Comparison

Opalite vs PainterLab

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

Head to head
About

Opalite

This app helps designers, developers, and artists manage colors. It offers multiple ways to pick colors, organize them into libraries, check accessibility, simulate color blindness, and export palettes to various design tools. Users can also share and discover palettes within a community.

Highlights
  • Multiple color picking methods
  • Palette library organization
  • WCAG contrast checker
  • Color blindness simulation
  • AI-powered color naming
  • Export to Procreate, CSS, SwiftUI
  • Community palette sharing
Features
Read full description

Take control of your colors. Pick colors from photos, check WCAG contrast, simulate color blindness, and export palettes to Procreate, SwiftUI, CSS, and Adobe — all in one app. Opalite is the color toolkit designers, developers, and digital artists actually use, built natively for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. ▸ PICK COLORS SIX WAYS Spectrum for precise hues Grid of preset swatches Channel sliders for fine-tuning Hex, RGB, HSL, and CMYK codes, with paste from any design tool Shuffle for instant inspiration Sample from photos, the camera, or anything on your Mac's screen ▸ UNDERSTAND EVERY COLOR Codes in every format, one tap to copy Harmonies: complementary, analogous, triadic, tetradic, and split Tints, shades, and tones Name suggestions powered by Apple Intelligence ▸ ORGANIZE YOUR LIBRARY Unlimited colors, free forever Palettes with notes, tags, preview backgrounds, and archiving Drag and drop between palettes, manual ordering Search your whole library instantly iCloud sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Vision Pro ▸ DESIGN FOR EVERYONE WCAG contrast checker with AA and AAA results Color vision simulation — protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia, achromatopsia — across the whole app ▸ DRAW ON CANVAS Apple Pencil and PencilKit, with hover Shapes, placed images, and SVG placement A swatch strip that sets your ink from any palette One canvas free, unlimited with Onyx ▸ JOIN THE COMMUNITY Publish colors and palettes for creators worldwide Browse and search what others share Save Community colors and palettes to your library (Onyx) ▸ EXPORT ANYWHERE Opalite files, PNG, and PDF portfolios Procreate swatches, Adobe ASE, GIMP palettes, CSS, and SwiftUI (Onyx) Quick Look previews and thumbnails for Opalite files ▸ EVERYWHERE YOU WORK SwatchBar: a slim window for copying hex codes and picking ink beside other apps on iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro Siri and Shortcuts, Spotlight, Home Screen quick actions, and widgets An iMessage app for sending swatches, and a Share Extension that samples colors from any image A watch complication, and an immersive color constellation on Vision Pro ▸ SIMPLE PRICING Free: unlimited colors, 5 palettes, 1 canvas, every picker, the contrast checker, and Community browsing Onyx: $9.99 once, forever — unlimited palettes and canvases, Community saves, and pro export formats No accounts, no ads, no tracking. Your library lives in your own iCloud. Indie-made by Molargik Software LLC. Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

PainterLab

Features
Read full description

PainterLab turns any photo into a practical painting study you can observe, simplify, and mix from. It is not a coloring game, and it does not paint for you. PainterLab helps painters and art students understand color shapes, value structure, and temperature relationships, then translate selected screen colors into real-paint mixing ideas. SIMPLIFY COMPLEX SCENES Organize a busy photo into clear, paintable color shapes. Explore natural color blocks, limited palettes, and region-based forms, then adjust detail and smoothing for your study. SEE THE VALUE STRUCTURE Compress an image into 2–10 value levels to study large light-and-dark relationships, grayscale organization, and Notan. Use the adjustable histogram to control each value boundary. UNDERSTAND COLOR TEMPERATURE Compare cool, neutral, and warm relationships across the image. Adjust balance and smoothing to reveal the overall temperature structure more clearly. TURN SCREEN COLORS INTO REAL PAINT Select a color from the original photo or a simplified color shape. PainterLab uses your chosen paint palette to suggest practical paint combinations and mixing proportions. You can also photograph your mixed paint and compare it with the target color. BUILD YOUR OWN PAINT PALETTES Choose the physical paints you already own and organize them into custom palettes. Mixing recipes are calculated using the palette selected for each study. SAVE EVERY STUDY Your source photo, observation modes, adjustments, and sampled colors are saved in the Study Library, so you can return and continue practicing at any time. KEY FEATURES • Photo-to-color-shape simplification • Value studies and Notan analysis • Warm and cool color-temperature analysis • Color sampling and real-paint mixing recipes • Custom physical-paint palettes • Study Library with automatic saving • On-device photo processing PainterLab includes free basic features. PainterLab Pro unlocks unlimited studies, additional simplification styles, fine detail controls, and other advanced features. Subscription options and local pricing are shown by the App Store before purchase and can be managed or canceled through your App Store account. Privacy Policy: https://wavecave-studio.uk/painterlab/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://wavecave-studio.uk/painterlab/terms-of-service

Screenshots

Opalite4 screens
PainterLab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Opalite at 5 against PainterLab's 3. PainterLab's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.4). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Opalite sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year and PainterLab sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Opalite versus PainterLab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOpalitePainterLab
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.415.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNicholas Molargik建波 胡

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Opalite

Subscriptions1
  • Onyx - Annual$4.991 Year
One-time1
  • Onyx Lifetime$19.99
2 purchases

PainterLab

Subscriptions2
  • PainterLab Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • PainterLab Pro Annual3 Days trial$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Opalite free?
Opalite is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PainterLab free?
PainterLab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Opalite or PainterLab have ads?
Neither Opalite nor PainterLab shows ads.

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