TMO Quick Tip - DigitalColor Meter: Finding On Screen Color Values

by , 7:30 AM EST, December 11th, 2006

If you find a color you want to duplicate from a Web page, in a graphic, or anywhere on your Mac's display, you don't have to resort to applications like Adobe Photoshop to ferret out what the color values are. Mac OS X includes a handy tool called DigitalColor Meter that displays the color values for anything you can point your cursor at.

Point your mouse at the Apple menu...

You can find DigitalColor Meter hiding in Applications/Utilities. Once you launch it, you can see the average numerical value for the color that's under your mouse pointer as either RGB, CIE, or Tristimulus. Just use the pop-up menu in the DigitalColor Menu window to switch between the formats.

...to see what color Apple menu blue really is.

DigitalColor Meter shows you the average color for the area around your mouse pointer. If you want to be more selective, slide the Aperture Size to the left. You can reduce the aperture so much that you are sampling individual pixels, which is useful if you want a specific color out of a blend or gradation.

DigitalColor Meter isn't a replacement for the tools in professional design applications, but is does make it easy to find color values in a snap.

This Quick Tip was adapted from The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X.

Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

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