it just helps us make our visions more accurately on the stage. Also I thought it was interesting to see the observations other commenters made. I thought that for those who cannot see color well or are color blind, this kind of tool might be incredibly helpful. It allows them to pick out colors on things they want to emulate (green grass, hospital white walls, natural wood) even if they can’t see it well. It also probably helps someone like me who isn’t very deft with colors.
This is such a cool thing to have. I would love to have it. To be able to easily color match literally anything that you come across during your day to day life would be so stinking cool. It would make doing paintings easier for sure. And the price is not that bad either, $59 is rather affordable for the most part. It might be a little expensive for someone who does not paint or design for a living but if you are going into that type of stuff this is such a good price. And the fact that it syncs up to apple and android devices is also very cool. That and the fact that it also gives you the closest shades of Sherwin-Williams paint colors could be an absolute lifesaver if you are looking for a very specific color. All it comes down to then is if it works well or not.
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