Color picker is a tool used to select specific colors from various sources, such as a screen, an image, or other areas. Whether you’re a graphic designer or developer, there are times when you need to extract color from a particular area on your screen. In such cases, you will need a color picker tool.
In this article, I will guide you to learn more about the best color picker tools on Ubuntu and how to install them on your Ubuntu machine.
Although this article is specifically for Ubuntu, if you are using other distributions such as Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Elementary OS, or other Ubuntu-based distributions, the information provided in this article should still be applicable.
Gcolor3
Gcolor3 is a color picker application written in GTK+ 3 for the GNOME desktop environment. It allows users to select colors from the screen or manually enter color values and provides various color formats such as RGB, HSV, CMYK, and hexadecimal.
Gcolor3 provides a user-friendly interface and is particularly useful for graphic designers, web developers, and anyone working with colors in digital projects. It simplifies the process of color selection, manipulation, and organization, saving time and improving productivity.
Additionally, it has a color palette to select a certain color. And within the palette, you have the ability to adjust the hue, saturation, value, red, green, blue, and opacity values, which are powerful options for creating colors.
Gcolor3 also provides the ability to save the colors you have created, making it easier to use the colors later.
These make Gcolor3 a very versatile color picker to work on color selection and manipulation.
Features
Color Picking. You can easily extract color from your screen by using the eyedropper tool in the bottom left section. Simply click the eyedropper icon, then click on the area of the screen you want to pick the color. It will keep the color as a hex color value.
Color Palette and manipulation You can easily select colors by using the palette feature provided by gcolor3. And besides that, you can adjust the color values such as hue, saturation, value, red, green, blue, and opacity value.
Ability to Save the colors. Gcolor3 provides the ability to save the color you have created simply by pressing the save button, this will make it easier to work on multiple colors.
Simple and Intuitive User Interface. A simple and Intuitive user interface makes gcolor3 easier to use.
Installation
To install gcolor3 on Ubuntu, simply run the command below on your terminal:
sudo apt install gcolor3
Then wait for the installation process to complete.
You can also install gcolor3 from Flathub if you don’t want to use the terminal.
Eyedropper
Eyedropper is an excellent color picker tool with a variety of useful features at your disposal. It is capable of displaying colors in formats such as Hex, RGB, HSV, HSL, CMYK, XYZ, and CIE-Lab.
Mainly developed using Rust, Eyedropper runs very efficiently, ensuring fast and resource-friendly performance.
Eyedropper provides you with the capability to effortlessly capture any color from your screen and allows you to preview and analyze it in many formats, this will make your work with colors a lot easier.
Features
- Easy to pick colors from the screen. With just a single click of a button, you can obtain color from your screen.
- Display colors in multiple color formats. Working with different color formats is a lot easier in Eyedropper.
- Random color generator. Easily generate a random color by pressing CTRL + R.
Installation
Eyedropper can be installed using Flatpak easily from the Flathub page. Or if you prefer installing through a terminal you can do it by running the following command:
flatpak install flathub com.github.finefindus.eyedropper
KcolorChooser
KColorChooser is a powerful color palette tool designed to facilitate color mixing and the creation of custom color palettes. With its intuitive interface and feature-rich functionality, it offers users the ability to easily obtain colors from any pixel on the screen using the dropper tool.
It was originally built for the KDE desktop environment to provide color picking and selection for various purposes. But now KcolorChooser is available to install in other desktop environments too.
Features
- Provided many basic colors. Easily choose the basic color with the provided color selection that you can use.
- Ability to add custom colors. Add up to 16 custom colors to make your work with color a lot easier.
- Easy to change the color values. You can simply modify the existing color by editing the Hue, saturation, and value field in the right section.
- Easy to use interface. With a clean and simple interface, you can easily work and navigate with the KColorChooser without any problem.
Installation
To install KColorChooser on Ubuntu, run the command below:
sudo apt install kcolorchooser
Wait for the installation process to finish.
The other way to install KColorChooser is by installing it from the Snap Store and Flathub Store.
You can launch KColorChooser from the app menu, or simply by running kcolorchooser
command from the terminal.
Gpick
Another Awesome color picker you can use is Gpick. Gpick is an advanced color picker and palette editing tool that is capable of many things such as color manipulation, scheme generation, auto color naming, and more.
Among the list of color picker tools, Gpick is actually the one that comes up with a lot of useful features, making this tool one of the best you can use on your Ubuntu machine.
Features
- Color scheme generation tool. Generating a color scheme is much easier with the built-in color scheme generator that Gpick provided. This is definitely a very powerful tool to generate amazing color schemes.
- Automatic color naming. Now you don’t need to pick the color name yourself, because Gpick provides automatic color naming which is very convenient to work with selecting multiple colors.
- Export with multiple color formats. Ability to export colors to many different formats to use in many different needs.
Installation
To install Gpick on your Ubuntu machine, you can simply run the following command:
sudo apt install gpick
Then wait for the installation process to finish. And once the installation process is completed, you can then run it by typing gpick
command in the terminal.
Pick
Another great color picker tool you can use is Pick. Pick is a simple color picker tool built with Python that provides basic color selection and color extraction from the screen.
If you only need a color picker tool without worrying about other features, this is probably the right tool for you. Because Pick provides you with a very simple user interface without any other unnecessary features.
Features
- Simple and intuitive user interface. Just a simple interface, but the important thing is, it can get the job done.
- History of the picked colors. Easily look back on the previous colors you have selected.
- Magnifying preview. This will make you able to see the pixel clearly so you can choose the color easily.
Installation
By default, Pick is not available in the official Ubuntu package repositories. But, it can be installed from Flathub and Snap Store.
Conclusion
And that is the list of the best color pickers you can use on the Ubuntu desktop. You can use any color picker tool that suits your needs.
Personally, I would choose the Gpick because it offers a lot of features that are useful for my project, such as a color scheme generator, easy naming of the color, and the ability to export to multiple color formats.
If you have recommendations for other color picker tools, you can write in the comment section, or if you are facing any difficulties, don’t hesitate to ask a question.