Product Review: Classic Color Meter

Posted on by Larry

A while ago I reviewed Apple’s Digital Color Meter (link), which is stored in the Utilities folder. It works, but it’s limited. However, as a reader pointed out, there’s something much better: Classic Color Meter.

Classic Color Meter, by Ricci Adams, runs on all current Macs, including Apple silicon. It expands on key Digital Color Meter features in several important ways. Available in the Mac App Store, see details below.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Classic Color Meter is an enhanced color meter that measures and displays color values displayed on a computer monitor in several ways:

In addition to skimming the mouse around the monitor to locate a color sample, you can:

A feature that I really like, which Digital Color Meter lacks, is the ability to copy the color values from a sampled color into the Mac color picker. This simplifies, for example, matching text in a video to a color on your display.

If finding, measuring and matching colors are important to you, this tool will become your new best friend.

Developer: Ricci Adams
Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/classic-color-meter/id451640037?mt=12
Price: $2.95 (US)

SETTING PREFERENCES

There are three preference screens that customize the app to your needs.

These default settings are fine to get started.

Here, it will help if you create a custom shortcut for Hold Color and Lock Position. You can see the choices I made, but you can select any key combination you prefer.

These additional features are off by default, but available should you need them.

There’s also a very large floating color window, to help you see and compare the selected color more easily.

COPYING COLORS

A typical use for this software is matching a color on your display with, say, text in a video. Or a background graphic. Whatever. Assuming you created the two keyboard shortcuts I just illustrated, here’s the process.

NOTE: You don’t need to lock the cursor position, but holding the color prevents accidental color shifts.

Done.

NOTE: This may seem like a lot of steps, but after you do this once, it won’t take more than ten seconds the next time you do it.

SUMMARY

What I like about the Classic Color Meter is that it works the way you expect, measures colors six ways from Sunday and allows copying and pasting color values, even color images, from whatever you measured into whatever you need.

This is a very well-thought-out app.


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2 Responses to Product Review: Classic Color Meter

  1. Yes, really an excellent program. I’ve used it for the past 7 years for all things related to design of web UI, as well as Lab color value readout for Capture One (RAW editor) prior to version 11.

    The author has a very deep knowledge of how color is managed by the OS, display, and apps.

  2. Yes, really an excellent program. I’ve used it for the past 7 years for all things related to design of web UI, as well as Lab color value readout for Capture One (RAW editor) prior to version 11.

    The author has a very deep knowledge of how color is managed by the OS, display, and apps.

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