Mac Color Picker Trick

Previously, we've talked about built-in Preview color picker for Mac OS X Leopard. To our disappointment, last time we've failed to grab the real hex color code for picked color.

Fortunate for us, we found out a way to get the real hex color code from color bar and we will discuss about that in this article.

Pick the Color

In most of free built-in Mac applications, under Menu Bar → Tools you can find a tool named Show Colors (shortcut: command-shift-c). Upon clicking on it, a color pane will appear and…

Shown Above. Opening Colors Pane in Preview

1. Click on the magnifier icon just next to color bar. Your cursor will now be transformed into a huge magnifier crosshair
2. Sample any visible pixel of your Desktop and you can see the color bar change accordingly
3. If you're currently using RGB Slider, you will notice the changes also apply on each Red, Green, and Blue sliders
4. Now click-and-hold your mouse at any point inside the slider and move out your mouse
5. You will see a color being dragged out; put it onto your text editor
6. And you've successfully pick your color hex code (for free)

Shown Above. Picking Out Sample from Color Bar

So far, this is the fastest and cheapest color picker I've found on my Mac. Perhaps you've something to say about this, why don't you shout it out on the comment box below?