colorpicker

A color picker is a graphical user interface control that enables a user to select a color. It is commonly found in graphic design software, image editors, and web forms, where color selection is required for drawing, styling, or branding. Color pickers typically provide mechanisms to choose hue, saturation, and brightness, as well as numerical or textual representations.

Common designs include color wheels or circular hue pickers, square or rectangular gradient areas for adjusting saturation and brightness, and sliders for hue, alpha (transparency), or individual color channels. Some pickers combine multiple controls, allowing users to adjust RGB, HSL, HSV, or CMYK values, and to input or copy hex codes. An eye dropper tool is frequently included to sample colors from the screen or canvas.

Colors can be represented in several formats, with RGB and hexadecimal (HEX) being the most common on the web. Other representations include HSL and HSV, and sometimes CMYK for print workflows. Color pickers often provide conversion between these spaces and may show the corresponding color values in real time.

Key features include swatches or palettes for recent or favorite colors, alpha transparency control, keyboard accessibility, and, in advanced tools, color management integration for consistency across devices. Web environments may use native input type="color" controls or custom libraries to offer consistent styling across browsers.

Accessibility considerations involve clear labeling, focus indicators, sufficient contrast in contrasty modes, and full keyboard operability. Native pickers vary in appearance by platform, while custom pickers offer more consistent behavior at the cost of increased implementation effort.