# Palettes

> Tool for creating and managing color palettes from images, websites, and manual input. (iPhone/iPad app by Richard Maddy.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/palettes/id297157708 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Richard Maddy](https://appshunter.io/developer/287115069)
- Category: Productivity, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 3.60/5 from 23 App Store ratings · 78 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 8.1 · 18 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2008-11-21
- Data updated: 2026-07-03
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/palettes/id297157708/reviews.md

## What is Palettes?

Palettes is a powerful productivity tool for creating and maintaining color palettes. Great for creating color schemes. Now you can create a color palette anywhere at anytime. Grab colors from a photograph, a website, or add colors using any one of 5 color models. Quickly find matching colors with support for many different color schemes. You may create and store any number of palettes.

This application runs at one of three levels: Free, Basic, and Pro. The initial free version runs at the Pro level for a limited time allowing you to fully test the application. It will then revert back to the Free level. Use the included in-application purchasing to upgrade to either the Basic or Pro level at any time.

Key features include:

• Single universal application works on all your iOS devices including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
• Quickly create a color palette from a web site, image, camera, or color scheme.
• Unlimited number of palettes (Free only supports 3).
• 25 colors per palette (Free and Basic allows 5).
• Undo/Redo support.
• Import/Export palettes from/to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks, GIMP, Paintshop Pro, Procreate, and OS X Color Chooser. (Pro)
• Import/Export palettes via email. Team development made easy with one click import. (Pro)
• Backup and restore your Palettes data directly to/from your own computer, iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, or FTP servers. (Basic, Pro)
• Import and export palette files directly to/from your own computer, iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, FTP servers, or another app. (Pro)
• Email color palettes to friends and co-workers. (Pro adds more options)
• Pick colors from:
  • RGB, HSV (HSB), HSL, CMYK, or Gray scale sliders
  • Standard colors lists (SVG, Web Safe, HTML, Java, Apple) or other palettes.
  • A website URL (webpage, image, CSS file, 3rd party palette file (Pro)).
  • An image or camera.
  • Any valid CSS3 color representation.
• Create colors via:
  • Color blending (Pro adds using 1 of 4 color models).
  • Color schemes (monochromatic (Pro), analogous, triadic, complementary (Pro), split complementary (Pro)).
• Review color information:
  • Details (integer, hex, percent, decimal, CSS).
  • As both a foreground and background color.
• "Palette Flow" (not on iPad)
• Display a color full screen to compare against a real world item (press and hold color briefly).
• Palette preview screen.
• Backup a palette as an image in your photo library for later restore.
• Rename, reorder, or delete palettes.
• Sort palette colors by RGB, HSV/B, HSL, CMYK, or Gray color model.
• All work is saved as you go.
• Always remembers where you left off last.
• Built in context sensitive help system.
• Preferences can be set from within the application. (Basic, Pro)
• Excellent customer support.

Palettes can be used to create color palettes for:

• Web site design
• Marketing campaigns
• Home decorating
• Wardrobe
• Artists
• Color coordinating
• Anywhere colors are needed - just use your imagination

Please visit http://www.maddysoft.com/iphone/palettes to see a more complete set of screen shots and additional information on the features of "Palettes". The website includes contact information for leaving feedback, asking questions, or reporting any issues.

NOTE: Known limitation - this version is unable to import binary OS X palette files (.clr) from ~/Library/Colors.

NOTE: Screenshots are after upgrading to the Pro level.

## Key features

- Create palettes from photos, websites, or manually
- Supports RGB, HSV, HSL, CMYK, and Grayscale
- Import/export with design software
- Cloud backup and restore
- Color blending and schemes
- Color information display

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Upgrade Palettes Free to Palettes Basic | $1.99 | one-time |
| Upgrade Palettes Free to Palettes Pro | $3.99 | one-time |
| Upgrade Palettes Basic to Palettes Pro | $1.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (10 of 78)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/palettes/id297157708/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Ignores main colors

*2020-06-03, version 9.1*

I tested it on a photo with a large pink flower in the foreground and light greens and grays in the background. The 5-color palette generated had black, light green, and 3 identical medium grays. Worthless. I think it used to work the last time I tried it. I was thinking of upgrading, but won’t now.

### 1/5 — h

*2020-05-23, version 9.1*

hola

### 5/5 — Palettes on the go

*2020-05-19, version 9.1*

Sometimes I don’t want to be bound to my computer, I’d rather be designing outside with a pad & pen. This is a great app for experimenting in all modes (rgb, cmyk, etc) with all the info needed to share, email yourself, export in various handy modes. You initially get 5 free goes at the Pro version. I’ve purchased Basic it might be enough for me. Free might even be enough for you. Great app - give it a go. 

App Dev pls note: your Review link in the Info section is broken.

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2020-05-16, version 9.1*

Fantastic app, and easy to use - would definitely recommend!

Would be even better if it used the “slide over” feature, and, you were able to copy a single colour code from a palette to the clipboard.

### 1/5 — Great until everything gets deleted

*2020-02-09, version 9.1*

It’s great until the free trail deletes everything you worked on :(

### 5/5 — Palettes Pro

*2019-03-15, version 9.1*

Upgraded through the app so can’t leave a review under Palettes Pro.
This IS an amazing color organizer. Everything you could want plus more. Have tried many other similar apps but have now deleted them!
Palettes Pro is going to be an invaluable tool for my surface pattern projects.
Thank you! I so hope the developer continues to support this wonderful app😃

### 3/5 — Feature Request

*2019-01-16, version 9.1*

Please provide an option within the settings that allows users to select a white background.

### 1/5 — Save your money

*2018-10-24, version 9.1*

Cannot get app to do anything.  No instructions help screen is a joke

### 5/5 — Where has this been all my life?

*2018-03-04, version 9.0.2*

If there’s anything this app can’t do, I’ve not found it. Colors in, colors out, with any combos you demand...and I demand a lot. For example, easily took a palette from Pro rebate, yanked it in here, took it out to another app, and to Photoshop (different file formats, but did them both in the same step). I’ve seen zillions of color palette applications since the birth of Mac and Windows. This is the best. If you don’t like it, YOU have a problem.

As a nice extra, I had a usage issue and emailed the developer. He got back to me in an hour or so. On a Sunday. This review supersedes my previous review and rating, appended below.

For quality, the Pro version deserves five big stars. But see my title. I bought Pro on my iPad Air. Just opened on my iPad Pro. If there’s a way to do Restore Purchase it’s well hidden.

If there is a way, or Developer adds a way, this goes up to a rave Five Stars.

### 1/5 — black background ruins this

*2018-02-22, version 9.0.2*

Although this has some nice features, there's a very serious fundamental flaw: The black background skews colors. Here's why: Against black, all other colors look lighter than they would out in the real world. So you think you've got colors that are light enough, but when you get them out there against normal backgrounds, turns out they're darker than you thought. It's a fundamental flaw. The option to put a needle-thin white line around the color lineup doesn't make a difference.

Also, picking RGB colors is arduous. I can think of two other ways to do this that would be far easier.

## Frequently asked questions about Palettes

### What does Palettes do?

Palettes is a productivity tool designed for creating and maintaining color palettes. It allows users to extract colors from photographs, websites, or manually input them using various color models. The app helps in generating color schemes and organizing multiple palettes.

### What are the key features of Palettes?

Key features include creating palettes from images, websites, or cameras, supporting multiple color models (RGB, HSV, HSL, CMYK, Grayscale), generating color schemes, and offering import/export options for popular design software. It also provides cloud backup and restore functionality.

### How much does Palettes cost?

Palettes offers a free version with limited features. Users can upgrade to Basic or Pro levels through in-app purchases to unlock additional capabilities such as unlimited palettes, more colors per palette, and advanced import/export options.

### What devices is Palettes compatible with?

Palettes is a single universal application designed to work on all your iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. This ensures a consistent experience across your Apple ecosystem.

### What are common use cases for Palettes?

Palettes is useful for a wide range of applications including web design, marketing campaigns, home decorating, wardrobe coordination, and general artistic endeavors. Essentially, it can be used anywhere colors need to be organized or created.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 9.1 — 2018-09-21

Support for the new iPhone X models.

### 9.0.2 — 2018-01-15

Fixed issue with certain images appearing upsidedown in the color chooser.

### 9.0.1 — 2017-12-21

Bug Fixes
• Fixed issues importing certain Procreate swatches.
• Fixed crash when trying to backup an individual palette in iOS 11.
• Fixed potential issue exporting an individual palette with image via email in iOS 11.

### 9.0 — 2017-12-15

New Features
• Support for the iPhone X.
• Import and export Procreate swatches. (Pro)

Changes
• Updated the Wi-Fi data transfer instructions for iTunes 12.
• If you export a single palette in a single format, the one file is no longer zipped.

This update also fixes a few minor issues.

### 8.0 — 2017-03-06

Changes
• Requires iOS 8.1 or greater.
• Access to iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box now use the respective native app.

Bug Fixes
• Fixed possible problem with image color picker.
• Fixed a few other minor issues.

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## More apps by Richard Maddy

- [Palettes Pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/palettes-pro/id293249989)
- [iLogger](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ilogger/id319110300)
- [MyStuff2 Pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mystuff2-pro/id550892332)

All apps by Richard Maddy: https://appshunter.io/developer/287115069

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-07-03.*