DigitalColor Meter with hex codes?

leroydouglas: Is that in Lion because my Preview doesn't have HEX values either (and no its not in the drop down menu). I also don't have that last icon in the bar that looks like a spider web. Could that be adding HEX values?

Thank you very much to the users who pointed out that the Lion DigitalColor Meter tool isn't lame. I set my "View > Display Values > As Hexadecimal" and I'm back to using the DCM as normal.

I'm always baffled at how quickly people start beating up Apple when things get moved, removed, improved, etc. Saying Apple is the new Microsoft is going pretty low. As a result of my work I have to interface with Microsoft products all of the time and there is no comparing the two fairly. While I was certainly frustrated that I couldn't get the hex values (at first) from the new Lion DCM, it never occured to me to start chastizing Apple or insulting Apple developers because of it.

I think that Apple does a great job of implementing user feedback. Any user can submit feedback, bug notifications, feature enhancements, about any hardware device or software application that Apple makes. The form is easy to find. They take those enhancement requests seriously, and we know from past experience that when enough users request something that makes sense, it gets integrated into future iterations of that product. Berating Apple in these forums isn't the place for helpful user feedback. Use the tool instead . And by the way, anyone care to try and navigate the Microsoft website (a user experience nightmare) and find a similar tool? Good luck with that.

I did download the mColorMeter application from the App Store for $4.99. I love the copy/paste features and preferences. It's really handy to be able to compare and see, at a glance (without changing preferences) multiple color schemes, like RGB, Hex, and CMYK, and copy any one of those values. That's certainly an improvement over the Lion DCM and for me makes it easily worth the $4.99.

But if you need just one of those values only, the Lion DCM will work fine thanks to the comments from people on this thread who pointed out how to change it.

Solved for Mavericks too!

Best solution ever. No money spent, just 5 minutes.

1. https://gist.github.com/astroud/1713059

2. https://github.com/afeld/dotfiles/blob/529bb9ace370828e69e1b61e5d3ca9d9e38258e8/ bash_profile_includes/aliases.sh

What you do:

1. Open AppleScript Editor
2. Paste in contents from 1. above
3. Save to ~/ (user home, not root; i.e. save in

   /Users/[your_user]/

   ) with the filename

   .color_meter.scpt

   (yes, with DOT prefix. AppleScript will challenge you, but yes do it. It just makes it a hidden file)
4. Now, open a text editor—I just did it in nano, but anything will do, e.g. Atom, Sublime, TextWrangler, TextEdit. Anyway, make a new file called

   aliases.sh

   . You'll now add the following code so that when DCM is started, it automatically chooses the hex code setting without having to go to the bloody menu each time:
   

   # open DigitalColor Meter, displaying hex. This is just a comment
   alias color="osascript ~/.color_meter.scpt"

Save this as aliases.sh in your root directory /. Now each time you open DCM, it's already in hex mode!

Snaps to astroud and afeld for helping us all.

Hi! I'm in the same situation! I found on Twitter and Facebook a great community of users for the DigitalColor Meter application! Who works with webdesign and similar needs HEX COLOR RECOGNITION!!!

Why Apple cutted this out of DigitalColor Meter???

If you have a solution, please write here something!

Thanks a lot!

Wow! I just discovered that my DigitalColor Meter had changed. It is now, for all practical purposes, useless. I'm not why Apple would make the decision to cut out the useful part of the app. On my MBP, the colors do not even show up properly with rolling the mouse over the desired color. I rolled over a "brown" and the Picker showed a "green."

I would encourage Apple to restore DigitalColor Meter with its full functionality. Here's why:

(1) Mac has always been the pioneer in computers that handled graphics and video properly. As such, graphic designers and web builders have made a conscious choice to use Mac. The app was a basic requirement for such work.

(2) To gut such a basic and functional design tool lends credence to those who accuse Apple of trying to move Mac to an IOS style of operation.

(3) Apple should not forget that the Mac is what "brought them to the dance." Yes, there is room for the IOS devices, but they serve another use. The Mac, at its heart, is a work tool. It is not an entertainment and Internet device. Yes, it does those things well, but it is a tool. No one who simply desires entertainment of Internet would spend the money to purchase a MBP, but would invest in a well-equipped iPad.

Therefore, Apple should not forget the basic reason they developed a market. Yes, the IOS has increased the market share of Apple by leaps and bounds. Yet, the Mac should remain as a part of the core foundation. Continue to develop the hardward and apps that increase the ability of the graphic designer, web builder, and video producer.

Well, here's an addition. I just discovered that Apple now offers a "Classic Color Meter" app in the App Store for 99 cents. It is the same as the old DigitalColor Meter, but renamed and now cost extra, but it works.

I just discovered "mColorMeter" in the App Store for $2.99. It works much better than either the DIgitalColor Meter or the ClassicColor Meter. It allows you to copy the Hex code with a keystroke so that you can paste it into your design easily.

You can use the colormeter in Preview>Tools>ShowFonts

if you click the color pane you can use the magnifying glass for hexcodes

Apple, you really screwed this one up. I, too, relied on DCM to grab hex codes from anywhere on the desktop. Your new version is now useless. I guess Lion was cheaper this time and to get the stuff we used to have we will have to get it .99 cents at a time. FYI, people depend on the great tools you provide. Don't snatch them away when we get used to using them.

That was all just in case they read these things.

Interesting. Yes this Lion also was Snow Leopard and Leopard before that.

Yes the spider web as you discribe:

Sometimes Apple surprises the world with amazing new features, things and gadgets... but removing the Hex values from the DCM and then selling it appart... that just ******. Apple just for you to know.. DCM was a great tool that you might as well remove now!... it's useless

+1 for me and everyone I work with. Designers AND developers hate this change. This tool is now useless to anyone who works on the web. Who does this actually benefit? If you want to charge a buck for a color tool that actually works, please remove this useless version from the OS. I "switched" to OSX about 7 years ago because it HAD useful features like this.

Thanks,

Disenfranchised power user

+1 from me as well.. come on Apple... it is quite the let down how many things were removed from Snow Leopard to Lion.. why remove useful items just to **** off users?

Please add it back in.

An alternate solution would be to use a browser plugin to grab a color if you just need to grab colors from your browser.

Nonsense; pardon, you are not meaned. Previous version did it (showing the hex value, and let it been copied to clipboard), and the totally unneeded update in Lion does it not, but shows this s…rgb.....

Every change should be signed by the person who intended it and by the reason.

Changes like this is bad, bad, bad.

~k