Color Picker from Image
A color picker from an image is a tool that identifies the dominant colors in a photo and returns their hex, RGB, or HSL values. PhotoTones is a free color picker from image that returns up to 12 colors per photo, in under a second, without uploading the image anywhere.
Two Kinds of Image Color Picking
"Color picker from image" can mean two different things. Pick the one that matches your workflow:
1. Dominant color picker (what PhotoTones does)
Returns the 6 — 12 most perceptually dominant colors in a photo as a complete palette. Best for:
- Building a brand palette from a logo or product shot
- Extracting a color scheme for a website or app
- Generating a mood board palette for a photo shoot
- Starting a design system from a single hero image
2. Pixel-perfect eyedropper
Picks the exact color of a single pixel you click. This is what tools like Photoshop's Eyedropper or Chrome's DevTools Color Picker do. PhotoTones doesn't do single-pixel picking — for that, use Photoshop, Figma, or the built-in macOS Digital Color Meter.
Use PhotoTones to pick dominant colors
Upload a photo, get up to 12 hex codes. Free and private.
Open the Color Palette from Image GeneratorHow PhotoTones Picks Colors
- Loads the image in browser memory via the HTML5 Canvas API — nothing is uploaded.
- Runs the Vibrant.js algorithm to categorize the 6 most dominant colors into Vibrant, Dark Vibrant, Light Vibrant, Muted, Dark Muted, and Light Muted.
- Supplements with ColorThief (on Pro) via k-means clustering for 8–12 total colors.
- Deduplicates colors within 30 units of RGB distance and sorts the final palette by HSL hue.
- Displays each color as a swatch with one-click copy for hex, RGB, and HSL codes.
Common Questions
Is PhotoTones a color picker or a color palette generator?
Both. PhotoTones picks the dominant colors from a photo and returns them as a full palette. If you only need one hex code, just click the most relevant swatch.
Can I pick a specific pixel color?
Not directly — PhotoTones focuses on dominant colors, not single-pixel picking. For pixel-perfect sampling, use Photoshop's Eyedropper, macOS Digital Color Meter, or Chrome DevTools.
Does PhotoTones work on mobile?
Yes. PhotoTones is fully responsive and works in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on iOS and Android. Upload from your camera roll and copy hex codes directly to your clipboard.