Color Identifier App That Names What Your Camera Sees

Color Blind Pal names the colour of whatever the camera is pointed at, in plain words, and it is free on both iPhone and Android with nothing to buy inside it. Microsoft’s Seeing AI says the colour aloud for anyone who cannot see the screen, and Color Picker: Photo & RAL gives you a hex code for design work.

Paint is the hard case. A phone gets you a near match, and the apps’ own listings explain why it stops there.

If you are colour blind

Color Blind Pal, from Vincent Fiorentini, was built for this. Its Color Inspector describes whatever the camera is pointed at, and you can choose between common, scientific and everyday names. Its Color Filter shifts the colours you find hard to separate towards ones you can. A stripes option marks reddish areas with a pattern and leaves the colours alone.

The Android version is current. The iPhone version’s page shows it has gone years without an update, though it is still on the App Store and still free.

What Color Is This?, from Nicholas Troia, is the alternative on either phone. Its listing puts colour vision deficiency first among the people it is built for, and it gives the colour’s codes along with the name.

Use either app together with the phone’s own colour settings. Those are about the screen: they help you tell colours apart in apps and on web pages, and they do not name the colour of a shirt.

On iPhone, go to Settings, Accessibility, Display & Text Size, then Color Filters. Apple’s user guide says a filter can show the screen in greyscale, adjust colours for colour vision deficiencies or tint it. On the same screen, Differentiate Without Color replaces colour-only signals with shapes or text.

On Android, go to Settings, Accessibility, Color and motion, then Color correction. Turn on Use color correction, choose a mode and set its strength with the slider. Google’s help page says the setting helps the phone compensate for colour blindness.

If you cannot see the screen

Seeing AI is Microsoft’s free app for blind and low-vision users. Identifying colours is one of its tools, next to reading text and describing photos, and everything it finds is spoken.

Galaxy phones may not need an app. Samsung’s support site describes a colour detection mode in Bixby Vision that says the colour aloud when you point the camera at an object. The page covers Bixby Vision 3.5 and later and does not name the phones that have it, so look through Bixby Vision’s accessibility modes before you install anything.

On Android, Color Grab’s listing says pressing a volume button makes it say the colour. It carries ads, and its Google Play page shows it has not been updated for several years, so Seeing AI is the safer first choice. Be careful with the name on iPhone: the App Store has an app called Color Grab from a different developer. The one we mean, from Loomatix, is on Google Play.

Hex, RGB and Pantone codes

Color Picker: Photo & RAL, from lapnito, reads a colour from the camera or from a photo and gives it as HEX, RGB, HSL, CMYK and LAB. Its listing says it works offline with no ads and no subscriptions, and neither store shows a purchase label on it.

If you care about the lighting problem, pick Color Meter, from Contechity AB, because the white-paper reference is its main feature. Both stores mark it as having in-app purchases.

If the code you need is a Pantone number, Cone on iPhone, from Mystical Bits, says it is licensed by Pantone and offers up to ten nearest shades, along with a name and hex code. What Color Is This?, called What Color? Instant Color ID on Android, searches Pantone and RAL among more than 25 colour libraries.

Mikhail Gribanov’s Color Picker: Find Name & Code is another Android option, with a RAL Classic list built in. ColorMeter from vistech.projects is on Google Play as a paid app, but its free edition marks most of its features as paid-only and has gone years without an update.

Why a phone only gets close

A phone camera reads the same surface differently under different light, and the apps say so themselves. Color Picker from Smart Tools co. says the colour changes with the lighting, and lets you take the reading by the light of the phone’s torch. Color Meter asks you to hold a sheet of white paper in view so it can correct for the colour and strength of the light in the room, and Color Grab has a calibration mode that uses a white object in the same way. Mikhail Gribanov’s app ends its listing with a plain warning that it is “not intended for high-accuracy matching”.

Treat every reading as a near match. If the app offers a white reference or a calibration step, use it.

Matching paint

Several apps will give you a nearest named shade. Color Picker: Photo & RAL compares a reading with the RAL Classic catalogue. Cone and What Color Is This? do the same with Pantone. That gives you a name to take to the paint counter.

The paint makers’ own apps tell you how much to trust a camera. Benjamin Moore’s Color Portfolio (iPhone, Android) is free and lets you try its colours on a photo of your room. For what it calls precision colour matching, it tells you to buy a separate ColorReader device.

Sherwin-Williams Color Expert (iPhone, Android) previews colours on your walls and lets you order physical colour chips. Its App Store listing says sample ordering is limited to the US and Canada.

When the companies selling the paint point you to a hardware reader or a physical chip, take the hint. Use the phone to narrow the choice, then check a real sample against the wall before you buy. Those two apps only cover their makers’ own ranges. If you buy another brand, see whether it has an app of its own.

Which apps are on which phone