Colors is a free, open-source Windows color picker for quick and readable color identification.
Install Colors with the Windows installer. At the first launch, choose the shortcut that opens the picker; the default is Win + Ctrl + Alt + C. Hover over a color and click. Colors copies the result to the clipboard as:
#RRGGBB - human color name
Colors lives in the system tray so the hotkey is available while you work. Use Configure shortcut from the tray icon to change it later. The installer can start Colors automatically with Windows, which is enabled by default and stays silent at sign-in.
The picker does not trust a single pixel. It samples an 11x11 area around the cursor, rejects the furthest 20 percent of pixels as noise, and averages the remaining pixels before naming the color.
Download Colors-v1.1.0-Windows-x64.zip from Gumroad, extract it, then run ColorsSetup.exe.
The v1.1 installer is unsigned. Windows may show a SmartScreen warning until Colors has a signed release. That warning is about publisher trust, not about the app needing internet access or collecting data.
Colors samples the pixels around the cursor locally, copies the selected result to your clipboard, and stores only your chosen shortcut in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Colors\settings.json. It has no account, telemetry, or network connection.
Colors is licensed under the MIT License. Source, issue tracking, and releases are available at https://github.com/arthurkowskii/Colors.
Colors 1.1.0 supports Windows 10 and Windows 11 on 64-bit PCs. For a problem or feature request, open an issue at https://github.com/arthurkowskii/Colors/issues or contact contact@kowskii.com.
The repository also contains an Avalonia-based macOS shell in src\Colors.Mac. It reuses the same portable color naming and averaging logic as the Windows app.
The macOS picker uses the native screencapture command for the selected screen region, so users must allow Screen Recording permission when macOS asks. The macOS build is not signed, notarized, or packaged as a .dmg yet; that final release step must be completed on macOS.
Run the app locally with:
dotnet run --project .\src\Colors\Colors.csprojRun the tests with:
dotnet run --project .\tests\Colors.Tests\Colors.Tests.csprojBuild the release output with:
.\scripts\Build-Release.ps1The release script runs tests, publishes the self-contained Windows app to dist\Colors, and compiles the Inno Setup installer to dist\installer when Inno Setup is installed. If the Inno Setup compiler is missing, the script prints the winget command needed to install it.
Build macOS binaries with:
.\scripts\Build-Mac.ps1This publishes osx-arm64 and osx-x64 outputs under dist\mac. Use a real Mac to verify screen capture permissions, menu-bar behavior, signing, notarization, and .app or .dmg packaging.
The startup scripts in scripts are developer helpers only. Normal users should install Colors with the installer.