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How to pick a color from anywhere on your Mac screen

Need the exact blue from a website, a brand color from a PDF, or the shade in a photo? Copy it as a hex code in two seconds.

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Steps

  1. Press ⇧⌘2 and drag a box around the area with the color.
  2. Press C. A magnifier follows your pointer and shows the exact pixel and its value.
  3. Click the pixel you want. The color lands in the clipboard as a swatch with its hex code.
  4. Paste it into Figma, CSS, Keynote or a message.

Tips

  • Prefer rgb(47, 107, 255)? Switch Copy colors as in Settings › General.
  • Every color you pick stays under Colors in the clipboard, so you can build a palette as you go.

Without Pluck

macOS includes Digital Color Meter in Applications › Utilities. It shows the value under your pointer; you lock it and copy it from the Color menu, and it doesn't keep a list of what you picked.