Accurately sampling, storing and adjusting colors is vital for designers, developers and hobbyists. On Windows and Mac, standalone color picker tools abound – but open source options for Linux remain relatively scattered.
This guide compares five of the most popular pickers for Linux, examining their approach, architecture and unique strengths. It also shares power user tips to truly harness the potential of color picking in your workflows. Let‘s dive in.
The Utility of Color Pickers
Before assessing individual offerings, we should ground ourselves in why color pickers matter:
- Workflow integration – Instantly sample assets without interrupting creative flow
- Palette design – Curate, export and share groups of harmonious colors
- Asset coordination – Match website colors to brand guidelines via values
- Creative exploration – Tweak hues, saturations to conjure new ideas
- Programming helpers – Integrate color codes into scripts, stylesheets
Dedicated pickers empower all such use cases. But how do Linux options stack against proprietary giants like Photoshop?
Rating Criteria for Linux Color Pickers
We assessed pickers across five vectors:
Functionality: Accuracy in sampling colors from reference assets and capacity for fine tuning values.
Features: Tools for magnifying picks, generating schemes, exporting codes and customizing workflows.
Ease of Use: Quality of UI/UX design paired with configuration flexibility.
Performance: Memory usage, rendering time and impacts on system resources.
Community Support: Release cadence, responsiveness from core developers and ecosystem buy-in.
With criteria defined, let‘s spotlight five exemplary open source pickers.
1. Gpick – Feature-Packed Color Wizard
Gpick tops Linux color picker discussions for good reason – its Swiss army knife utility. Developed in C++ and leveraging the GTK+ toolkit, Gpick enjoys wide cross-distro support and integration with GNOME desktops.
Functionality – Gpick samples colors with a versatile picker featuring zoom views. Its color wheel enables fine value adjustments via HSV channels. Batch editing brings color coordination bliss. 4.5/5
Features – Everything from multi-format importing to color scheme generators makes Gpick incredibly versatile. It even extracts colors from reference images automatically. 5/5
Ease of Use – Despite developer-oriented roots, Gpick offers polished workflows thanks to logical UI grouping of editing tools, swatches and color information. 4/5
Performance – Written in C++ and running natively, Gpick avoids resource overheads plauging Electron apps. Lightning fast response even when loading high resolution images. Tests clock CPU usage at ~1% and memory below 75 MB. 4.5/5
Community Support – 1K GitHub stars, 10K+ downloads via package managers monthly and engaged developer support reinforce an active project. Regular GitHub releases answer user requests. 5/5
Gpick shines all-round as a color picker anchored in open source ideals. Install it across major distros via package managers or build from source if you value customization. For manipulating colors, very little beats it.
2. Gcolor3 – Minimalist Perfection for GNOME
Gcolor3 delivers a quintessentially GNOME color picking experience – polished, focused and lightweight. Developed in C as part of the official GNOME suite, Gcolor3 leverages GTK+ 3 for rendering its minimalist UI.
Functionality – Gcolor3 samples colors accurately from reference material or via a visual picker. Value adjustment occurs via HSV channels. Functional but somewhat limited relative to Gpick. 3/5
Features – Gcolor3 focuses on doing a few things very well: picking colors, copying values, bookmarking samples via tags and tweaking HSV parameters. 4/5
Ease of Use – The clutter free UI ensures you‘re never more than a click or two away from your desired action, especially for saving and exporting picks. GNOME native integration adds further convenience. 5/5
Performance – Written in C and optimized for GNOME ecosystems, Gcolor3 flies even on lower spec hardware. Negligible CPU and RAM overheads keep your system humming. 4.5/5
Community Support – Given its ties as a GNOME Platform App, Gcolor3 enjoys great support. 10+ year history with regular commits and maintenance releases. Lower traction on GitHub though relative to other featured pickers. 4/5
Gcolor3 sets the standard for integrated color picking workflows in GNOME-based Linux environments. If that matches your desktop or workflow, grab it for unmatched convenience. Otherwise explore more versatile options.
3. KColorChooser – Feature-Packed Powerhouse for KDE
No Linux roundup would be complete without a KDE contribution. Enter KColorChooser – the KDEGraphics project‘s venerable color picking solution. Built atop the Qt framework (C++ based), KColorChooser delivers utility beyond its barebones looks.
Functionality – Packed with advanced sampling tools like multi-point pickers and hue ring selectors, KColorChooser enables nuanced color isolation and adjustment workflows. 5/5
Features – HTML, SVG and legacy color code conversion join the party alongside color blending algorithms and CMYK refinement capacity for print designers. Advanced functionality permeates the modest interface. 5/5
Ease of Use – KColorChooser adherence‘s to KDE design conventions will reassure users of that desktop environment. But customization toggles also cater to power users fond of keyboard shortcuts and layout adjustments. 4/5
Performance – Leveraging Qt‘s performance optimizations paired with C++ foundations, KColorChooser offers excellent all-round speed and efficiency. Add the capacity to finesse sampler nib radius and it‘s a pixel perfect pickup. 4.5/5
Community Support – 20 year development history and inclusion as part of KDE Graphics inspires confidence. Lower issue volume on GitHub than Gpick but similar release cadence. Caters directly to its strong community roots. 4/5
KColorChooser sets the pace for integrated color manipulation in KDE-centric Linux workflows much like Gcolor3 does for GNOME. Customization and conversion propel it beyond a basic picker into an advanced color coordination toolkit.
4. Colorpicker – Stylish Electron Newcomer
Electron apps tend to polarize Linux users – slick interfaces anchored in web technology at the cost of higher resource demands. Colorpicker, created by developer Utkarsh Verma, consciously straddles these worlds.
Functionality – Colorpicker accurately samples color values from reference material, empowers manual value configuration via HSL/HEX channels and offers color harmony assistance. Picking functionality meets key user needs. 4/5
Features – Handy tools like personalized color cataloging, always visible value copying and dynamic interface re-coloring based on choices reveal Colorpicker‘s attention to detail. 4/5
Ease of Use – The muted interface directs focus onto colors themselves while offering conveniences like pinned picked values and detected clipboard colors. Feels considered rather than cluttered. 5/5
Performance – As an Electron powered app, higher base resource usage is unavoidable. However, developer Utkarsh has implemented optimizations allowing smooth performance even on low spec hardware. Responsiveness never feels compromised. 3.5/5
Community Support – As a younger project, Colorpicker unsurprisingly trails alternatives in contributors and external package support. However its GitHub stars and user sentiment reinforce positive momentum. 3/5
Blending stylish presentation with user-centric design, Colorpicker manages to feel distinctly modern without alienating Linux purists. Install it easily from major snapcraft repositories for a contemporary color picking experience.
5. Pick – Python Powered Pixel Precision
Pick distinguishes itself through austere aesthetic and workflow minimalism. Developer Utkarsh Verma (also creator of Colorpicker) envisioned a lightweight picker closely aligned to Linux design ethos. The result – a tool focused wholly on usable utility built in Python and GTK+.
Functionality – Core color sampling workflows in Pick feel no-fuss and accurate. You can override values manually through supported color standards like RGB, HSL, HEX etc. Meeting demands without indulging bloat. 4/5
Features – The ability to screenshot an area pre-color selection stands as Pick‘s banner feature. Beyond that, it focuses on value precision formatting, copying ease of use and color recording/tracking. 3.5/5
Ease of Use – The pared back single window interface spells convenience for users. Settings offer light personalization like always on top without complicating. Hardcore Linux fans will appreciate Pick‘s ethos. 4/5
Performance – Python foundations paired with GTK+ propels Pick to blazing sampling speeds with negligible hardware overhead. Leave it idling in the background without a care while focusing creative efforts elsewhere. 5/5
Community Support – Still actively maintained but definitely trails other featured pickers in contributors and user volume due to its nouveau status. But GitHub issues receive prompt developer feedback revealing commitment. 3/5
For those craving a featherlight color picking experience stripped of all but essentials, Pick delivers. Install it via Snapcraft or pypi pip and integrate it elegantly across your Linux workspace thanks to Python underpinnings.
Architectural Advantages
Beyond individual merits, analyzing the foundations fueling these pickers provides insight into performance optimization.
| Name | Language | Toolkit/Framework |
|---|---|---|
| Gpick | C++ | GTK+ |
| Gcolor3 | C | GTK+ 3 |
| KColorChooser | C++ | Qt 5 |
| Colorpicker | JS, CSS | Electron |
| Pick | Python | GTK+ |
Native languages like C/C++ dominate for a reason – runtime speed and lower abstraction from the Linux kernel results in lightweight software integrating tightly across Linux distros.
Whereas frameworks like Qt and GTK+ optimize rendering performance thanks to cross platform support. Electron trades resources for slick UX. And Python boosts developer velocity given its gentle learning curve and vast libraries.
So consider your priorities. Optimization geeks should explore C++/GTK+ solutions like Gpick. Designers gravitate to Electron apps like Colorpicker. And Developers wanting to build custom integrations would thrive with Python/GTK+ projects like Pick.
But enough software comparison – what about integrating color picking into supercharged Linux workflows?
Level Up Your Picker Game
Hopefully we‘ve built context for the utilities color pickers bring to creative Linux ventures. But truly harnessing their power requires tailored integration. Here are some tips:
Make Sampling Snappy with Keyboards
Most pickers allow binding samplers and other functions to keyboard shortcuts. For example initiating Gpick‘s dropper via Ctrl + Shift + C. This keeps your workspace fluid.
Script Color Integrations with Bash
Imagine executing a script to automatically sample your current Vim colorscheme into a Gpick palette for porting elsewhere. Bash command chaining unlocks this automation.
Let Community Expand Horizons
Leverage picker repositories on Github as springboards for ideas. See cool user customizations, workflows or scripts you could replicate using open APIs.
Extend Software with CLI Integration
Imagine running pick --hex FF3097 to instantly preview a color in Pick without clicking around GUI. CLI accessibility boosts developer utility.
Strengthen Desktop Synergy
Custom picker settings to color samples your wallpaper for on-theme accents. Or have it automatically import your VSCode IDE palette for previewing. Opportunities abound.
And with that we conclude our tour of Linux color picking. Hopefully the options and optimization tips provide ideas on integrating color workflows into your next creative endeavor!