Comparison

Values at Play vs ChromaMagic

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Values at Play

This app helps users practice identifying and analyzing values in art. It offers tools to create value studies, inspect specific color values, and find areas matching a chosen value. Users can import their own images for practice.

Highlights
  • Create value studies from images
  • Import custom images
  • Inspect Denman Ross and RGB values
  • Find points matching selected values
  • Colorized value studies
  • Full-screen value study viewing
Features
Read full description

Use "Values at Play" to practice seeing values in art. Practice with one of the images included in the app or import your own image. Values at Play includes: VALUE STUDY Create a Value Study for any image. Choose the number of values to include in the study, and the value study will be created within seconds! View the value study full-screen, and easily toggle between it and the original image. Create "colorized" value studies. IMAGE INSPECTOR Use Image Inspector to find the Denman Ross Value and RGB value of any point on an image. VALUE FINDER Find all the points on an image with the value you've selected. VALUES-TAC-TOE Drag the cross hair to a precise location on the image you've selected. Do you know the value at that point? If so, you're on your way to a "Values-Tac-Toe." If not, keep practicing.

About

ChromaMagic

This app helps artists identify and understand colors in reference images. It breaks down colors into hue, value, and chroma, offering multiple modes to analyze color relationships and value shapes. Enhance your painting by truly seeing and mixing colors accurately.

Highlights
  • Identify hue, value, and chroma
  • Munsell color mode
  • Value shape organization
  • Grayscale value analysis
  • Color saturation analysis
  • Color wheel distribution view
  • Zoomable and pannable images
Read full description

ChromaMagic - the magical color tool for artists - now with LIVE camera views. Have you ever been painting and said 'but what *is* that color?' Me too! ChromaMagic exists for one reason only. My paintings looked wrong. I just couldn't get the colors in my paintings to look convincing. Try as I might there was always something off. Too bright, too light, too gray, not gray enough. Too blue, too brown, too pink. Why oh why could I not make things work? Well it turned out it wasn't in the paint. It wasn't in the mixing. Special brushes didn't do the trick. Making those daft color charts didn't help either. And it wasn't even in the way I put the paint on the paper. The problem was in my brain. The problem was that I had no chance of mixing the right color. I was missing an essential part of the painting process. Something that would take years if not decades to figure out. And the reason was that I wasn't *seeing* the right color. Now I don't mean there was something wrong with my eyesight. What I mean that I was 'seeing' color but I wasn't really seeing *COLOR*. I didn't have the words or the means to really understand what I was looking at. And if we don't really know what we're looking at how on earth can we translate it into paint? Even if we don't want to represent what we see how do we know what to change to enhance the effect? Flip a coin? Trust chance and experimentation? Repeat for years and years until we stumble on something that works....? No. So what changed? Everything changed. I learned to forget about primaries, secondaries and tertiaries. I learned to ditch the traditional artists wheel. I learned to stop talking about 'warm' and 'cool'. I learned to see color the way it is and not the way I expect it to be. I had to forget everything I had been told. I learned about hue, value, and chroma. Munsell. With ChromaMagic you can load up any photo or reference and see at a glance what any color is. And the colors are described in a way that is most natural for artists. What is the hue (red, yellow, green etc)? Yes! And what is the value (very important)? Yes! And what is the chroma (how gray or saturated it is)? Yes!!! Color makes so much more sense now. But there's more! As well as the Munsell color mode (which is fabulous by itself!) there are 4 extra modes to help you really see what is before us. - Want to organize your reference into the major value shapes? Value mode will do that and you can change the number of value steps with a click of the mouse. - Want to reduce your reference to just grayscale to really see those fine-grained values? Yes! - Want to see how saturated or gray your colors are (this is always surprising!). Yes! - Want to see how your colors are distributed around the color wheel? Yes And yet there's still more: - No more clicking around - ChromaMagic has a fantastic new interface with buttery smooth zoomable, pannable images. - No more need to be tethered to wifi. Take ChromaMagic anywhere - even up a mountain! - Too many colors in your reference? Average your colors over multiple pixels - 2500 of them if you want to. - Want to know which paints are available for a certain color? ChromaMagic now has links to hundreds of top quality oil paints. - Want to use ChromaMagic at home? On the bus? On a tablet? Now you can run it on your iphone, ipad or mac. All for one price! - No more silly loading buttons. Drag and drop your files in one swish on the desktop (Bliss!!) - Use ChromaMagic next to the easel for mixing. Now with mixing swatches and calibration values (no need for $1500 Munsell chips)

Screenshots

Values at Play4 screens
ChromaMagic4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Values at Play at Free against ChromaMagic's $19.99. Values at Play also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and review sentiment (100% vs 91%). ChromaMagic's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (52 vs 5). On update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Values at Play is free to download; ChromaMagic costs $19.99 up front. Values at Play sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ChromaMagic asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Values at Play holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ChromaMagic has 52 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Values at Play's written reviews are positive against 91% of ChromaMagic's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Values at Play ships an update every 5 months, ChromaMagic every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on September 16, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Values at Play versus ChromaMagic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterValues at PlayChromaMagic
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better4.8 (52 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better90.9% of reviews
Number of ratings552 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#10 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB125 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNeil DalyMichele Clamp

Customer experience

Values at Play

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

ChromaMagic

All ratings52 ratings
Positive92.3%
Neutral3.8%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews33 reviews
Positive90.9%
Neutral6.1%
Negative3.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Values at Play

One-time1
  • Values at Play Unlimited$4.99
None

ChromaMagic

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Values at Play free?
Values at Play is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ChromaMagic free?
ChromaMagic costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Values at Play or ChromaMagic?
Values at Play is rated higher. Values at Play averages 5.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while ChromaMagic averages 4.8 from 52 ratings.
Do Values at Play or ChromaMagic have ads?
Neither Values at Play nor ChromaMagic shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Values at Play or ChromaMagic?
Values at Play ships an update every 5 months, and ChromaMagic every 7 months. Most recently, Values at Play was updated on September 16, 2026 and ChromaMagic on September 22, 2026.

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