Windows Developer Power Tools

23.8 Grabbing Color Values with ColorMania

Designing with colors on a computer can be very difficult. It’s hard to get the colors just right for a unique or appealing design. Too often, an application’s default color dialogs are too simple and are just not up to the task of letting you work with advanced color tones.

ColorMania is a color picker utility designed specifically for this task. It gives you full control over color management.

ColorMania at a Glance
Tool	ColorMania
Version covered	2.4
Home page	http://www.blacksunsoftware.com
Power Tools page	http://www.windevpowertools.com/tools/170
Summary	Color picker that gives you complete control over color selection and modification
License type	Freeware
Online resources	Email
Related tools in this book	Magnifixer

Getting Started

ColorMania runs on 32-bit Windows platforms: Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

ColorMania’s setup file is an executable that you can download from its web site. After installation, the necessary shortcuts will be created in the Start panel.

Using ColorMania

ColorMania has a simple, straightforward interface. One specific color is always selected and shown in the UI’s top-left corner (Figure 23-29).

Figure 23-29. ColorMania’s UI

You can change the working colors in a number of ways. First, the two sets of scroll ...