Pixel Picker

Although advancement in technology has pushed the trend of design to display more effects, enhanced graphics and flawless animations, it's all still based on dozens of lines of code, just as it started. With modern screens capable to display millions of colors, it's incredibly difficult to specify or know the exact code for each. Luckily, utilities like Pixel Picker offer a helping hand in finding out the corresponding code of any color you point at.

A major advantage is that the application comes in an extremely light package and perfectly runs on a wide array of machines and configurations. Moreover, you don't have to go through a setup process to make it run, thus being able to keep it on a removable storage device and use on the go.

Running it brings up a pretty compact main window that surprisingly manages to hold all functions you get to work with, not that they count as many. At its core, there are two magnifying panes that stick around your desktop and zoom in at your pointer's location as you move your mouse, while the other is filled with the specific pixel color.

As you move your cursor and colors change, so do the two text fields that get filled with corresponding code for RGB and HTML format. Sadly, these are the only types displayed, and there isn't even an option to automatically copy a value to the clipboard. Neither can you select the text in the fields, which makes it a little frustrating because you have to manually write down the code.

Although easy to use and figure out, you'll most likely stumble upon the difficulty of making the picker stop following you and write down codes. You can either pay a visit to the compact “Help” system, or keep in mind that you have to press the space bar to stop it from tracking your pointer.

The hotkey trigger, along with the option that makes the application stay on top of any other window make it practical. On the other hand, the application's window needs to be active for the hotkey to work, which is a pain because you constantly have to switch windows, making the whole process a little too time-consuming.

On an ending note, Pixel Picker is a small and practical utility and can prove useful if you manage to overlook the rather poor implementation of its few features. Sure, colors are properly detected, but you only get RGB and HTML code, while it's up to you to manually stop the tracker and write down the code because of the lack of export options or at least the possibility to copy text from the value fields.