Just Color Picker is a freeware Windows and Mac design tool which helps you capture eye-catching shades and create appealing color combinations.

If you’ve ever used another color picker you’ll know the basics already. Moving the mouse cursor around your screen displays a magnified view of that point, pressing Alt+X saves the currently selected pixel color to a list, and you can copy it to the clipboard for reuse in other apps.

What’s interesting here is this program isn’t “just” a color picker. It has a host of neat extra touches which take it to a whole new level.

You don’t have to import colors from the screen, for instance. A text box enables entering color values manually, allowing you to view and play with shades you’ve found anywhere.

The program works as a simple file viewer, with the option to import colors in Adobe’s ACO swatch or GIMP’s GPL formats, as well as plain text or HTML lists.

Build custom color lists, convert them, export to common formats and more

There’s support for a lot of color formats: HTML, RGB, Hex, HSB/ HSV, HSL, CMYK, Delphi and more. Choose a new format at any time and the color list is updated immediately, allowing the program to work as a quick converter.

You’re able to save the list in any of the supported formats, too, turning the program into a quick ACO and GPL converter.

Just Color Picker isn’t only about collecting individual shades. You can also use its “harmonious color scheme generator” and color wheels to find good combination of colours, then save these just like any others.

A bonus Text tool displays text using your choice of font and background color, a quick way to see how readable this might be.

Neat extras include the ability to add a comment to a color, maybe as a quick reminder of where it came from, or what you’re thinking of doing with it.

All this is very configurable, and the program runs from a single portable executable barely 2MB in size. Take a look.

Just Color Picker runs on Windows 2000 or later and Mac.