Old Jewel Painter's Picker 2.0

Product Review: Page (1) of 3 - 05/20/04

Old Jewel Painter's Picker 2.0 Color picker and color scheme generator for Mac OS X By Dave Nagel When I first reviewed Painter's Picker 1.0 last year, I was impressed by the mere fact of its existence as much as anything else. Painter's Picker, from Old Jewel Software, is an add-on for Mac OS X that provides not only enhanced color picking capabilities, but RYB (and RGB) color scheme generation within any application that supports the built-in color picker in Mac OS X. Painter's Picker 2.0, just recently released, takes this great idea and refines even further.

Now, as I say, Painter's Picker is a system-wide color picker. What this means is that unlike other color scheme generators--such as the super-fine Color Theory from Digital Anarchy--Painter's Picker can be used in any application that supports the system picker, which includes everything from basic apps like Mail and Text Edit to pro apps like Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro and a wide range of others.

So what do you need another color picker for?

Ah, well here's a look at the basic color picker and Painter's Picker, side by side.

Just looking at these you can see there are some critical differences in control, usability and color scheme functionality. Oh, and did I mention it's shareware?

Color scheme generation
What attracted me to Painter's Picker in the first place was its ability to generate color schemes right from the system picker. Not just color schemes, but RYB color schemes! (Most other software developers give you RGB color scheme generators, which are about as useful as a stubbed toe for design work.) You can select to use either an RYB or RGB hue wheel right within the interface.