Palette Checker vs Painter's Tools

Palette Checker allows you to load an image and analyze it by color, including a color plot over a Munsell color wheel, value (grayscale), saturation (how vivid a color is), 3-values (light, middle, dark) and Notan (dark/light). Designed for artists, the image can be any photograph, allowing you to analyze your artwork and your reference photos. If you’ve ever wondered what an image would look like if you were able to collect the colors together into groups, then this is the app for you. The app takes an image and groups the colors at three different levels of groupings, so you can choose between “most”, “middle” and “least” amount of colors to suit your image. Each level can be analyzed in any of ten ways. As you know, an image is made up of a number of pixels - squares of color. The number of pixels in an image is referred to as its resolution. In the Free version, you are limited to work in the lowest resolution (i.e. reduced magnification). That is usually enough to get a great understanding of your image, and many people stay at that level. Upgrading to the Professional version allows you to work with a greater number of pixels in your image (typically 2x and 4x that of the lowest resolution). Gain insights into images like never before. Perfect for artists who are feeling a little "stuck" with their photo references or their own pieces of art. Also helpful for abstract artists wanting to know how their art looks in terms of color profile. For instance, are there two colors competing for saturation? Is everything a mid-gray when it is reduced to black and white? What does the Notan design look like? In Color Picker mode, you can look at individual pixels for its RGB (red, green, blue), HSV (hue, saturation, value) and color-family. RGB and HSV are used in computer graphics programs to describe a color. Color Picker mode gives you a color disk that you can use to mix your paint to when trying to color match your reference. In the Professional version, you can export the image and any of the analysis graphs to your camera roll. As an artist, you will find this app hugely useful in your practice as a pair of “fresh eyes” and to help you come up with ideas to move your art forwards. It’s also fascinating to analyze all sorts of images to give you artistic ideas. Try it for free to start with. See how you get on. If you like it, please consider upgrading to go Ad-free and to get the extra functionality of the Professional level.

Paint what you see, not what you think you see. Painter's Tools turns any reference photo into a value study, a mixing recipe and a measured drawing guide, built for oil, acrylic, watercolor and gouache painters. Tap any color in your reference and get a recipe from the paints on your own palette. Squint at the big shapes. Check your drawing against the photo. All in one calm, focused studio. VALUES • Switch to a pure value view to judge light and dark without color in the way • Push the contrast to separate close values SHAPES • Simplify any scene into 2 to 8 flat value groups for a quick notan or value study • See the big masses to block in first COLOR MIXING • Tap any spot for a mixing recipe made only from the paints you own • Compare the target color with the predicted mix and see how close it is • Hold to magnify and sample exactly the spot you want • Build your palette from 12 classic pigments, including titanium white, cadmium red, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna COMPARE • Photograph your painting and overlay it on the reference • Blend between them, or hold to flash back and forth, and drawing errors jump out MEASURE AND GRID • Set your canvas size and measure any distance in inches or centimeters • Lay a transfer grid by count or spacing that matches the one on your canvas CROP TO YOUR CANVAS • Crop your reference to standard canvas sizes from 8×10 to 24×36, portrait or landscape, or any custom size BUILT FOR THE STUDIO • A dark, neutral interface that won't skew how you judge color • Designed for iPhone and iPad • No account, no ads. Your photos never leave your device. Whether you paint plein air or in the studio, Painter's Tools helps you get values, color and proportions right before the paint goes on.