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Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Get the hex code of any color on your Mac screen with Digital Color Meter
boingboing.net: I recently learned that Macs have a neat little utility to get the color number of any color on the display. It's called Digital Color Meter. When you open it, a window pops up showing the color value at your cursor's location.
This is really cool! I think awareness of this feature could really help people deal with the differences in their monitors' color display. Currently, it can be difficult to come to a consensus about colors over digital means due to the slight variations in how color is displayed. If more people used this tool to find hex codes, it could simplify the process of agreeing on color. This does not fully fix the problem however, as a hex code may still display slightly differently depending on monitor settings. But a lack of complete solution does not make a tool less valuable for its purpose. It could be especially useful for scenic and costume artists who may want to draw colors from pieces of art or other famous inspiration. A costume inspired by the girl with the pearl earring may benefit from understanding the exact hex code of the girls headscarf.
Well, it's not that hidden of a tool. I think I’ve spent a slightly concerning amount of time just scrolling around on the mac color picker just looking at all the colors. I really like that it has this feature where you can change how many pixels it is looking at so it can essentially average out a color that you like rather than having to pick a specific color like other color pickers tend to do. I have found that some of the RGB values it spits out give slightly different outputs in different programs. I don't know if that is an apple problem, or a problem in other softwares, but it is a fun time to collect good colors, and this tool makes it easy. Though embarrassingly though ive been using this tool for some amount of years at this point, I didn't know you could lock the color. So that was a helpful discovery.
This is a really cool tool on the Mac! If I want to find a color's hex code, I've always had to save the photo, import it in ProCreate, and use the eyedropper tool to select that color. This feels like a much faster way to do it, and is useful since ProCreate doesn't exist on the computer. This is a super useful tool for artists, especially when you are collaborating with others. It creates a pathway for shared language through hex codes, which is more helpful than looking at a color on a screen since different screens will display colors differently. It would be a cool add on if the color picker could also tell you the closet Pantone color to the color you are selecting. Almost every manufacturer uses Pantone, so it would be a helpful resource for product designers and small businesses looking to expand.
Well, when I clicked into this article, I was expecting a full on new feature for Mac, but it is just something that I already knew a long time ago. I always knew the color picker was a thing, and I usually use it to find the color that I want. This article barely talks about anything except the fact that they used the color picker to pick that specific yellow-green from Kirchner's Three Nudes in the Forest (1933). When I want to access this tool, I open the Notes app, go to font, and change color, and a color picker shows up. That is where the color picker is, and honestly it is a pretty great tool for letting users pick whatever color they want on the whole screen. Usually with a color picker you can only pick within the app, but this one lets you literally pick any color that is currently on the screen. I really wish this article had more nuance, and that the writer could tell us why they wanted that specific color and how they used it later.
Here’s the thing… This feature is cool and all but is ultimately unhelpful. Yes, when you open it a window pops up showing you the Hex and RGB codes where your cursor is BUT if you move your cursor the color picker moves with it. What I mean to say is say you want to get the hex code from an image to copy into a google sheet. You put your cursor over the image. Great, you have it! WRONG. Because when you go to copy the hex code YOU MOVED YOUR CURSOR. It’s no longer showing you the hex code you want but the hex code of the grey pop up window. Because of this this tool is ultimately un helpful. I’ve resorted to taking screenshots of the pop up window to then copy the hex codes from the photo. Which is way too many extra steps than should be needed. What the tool needs to include is some short of capture feature that saves the hex code you are selecting. For instance, when you press down on your cursor it saves the hex code or when you press the space bar.
5 comments:
This is really cool! I think awareness of this feature could really help people deal with the differences in their monitors' color display. Currently, it can be difficult to come to a consensus about colors over digital means due to the slight variations in how color is displayed. If more people used this tool to find hex codes, it could simplify the process of agreeing on color. This does not fully fix the problem however, as a hex code may still display slightly differently depending on monitor settings. But a lack of complete solution does not make a tool less valuable for its purpose. It could be especially useful for scenic and costume artists who may want to draw colors from pieces of art or other famous inspiration. A costume inspired by the girl with the pearl earring may benefit from understanding the exact hex code of the girls headscarf.
Well, it's not that hidden of a tool. I think I’ve spent a slightly concerning amount of time just scrolling around on the mac color picker just looking at all the colors. I really like that it has this feature where you can change how many pixels it is looking at so it can essentially average out a color that you like rather than having to pick a specific color like other color pickers tend to do. I have found that some of the RGB values it spits out give slightly different outputs in different programs. I don't know if that is an apple problem, or a problem in other softwares, but it is a fun time to collect good colors, and this tool makes it easy. Though embarrassingly though ive been using this tool for some amount of years at this point, I didn't know you could lock the color. So that was a helpful discovery.
This is a really cool tool on the Mac! If I want to find a color's hex code, I've always had to save the photo, import it in ProCreate, and use the eyedropper tool to select that color. This feels like a much faster way to do it, and is useful since ProCreate doesn't exist on the computer. This is a super useful tool for artists, especially when you are collaborating with others. It creates a pathway for shared language through hex codes, which is more helpful than looking at a color on a screen since different screens will display colors differently. It would be a cool add on if the color picker could also tell you the closet Pantone color to the color you are selecting. Almost every manufacturer uses Pantone, so it would be a helpful resource for product designers and small businesses looking to expand.
Well, when I clicked into this article, I was expecting a full on new feature for Mac, but it is just something that I already knew a long time ago. I always knew the color picker was a thing, and I usually use it to find the color that I want. This article barely talks about anything except the fact that they used the color picker to pick that specific yellow-green from Kirchner's Three Nudes in the Forest (1933). When I want to access this tool, I open the Notes app, go to font, and change color, and a color picker shows up. That is where the color picker is, and honestly it is a pretty great tool for letting users pick whatever color they want on the whole screen. Usually with a color picker you can only pick within the app, but this one lets you literally pick any color that is currently on the screen. I really wish this article had more nuance, and that the writer could tell us why they wanted that specific color and how they used it later.
Here’s the thing… This feature is cool and all but is ultimately unhelpful. Yes, when you open it a window pops up showing you the Hex and RGB codes where your cursor is BUT if you move your cursor the color picker moves with it. What I mean to say is say you want to get the hex code from an image to copy into a google sheet. You put your cursor over the image. Great, you have it! WRONG. Because when you go to copy the hex code YOU MOVED YOUR CURSOR. It’s no longer showing you the hex code you want but the hex code of the grey pop up window. Because of this this tool is ultimately un helpful. I’ve resorted to taking screenshots of the pop up window to then copy the hex codes from the photo. Which is way too many extra steps than should be needed. What the tool needs to include is some short of capture feature that saves the hex code you are selecting. For instance, when you press down on your cursor it saves the hex code or when you press the space bar.
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