Comparison

ChromaMagic vs PaintMuse

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

Head to head
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)

About

PaintMuse

Features
Read full description

PaintMuse is a private AI oil painting planner for artists and visual creators. Organize painting projects, add a source photo, sketch, or written subject, choose planning tools for composition, value, color, or painting reference, then generate visual directions you can compare, save, vary, and export. Use PaintMuse to: - Keep painting projects, references, studies, and exports together - Turn a subject, photo, sketch, or idea into clearer composition options - Explore value plans, color directions, and painting reference candidates - Compare candidates before committing to a final painting direction - Export references for use in your own painting workflow PaintMuse is designed as a planning workspace, not a legal rights clearance service or copyright guarantee. You are responsible for the materials you upload and how you use any outputs. Credits are used for generation and premium exports. Standard export is free. Subscriptions can unlock additional workflow controls and higher usage limits. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://pt.mindsle.com/legal/privacy/ Terms of Service: https://pt.mindsle.com/legal/terms/

Screenshots

ChromaMagic4 screens
PaintMuse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PaintMuse at Free against ChromaMagic's $19.99. ChromaMagic's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and chart position (#10 vs unranked). On ads 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

PaintMuse is free to download; ChromaMagic costs $19.99 up front. PaintMuse sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. ChromaMagic asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
ChromaMagic versus PaintMuse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChromaMagicPaintMuse
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (52 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews90.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings52 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 7 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#10 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS13.0 — better18.3
Further details — not scored
Size125 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMichele Clamp巍魏 吴

In-app purchases

None

ChromaMagic

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

PaintMuse

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$14.991 Month
  • Studio Monthly$39.991 Month
One-time3
  • Credits Small$4.99
  • Credits Medium$9.99
  • Credits Large$19.99

Questions

Is ChromaMagic free?
ChromaMagic costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is PaintMuse free?
PaintMuse is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ChromaMagic or PaintMuse have ads?
Neither ChromaMagic nor PaintMuse shows ads.

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