Colorpic

Colorpic is software for getting the exact colour from anywhere on the Windows desktop. It can be useful for choosing colours for design projects such as websites, or when editing photographs.

It is helpful because it can display the values used for a colour in all the different ways available. Some programs use a hex value, some RGB (red, green, blue) and others CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). As names can be used for colours when designing webpages these are shown as well.

As selecting an exact pixel can be a tricky business, especially on high-resolution screens, there is a section showing a magnified view of the area around the cursor. This area can be resized if required.

Even more exact picking can be achieved by using the arrow keys to move the cursor.

One disadvantage we discovered in test was that it did use a significant amount of the processors time. While it was running the CPU meter in Task Manager was at 100 per cent. It did not make other software on the computer feel sluggish so it just means that it is best not to leave Colorpic running when it it not being used.

This is version 4.1, use the older 4.0 for Windows 95/98/ME from the download page

It does prompt to sign up to newsletter when click on download link but you can skip this step if you don't want to hear from them.