Our 4 Favorite Colors Apps of 2026
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Generate colors that work best on your computer for graphic arts projects
Updated on January 20, 2026
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While working on a design project, you may need a quality color app. There are a variety of color apps for iOS and Android devices that you can use to create color swatches and palettes, render color codes, extract tones from photos, and visualize paint color changes in real-time.
Here are some of the best color apps worth exploring, whether you’re looking for a color code generator or need to create a palette to show a client.
Fastest Color Palette App: Color Viewfinder
What We Like
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A variety of layouts to choose from.
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Great design aesthetic.
What We Don’t Like
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Can’t manually select a palette.
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Access to the HEX codes requires an upgrade.
Color Viewfinder is a convenient app when you need to quickly create color palettes. This free iOS app automatically generates a color palette based on a photo on your device and requires little editing and changing.
You can add or remove color results from the generated palette, and the final selection of colors displays next to the original photo and their HEX color codes.
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Best Color Palette Inspiration App: Coolors
What We Like
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Great app for designers looking for inspiration.
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Export color palettes as PNG and PDF.
What We Don’t Like
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Exporting as SVG and SCSS is only available on the web app.
Coolors is a color palette generation app available on the web and as an iOS app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
Unlike palette apps that rely on a photo to generate a color swatch, Coolors quickly renders a randomly generated collection of tones when you click the space bar on the desktop or tap the screen on your iOS device.
After the initial palette rendering, colors can be edited via their HSB, RGB, CMYK, Pantone, and Copic numerical values. Save collections to a free Coolors account, exported as PNG, PDF, SVG, and SCSS files, or sent as an email.
You can also generate a unique URL for each color palette for others to view online.
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Best Overall Design App: Adobe Capture
What We Like
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Does more than create color palettes.
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All assets can be saved to Adobe Creative Cloud.
What We Don’t Like
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May not appeal to those not in the Adobe app ecosystem.
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Could overwhelm if you only want basics.
The free Adobe Capture app for iOS, like many other apps, can create color palettes by importing an image or taking a photo with your device’s camera. What sets it apart are the other features that make it an all-in-one destination for color and image creation and editing.
Adobe Capture can create digital brushes, render patterns from photos, and edit images for use in 3D artwork. All creations sync to the Adobe Creative Cloud and can be used in other Adobe programs such as Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, and InDesign.
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Best Color Match App: Color Grab
What We Like
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Export colors into Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
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Designed to easily match colors and create themes.
What We Don’t Like
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No dark mode.
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Can be difficult to navigate.
Color Grab is an incredible Android app for creatives—it does almost everything color-related that you could ask for. This app can detect colors from images and display their color values in up to 17 formats, from RGB and HEX to Web-Safe and YIQ.
What sets Color Grab apart are the additional features that allow you to adjust white levels, mix colors to create new colors, and use the matching screen to create your custom palette. The app and its features are also completely free with no ads.
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