Color Sampler

Why pay for hardware? Put professional color matching in your pocket.

For web designers, print professionals, and decorators, identifying the exact code of a real-world color is a constant headache. Usually, this requires expensive colorimeter hardware or carrying around bulky swatch books.

I built the Color Sampler to bridge the gap between the physical world and your digital workflow. It is a completely free, browser-based tool that uses your deviceā€™s camera to identify, match, and convert colors instantly. Whether you need a Hex code for CSS, CMYK for print, or a standardized spot color, this tool puts the data right on your screen.

Solving the "Lighting Problem"

One of the biggest flaws in software-based color pickers is ambient lighting. Shadows and warm indoor bulbs can drastically skew color readings, turning a vibrant Royal Blue into a muddy Navy.

To solve this, I updated the Color Sampler to access your deviceā€™s built-in LED flash/torch. By illuminating the subject directly with a white light source (your phone's flash), the tool reduces environmental noise and provides a significantly more accurate reading. This gets you much closer to the results of dedicated hardware sensors.

Key Features & Outputs

This tool doesn't just 'see' color; it translates it into the languages used by professionals:

  1. Hexadecimal (Web): Instantly get the #RRGGBB code for use in HTML, CSS, and digital design tools such as Figma, Affinity or Photoshop
  2. RGB (Screen): The standard Red-Green-Blue values for video editing and digital displays
  3. CMYK (Print): Automatic conversion to Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Key values to help estimate how a color will look on paper
  4. FREETONE (ink-matching guide): A high-fidelity, free alternative to the proprietary Pantone matching system. This helps you communicate specific ink colors to printers without needing a license
  5. Human-readable: It also gives regular, readable color names as well, which are certainly easier to remember than #a0d321 or 4157C!

Hardware vs. Software: The "Good Enough" Sweet Spot

I recently saw a commercial advertisement for a pocket colorimeter retailing for hundreds of dollars. While dedicated hardware will always have a slight edge in calibration, the Color Sampler offers a "pretty damn good" alternative for 99% of use casesā€”at zero cost.

By leveraging modern browser APIs and the high-quality sensors already built into smartphones, we can achieve professional-grade utility without the extra dongle.

How to get the best results