FREE CLIENT-SIDE COLOR ENGINE

Color Picker

Use this free online color picker to select colors visually and instantly calculate HEX, RGB, RGBA, HSL, HSLA, and HSB color values. 100% private, instant in-browser conversion, with screen eyedropper and palette history.

LIVE COLOR ENGINE
100% IN-BROWSER
S: 88% • B: 80%
266°
100% (1.00)
Color Preview
CONTRAST: LIGHT TEXT
#6818CD
Text Contrast (WCAG)Use White Text
Dark Text1.2:1 FAIL
Aa Sample Text
Light Text8.4:1 AAA
Aa Sample Text
HEX#6818CD
RGBrgb(104, 24, 205)
RGBArgba(104, 24, 205, 1)
HSLhsl(266, 79%, 45%)
HSLAhsla(266, 79%, 45%, 1)
HSBhsb(266, 88%, 80%)
4. Direct Numeric & HEX Inputs// EDIT VALUES DIRECTLY TO SYNC
#
RGB Values (0 - 255)
HSL Values (H: 0-360, S/L: 0-100%)
Preset PaletteCLICK TO SELECT
Recent History (Max 8)
Colors you choose will appear here automatically.

Screen EyeDropper

Sample display pixels.

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CSS Gradient

Linear & radial gradients.

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Visual Gradients

Conic & PNG exports.

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Box Shadows

Multi-layer elevation.

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Border Radius

8-point organic blobs.

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CSS Previewer

Live stylesheet tester.

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Screen Color Picker

Sample screen pixels with eyedropper.

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Developer Suite

Client-side dev suite.

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Understanding Digital Color Models & Formats

Master HEX, RGB, HSL, and HSB color spaces for web design, UI styling, digital art, CSS development, and accessibility compliance.

COLOR FUNDAMENTALS

What is a Color Picker?

An online color picker is an interactive digital application that enables designers, web developers, and digital creators to explore, formulate, and extract exact color codes. By providing real-time manipulation of hue, saturation, lightness, and alpha channels, color pickers eliminate visual guesswork and convert colors across international standard formats.

Whether you are establishing a CSS design system, calibrating brand palettes, or styling UI elements, this tool generates exact mathematical representations for web, mobile, and print mediums with zero server latency.

WORKFLOW

How to Use the Online Color Picker

STEP 1: SELECT HUE

Drag the horizontal spectrum slider (0° to 360°) to choose the base color wavelength across the visible spectrum.

STEP 2: TUNE SHADE & TINT

Click or drag inside the large 2D visual canvas to balance horizontal saturation and vertical brightness.

STEP 3: ADJUST OPACITY

Slide the Alpha bar to dial in opacity from 0% (transparent) to 100% (solid), visible over the checkerboard preview.

STEP 4: INSTANT COPY

Click the 'Copy' button beside HEX, RGB, RGBA, HSL, HSLA, or HSB to place the formatted string on your clipboard.

HEXADECIMAL FORMAT

HEX Color Codes: Structure & Shorthand

Hexadecimal color values (HEX) are 6-character strings prefixed with a hash symbol (`#`). They represent Red, Green, and Blue light values in base-16 arithmetic, where digits range from `00` (zero intensity) to `FF` (full intensity, equivalent to 255 in decimal):

#6818CD → Red: 68 (104), Green: 18 (24), Blue: CD (205)
#FFFFFF → Pure White (255, 255, 255)
#000000 → Pure Black (0, 0, 0)
#6818CD80 → 8-Digit HEX with 50% Alpha transparency channel

CSS also supports 3-digit shorthand when channel digits match (e.g., `#FFF` expands to `#FFFFFF`) and 8-digit HEX with embedded alpha channels (`#RRGGBBAA`).

ADDITIVE COLOR MIXING

RGB & RGBA Color Values

The RGB color model is an additive light model used across electronic monitors, mobile phones, and television screens. By combining red, green, and blue light channels in varying intensities between 0 and 255, over 16.7 million distinct 24-bit TrueColor hues can be produced:

  • rgb(255, 0, 0): Pure saturated Red.
  • rgb(0, 255, 0): Pure saturated Green.
  • rgb(0, 0, 255): Pure saturated Blue.
  • rgba(104, 24, 205, 0.75): Todoal Purple rendered with 75% opacity.
CYLINDRICAL COLOR SPACES

HSL vs HSB/HSV: Human-Intuitive Color Spaces

Unlike RGB and HEX which represent hardware light emissions, HSL and HSB/HSV describe color in terms of human psychological perception:

HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)

Lightness runs from 0% (pure black) through 50% (pure saturated hue) to 100% (pure white). HSL is native in CSS3/CSS4 stylesheets.

HSB / HSV (Hue, Saturation, Brightness)

Brightness/Value defines color purity where 100% brightness represents full vibrancy, and 0% represents black. HSB is standard in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma.

REFERENCE GUIDE

Common Web & Graphic Color Formats

FormatExample SyntaxAlpha SupportPrimary Use Case
HEX#6818CDYes (#RRGGBBAA)Web design, CSS styles, brand palettes
RGBrgb(104, 24, 205)NoDigital monitors, Canvas rendering, graphics
RGBArgba(104, 24, 205, 0.9)Yes (0.0 to 1.0)CSS overlays, drop shadows, UI translucency
HSLhsl(266, 79%, 45%)NoDynamic CSS theming, color harmonies
HSLAhsla(266, 79%, 45%, 1)Yes (0.0 to 1.0)Dynamic CSS with variable opacity
HSB / HSVhsb(266, 88%, 80%)OptionalFigma, Sketch, Adobe creative software
NATIVE BROWSER TOOLS

How to Pick a Color From Your Screen

Modern Chromium browsers (Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Arc) provide native access to the EyeDropper API. When you click the Pick From Screen button, your cursor transforms into a magnifying loupe with pixel-level precision.

You can sample colors from images, browser tabs, or other active desktop windows. Once selected, all HEX, RGB, RGBA, HSL, and HSB values update instantaneously.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common questions about color picking, conversions, formats, and client-side privacy.

What is a color picker?+
A color picker is an interactive graphical utility that lets users visually choose colors and immediately get precise numerical color codes such as HEX, RGB, RGBA, HSL, and HSB for digital design and programming.
How do I find a HEX color?+
Simply move the crosshair inside the 2D color canvas and slide the Hue bar to your desired color. The exact 6-digit HEX code updates in real time inside the preview and the HEX value card. You can also paste existing HEX values to convert them to RGB or HSL.
What is the difference between RGB and HEX?+
RGB and HEX are different mathematical notations for the exact same color. RGB uses decimal numbers from 0 to 255 (e.g., rgb(104, 24, 205)), while HEX expresses those same 3 numbers as hexadecimal pairs prefixed by # (e.g., #6818CD).
Can I pick a color from my screen?+
Yes. On supporting desktop browsers, click 'Pick From Screen' to sample colors from any visible element, app, or wallpaper on your screen. The sampled color is imported immediately.
Does this color picker work on mobile?+
Yes. The color canvas, hue slider, and opacity slider are built with high-performance touch event handlers with touch-action isolation, ensuring smooth dragging on touchscreens down to 320px screen width without scroll jitter.
Are my colors uploaded to a server?+
No. The core color selection, numeric calculation, and conversion algorithms happen 100% locally inside your client browser. No color data, palettes, or inputs are ever transmitted to an external server or database. Recent colors are stored solely in your local browser storage.
Can I share a specific color using a link?+
Yes. Click the 'Share URL' button or append ?color=%23HEXCODE to the page URL. When loaded, the tool will automatically initialize the canvas and sliders to that color.
How does the 8-digit HEX alpha channel work?+
An 8-digit HEX code appends a two-character alpha channel at the end: #RRGGBBAA. For example, #6818CD80 represents #6818CD at approximately 50% opacity (128 / 255).
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Pair pixel-perfect color selection with seamless daily planning. Manage UI sprints, time-block design workflows, and track development milestones without friction.