Pick any color on your screen.Free and open source.

Press ⌃⌥⌘P, click a pixel, and paste it as hex, CSS, SwiftUI, Tailwind or Compose. Keep palettes, check contrast, and see how your colors look to everyone.

Download for Mac Source on GitHub →

macOS 26 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · Signed and notarized

Chroma's loupe magnifying the corner of a coral swatch on a moodboard, labeled #FF7A59, with the picker controls along the bottom of the screen

Try the loupe

Move over the picture and click to pick. The app does the same with the real pixels on any screen, then copies the value in your format.

Scroll to zoom, arrow keys to nudge, click to copy. Picks land in the history on the right.

Everything a color picker should do

Chroma lives in your menu bar. It freezes the screen for a moment while you pick, so it works on anything: apps, websites, design files, photos and video.

A loupe that's exact

See every pixel under the pointer up close. Nudge with the arrow keys, zoom with the scroll wheel, or average a 3×3 square.

35 formats, plus yours

Hex, CSS rgb, hsl and oklch, Display P3, Tailwind, SwiftUI, UIColor, NSColor, Compose, Flutter, Android XML and more. Write your own with a template.

Smart formats

Pick in Xcode and get SwiftUI; pick in Android Studio and get Compose. Set a format for any app. Tab switches while you pick.

History and palettes

Every pick is saved. Organize colors into palettes by dragging, name them, add notes, sort by hue or lightness, lock the finished ones.

Color Dock

Your palettes in a slim glass strip at the edge of the screen. Click a color to copy it, or drag it straight into Figma, Keynote or your code.

Contrast checker

WCAG 2 ratios for text and UI, plus APCA. One click finds the nearest text or background color that passes AA or AAA.

Color blindness preview

See any palette with protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia or achromatopsia, and catch colors that blur together.

Edit, harmonize, scale

Edit in RGB, HSB, HSL or OKLCH. Get complementary, triadic and analogous colors, and a full 50–950 scale from any color.

Import and export

Adobe .ase, Apple .clr, GIMP .gpl, Sketch palettes and JSON in; CSS, SCSS, Tailwind, SwiftUI, Android XML and PNG out. Paste any text full of color codes.

Sync your way

Your library is a plain JSON file. Keep it in iCloud Drive or Dropbox and every Mac stays in step, with no account.

Shortcuts and automation

Global shortcuts you can change, Shortcuts app actions, and a chroma:// URL scheme for scripts and launchers.

Private

No account, analytics or network access. The screen image is discarded the moment you pick or press Esc.

A closer look

The library window: palettes in the sidebar, a grid of named swatches, and an inspector with an editor and formats — History and palettes in a sidebar, swatches you can drag between them, and an inspector with an editor, every format, contrast, tints and harmonies.

The contrast checker previewing violet text on paper with a 3.85 to 1 ratio and AA and AAA results — A live preview, WCAG 2 and APCA scores, and Fix buttons that keep the hue while finding a lightness that passes.

The menu bar popover with the last picked color, quick actions, history and palettes — Click the menu bar icon for your last color, recent history and palettes. Click any swatch to copy it.

Format settings with the default copy format, per-app smart formats for Xcode and Android Studio, and a list of formats — Choose the formats you use, set a format per app, and write custom ones with tokens like `{r}` and `{hex}`.

Every format, live

Type a color in any notation, or pick one. These are the same templates the app uses.

Shortcuts

The same defaults as Sip, so muscle memory carries over. Change any of them in Settings.

`⌃⌥⌘P`	Pick a color, from any app
`⌃⌥⌘O`	Contrast checker
`⌃⌥⌘C`	Library
`⌃⌥⌘D`	Show or hide the Color Dock
`Click` `↩`	Pick and copy
`⇧` `Click`	Pick and keep picking

`←` `→` `↑` `↓`	Move one pixel (⇧ for 10)
`Scroll` `⌥+` `⌥−`	Magnification
`+` `−`	Loupe size
`Tab`	Next format
`G` `S`	Pixel grid, sample size
`Esc`	Cancel

Questions

Why does it need Screen Recording permission?

To read a color, Chroma has to see the pixels on screen. Each time you pick it takes one still image per display, reads it while the loupe is up, and discards it when you click or press Esc. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

Is it free?

Yes. It's open source under the MIT License, with no trial, subscription or account.

How does it compare to Sip?

Sip inspired it and is a great app. Chroma covers the same workflow (a loupe picker, history and palettes, a Color Dock, a contrast checker, color blindness previews, dozens of formats and per-app formats) and adds APCA scores, OKLCH editing, Tailwind matching, tints and harmonies, and folder-based sync. It's free to use and modify.

Which color space does it use?

Values are sRGB, which is what CSS hex, rgb() and most code expect. The color(display-p3 …) and oklch() formats convert from there.

How do I sync palettes between Macs?

In Settings → General, choose a library folder in iCloud Drive, Dropbox or any synced folder. Chroma keeps a single Library.json there and reloads it when another Mac changes it.

Can I script it?

Yes. The Shortcuts app has Pick Color, Get Last Picked Color, Convert Color and Add Color to Palette actions. You can also open URLs like chroma://pick, chroma://contrast?text=%23333&background=%23fff or chroma://add?color=%23ff7a59&palette=Brand.

Which Macs does it support?

macOS 26 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. It's signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings.

How do I build it?

Clone the repository, run brew install xcodegen and xcodegen generate, then open Chroma.xcodeproj in Xcode 26 or later.

Get Chroma

Free for macOS 26 or later. It lives in your menu bar.

Download for Mac