Gimp: Pick color on screen without taking screenshot

color gimp screenshot

Question

Sometimes I want to quickly use a color that I see on a picture, website or program.

I usually take a screenshot then open it in Gimp and use the "Color Picker" tool.

Is there another way to do this in Gimp, without the screenshot step?

Or is it a bad idea to begin with?

I am on Linux, but I would appreciate a method that works on all platforms where GIMP is available.

1
8
6/1/2017 2:39:00 AM

Accepted Answer

You can use the color picker button in GIMP's color selection dialog or dockable (the one that opens e.g. when you change the foreground or background color).

FB/GB color dockable

It works like this:

  1. you click the color picker button button
  2. you click anywhere on your screen
  3. the color is set

You will encounter one issue, however:

On 32 bit Windows platforms, the only color you'll be able to pick this way is black - this is a problem in the Cairo library on those platforms, see bug reports https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=676708 for GIMP and https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69617 for Cairo.

8
2/2/2017 9:39:00 PM

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