AdesClrPicker for Windows

User Reviews

• Many unique featurs- cute & simple yet rich & full

  christee8September 23, 2010

  Pros

  -unique set of features -Color Management -tray access menu to recently selected colors -UI is nice & friendly -tooltips/bubbles give help but can also be turned off -small, unobtrusive -floating panel -export palettes as an image OR text file

  Cons

  -the only thing missing that would take Ades into a WORLD above any other color tool- commercial or free- would be color harmony tools- displaying various color combinations for any given color (complimentary, analogous, etc)

  Summary

  Ades is really like a little gem- a big surprise in a small package. As a graphic designer I need much more than just a simple color-picking tool- Ades is more- but it can also be just that simple color picker too, if that's all you need- as it is unique in its ability to be small, simple, quick & easy- but offers up some interesting stuff, which separates it from the hordes of other simple, free, color-picking-tools available. One of those features is its tray menu, which opens up displaying the ten most recently chosen colors as small swatches, along with their code (HTML, RGB, Delphi, C++, or VB depending on your settings). Clicking on a swatch copies the code to your clipboard. Also on the tray menu are a handful of other quick options/settings, one of which does, in fact, open up the settings dialog. Of course there are the standard selections: Check for Updates, About, Help, Close, etc. And the smart inclusion of a submenu- from which you can quickly switch between color codes if needed- is much appreciated (the default color code can also be set via the settings dialog). Another item on the tray menu is "Activate"- which activates the actual color picker (you can also assign hotkeys to activate/deactivate the color picker, again, via settings). When the color picker is activated, your cursor turns into an eyedropper & is follwed by a zoomed-in "Preview Pane"- the Preview Pane width/height, along with its zoom level (from 7 to 15) can all be customized (you can also opt whether or not to display a grid)- and you can "test" it out & see how it'll look before actually saving the settings. Once activated, simply move around your screen & click- colors will be added to the most recent list. The Preview Pane displays the code of whichever color is beneath your cursor in real time as you move around- shown beneath that is the code of the last color picked. If tray-menu access is not enough & you want some kind of an interface, there is a menu item "Floating Panel"- this will bring up a small, floating dock/panel (about the hieght of a title bar). On the dock are 5 buttons: Activate (color picker), Color Codes menu, 10 most recent swatches menu, About menu (Settings, Help, & About), and finally a Close button. You can assign hotkeys for displaying the Floating Panel. For those needing just a simple color picker, you could leave it at that- never touching the last menu item- & have the best damn color picker out there (what with that tray menu access to the 10 most recent swatches placing it at a level above the rest). But for those in need of a bit more, there is another menu item (one which I hadn't even NOTICED until recently): Color Library- which, along with a separate window, opens up a whole other set of functions- expanding Ades' capabilities into the realm of color management. The Color Library window allows one to create, save, and export color "sets" (or palettes). You can activate the color picker & add colors that way- and/or manually add, or adjust picked colors, using the sliders. "Sets" can be saved as txt files- which Ades can open & view from within the Color Library window. Or one could open & read the text file as normal- having a list of colors- and their selected codes- for each project. Codes can be converted for each color. The sets can also be exported as Adobe color palette & swatch files- or even as an image (jpg, gif or png)! The image displays the colors as boxes, with their codes beneath- incredibly useful. I was so pleasantly surprised by how much Ades could do- it was like opening Mary Poppins bag haha. It's free! And the UI is nice, fresh, clean & modern & easy to use/understand. Tooltips/bubbles give tips- but can be turned off via settings if one finds them to be annoying. Ades is a 2-in-1 tool- a simple color picker but with an extra set of features that separate it from others, but also a color management tool as well. Highly reccommended.

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