While working on a design project, you may need a quality color app. There are a variety of color apps for iOS and Android devices that you can use to create color swatches and palettes, render color codes, extract tones from photos, and visualize paint color changes in real time.
Here are some of the best color apps worth exploring, whether you're looking for a color code generator or need to create a palette to show a client.
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Best Color Match App: Color Grab
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What We Like
Export colors into Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Designed to easily match colors and create themes.
What We Don't Like
No dark mode.
Can be difficult to navigate.
Color Grab is an incredible Android app for creatives—it does almost everything color-related that you could ask for. This app can detect colors from images and display their color values in up to 17 formats, from RGB and HEX to Web-Safe and YIQ.
What really sets Color Grab apart are the additional features that allow you to adjust white levels, mix colors to create new colors, and use the matching screen to create your own custom palette. The app, and all of its features, are also completely free with no ads.
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Best Color App for Walls: ColorSnap Visualizer
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What We Like
Fast, real-time wall color swapping.
Able to customize palettes in a photo.
What We Don't Like
Unavailable in some non-USA regions.
App menus can be a little confusing at first.
ColorSnap Visualizer is a powerful tool that can swap out the color of a wall in real-time using your device's camera. The colors used to digitally paint the walls can be extracted from a photo of the room or from a color palette saved from a previous session. This allows you to match a new wall color with, for example, a lounge, bookcase, or anything else in a photo.
The ColorSnap Visualizer app is an official Sherwin-Williams Company product which means that its main aim is to get you to buy Sherwin-Williams paint after you've used the app. This isn't required, and the app can be used for experimentation and inspiration.
Download For:
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Best Free Color Palette App: Palette Cam
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What We Like
Free with no in-app purchases.
View color pixels in Zoom view.
Easy to use.
What We Don't Like
No color palette suggestions.
Requires iOS 9.2 and above.
Palette Cam is a free app for iOS devices that lets you design a color palette using an image stored on your device. You can import a saved image or take a photo directly from the Palette Cam, then tap different parts of the picture to quickly register colors.
Once the color palette is to your liking, the palette and the image can be saved to your device or shared via social media and email.
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Best Color App for Designers: Color Converter
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What We Like
Supports four main color code systems used by designers.
Ability to convert values.
What We Don't Like
Must use a different app for saving or sending codes.
Layout is bland for an art app.
Color Converter is a free Android app that's essential for graphic designers who need to know the exact color values for projects. You can use an in-app color picker to select tones, and individual values can be converted with the tap of a button.
The app presents the color values in RGB, CMYK, HEX, and HSV(HSL), which sets it apart from almost every other app out there, which are usually limited to RGB and HEX.
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Best Overall Design App: Adobe Capture
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What We Like
Does more than create color palettes.
All assets can be saved to Adobe Creative Cloud.
What We Don't Like
May not appeal to those not in the Adobe app ecosystem.
May overwhelm users who want basic color swatch features.
The free Adobe Capture app for iOS and Android, like many other apps, can create color palettes by importing an image or taking a photo with your device's camera. What sets it apart are the other features that make it an all-in-one destination for color and image creation and editing.
Adobe Capture can create digital brushes, render patterns from photos, and edit images for use in 3D artwork. All creations sync to the Adobe Creative Cloud and can be used in other Adobe programs such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Download For:
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Fastest Color Palette App: Color Viewfinder
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What We Like
A variety of layouts to choose from.
Great design aesthetic.
What We Don't Like
Automatic color detection is frustrating if you want to manually select a palette.
Access to the HEX codes requires an upgrade.
Color Viewfinder is a convenient app when you need to quickly create color palettes. This free iOS app automatically generates a color palette based on a photo on your device and requires little editing and changing.
Color results can be added or removed from the generated palette, and the final selection of colors displays next to the original photo and their HEX color codes.
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Best Pantone Color App: Pantone Studio
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What We Like
Many available Pantone color libraries.
All content is unlocked after the initial purchase.
What We Don't Like
You'll need another app for other color types.
Only works in portrait mode.
For artists and designers who need to plan their projects using Pantone's color libraries, you can't do better than the official app, Pantone Studio.
The iOS app allows you to create new Pantone color palettes on the fly, store their existing ones, or share them with clients and colleagues via Adobe Creative Suite or QuarkXPress. Colors can also be copied from files stored locally on your device or from a fresh photo taken from within the Pantone Studio app.
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Best Color Palette Inspiration App: Coolors
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What We Like
Great app for designers looking for inspiration.
Color palettes can be exported in PNG and PDF file formats.
What We Don't Like
Exporting as SVG and SCSS is only available on the web app.
No free version.
Coolors is a color palette generation app that's available on the web and as an iOS app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Unlike other palette apps which rely on a photo to generate a color swatch, Coolors quickly renders a randomly generated collection of tones when you click the space bar on the desktop or tap the screen on your iOS device.
After the initial palette rendering, colors can be edited via their HSB, RGB, CMYK, Pantone, and Copic numerical values. Collections can be saved to a free Coolors account or exported as PNG, PDF, SVG, and SCSS files—or sent as an email. You can also generate a unique URL for each color palette for others to view online.
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