I’ve actually been launching Photoshop here and there to get my color picker (ridiculous, I know), or if I manage to remember, preview + color picker.
It’s time to set up a real hex color picker.
First, let’s make the color picker an executable app.
Push CMD + Space, and run AppleScript Editor
In the window that appears, type in “choose color”.
Save it as an app in the “file format” field, and name it what you’d like.
Now I’d go ahead and give it the icon of the Digital Color Meter and throw it on the dock:
Install HexColorPicker
Download file at http://wafflesoftware.net/hexpicker/
and move the HexColorPicker.colorPicker to your ~/Library/ColorPickers
You’re done — start the app and look at your shiny new tab on the right.
Yuji Tomita 
YOU’RE WONDERFUL! thank you for this handy app.
How do you “give the icon of the Digital Color Meter” to the app you just made? I was able to do everything else according to your instructions above, but that step was unclear to me. Please clarify. Thanks!
Search for DigitalColor or any other app you like the icon for, open up its folder information (cmd+I), click on the icon at the top that you’d like to copy, push CMD+C.
The icon is now copied to your clipboard.
This time, push CMD+I on the folder you’d like to apply the style to.
Now, just push CMD+V to apply the icon.
You can also drag the preview from one CMD+I window to the little icon at the top of another CMD+I window.
Thank you for the quick response, Yuji!! It worked!!
Not a problem. Enjoy! : )
To change the icon of something to any image on your computer, you can open an image in preview (double click it), select it, and copy (command + c). Perform a get info on the application, click on the icon in the upper left corner, then paste (command + v). If you have a jpeg and don’t want the background color in the icon, you can use the instant alpha selector in preview to select the background, then hit delete. You can then save it as a png, which will allow a transparent background (in Lion, trying to delete the background color this way will automatically prompt you to save a copy of it as a png).
If you haven’t used the instant alpha built into some mac apps, you’re missing out. I found out about it via iWork, then found it built into Preview.app to my amazement. You just click on the select box, and it shows up in the drop down menu. It works especially well to select areas of an image in preview that have a high contrast to the pixels next to them. Doesn’t work especially well in low contrast images, unfortunately (such as sepia, or grayscale pictures).
For those interested, the aforementioned solution is the shorthand method for the following procedure.
1) Alt + Click ColorPicker.app -> Show Package Contents -> Contents -> Resources
2) New Finder, repeat above for DigitalColor Meter.app
3) Copy the icns file from the latter to the former, replacing the applet.icns file.
4) Open Applications in finder and Alt + Click ColorPicker.app -> Get Info
Now the icon should be the same as DigitalColor Meter.
….aaand it works!
how do you move it do your library??
drag and drop to ~/Library/ColorPickers or open the terminal and type
mv ~/LibraryColorPickers/
Thanks!
very good
This app works just fine, but it is really annoying because EVERY TIME I open a pages document I get a dialog box that prompts me to choose whether I want HexColorPicker to check for automatic updates or not. I have gone through this dialog so many times. Is there any way to stop this or is it a big in the app? If it is not possible to stop please post instructions on how to uninstall the app. Thanks.
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