A color tool, color picker, or color chooser is a utility, usually found within graphics software

Graphics software

In computer graphics, graphics software or image editing software is a program or collection of programs that enable a person to manipulate visual images on a computer....

 or online, used to choose colors or create color scheme

Color scheme

In color theory, a color scheme is the choice of colors used in design for a range of media. For example, the use of a white background with black text is an example of a basic and commonly default color scheme in web design....

s.

Many such tools exist on the world wide web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

 which include features such as a color harmonization interface, a color picker, RGB

RGB color model

The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light is added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors...

 and HSL conversion and manipulation, a collection of saved schemes

Color scheme

In color theory, a color scheme is the choice of colors used in design for a range of media. For example, the use of a white background with black text is an example of a basic and commonly default color scheme in web design....

, and other similar characteristics. Designers, developers, and other professionals that work with other types of screen or print media use these tools in their work.

Purpose

A color tool is used to preview and test color values. In graphic design

Graphic design

Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

 and image editing

Graphics software

In computer graphics, graphics software or image editing software is a program or collection of programs that enable a person to manipulate visual images on a computer....

, users typically choose colors via an interface with a visual representation of a color – often organized with quasi-perceptually-relevant hue

Hue

Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...

, lightness

Lightness (color)

Lightness is a property of a color, or a dimension of a color space, that is defined in a way to reflect the subjective brightness perception of a color for humans along a lightness–darkness axis. A color's lightness also corresponds to its amplitude.Various color models have an explicit term for...

, and saturation dimensions – instead of keying in alphanumeric

Alphanumeric

Alphanumeric is a combination of alphabetic and numeric characters, and is used to describe the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits or a text constructed from this collection. There are either 36 or 62 alphanumeric characters. The alphanumeric character set consists of the numbers 0 to...

 text values. Because color appearance depends on comparison of neighboring colors (see color vision

Color vision

Color vision is the capacity of an organism or machine to distinguish objects based on the wavelengths of the light they reflect, emit, or transmit...

), many interfaces attempt to clarify the relationships between colors.

Interface

Color tools can vary in their interface. Some may use sliders, buttons, text boxes for color values, or direct manipulation

Direct manipulation interface

In computer science, direct manipulation is a human-computer interaction style which involves continuous representation of objects of interest, and rapid, reversible, incremental actions and feedback. The intention is to allow a user to directly manipulate objects presented to them, using actions...

. Often a two dimensional square is used to create a range of color values (such as lightness and saturation) that can be clicked on or selected in some other manner. Drag and drop, color droppers, and various other forms of interfaces are commonly used as well.

Each color is represented as a unique number. In many cases it is a hexadecimal 32-bit number (e. g. #FF0000 represents pure red in HTML and is also used in many graphic editors). In case of an external color tool, the number of the chosen color is copied to the clipboard and pasted to an application where it is applied.

See also

• Color balance
  Color balance
  In photography and image processing, color balance is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors . An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colors – particularly neutral colors – correctly; hence, the general method is sometimes called gray balance, neutral balance,...
  
  
• Color space
  Color space
  A color model is an abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components...
  
  
• RGB color space
  RGB color space
  An RGB color space is any additive color space based on the RGB color model. A particular RGB color space is defined by the three chromaticities of the red, green, and blue additive primaries, and can produce any chromaticity that is the triangle defined by those primary colors...
  
  
• Web colors
  Web colors
  Web colors are colors used in designing web pages, and the methods for describing and specifying those colors. Hexadecimal color codes begin with a hash ....
  
  
• Web design
  Web design
  Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...