25 Best Free and Open-Source Linux Color Pickers (X11, Wayland, GUI and Terminal)

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The best Linux color picker depends on what you mean by “color picker.” For a conventional graphical eyedropper, start with Eyedropper or KColorChooser. On a wlroots-based Wayland compositor such as Hyprland or Sway, try hyprpicker. For terminal workflows, scripting, conversion and palette generation, pastel is the strongest choice. Designers who need complete palette creation should look at Gpick or Rickrack.

This list includes 25 free and open-source Linux projects, but they are not interchangeable. Some sample a pixel from the screen; others edit palettes, extract colors from images, or provide terminal-based color analysis. The categories and compatibility notes below are more useful than a single overall ranking.

Quick recommendations

Tool	Best for	Interface	Protocol note
Eyedropper	General GUI picking and color conversion	GTK/GNOME GUI	Verify screen picking on your desktop
KColorChooser	KDE integration and palette editing	Qt/KDE GUI	Wayland behavior can vary by version and compositor
hyprpicker	Fast Wayland screen picking	Command line	wlroots-compatible; freezes the display while picking
pastel	Terminal users and scripts	Command line	Test screen picking separately on X11 and Wayland
Gpick	Advanced palettes and harmonies	GUI	Wayland behavior should be checked
Rickrack	Palette design and harmony generation	GUI	Primarily a design tool, not necessarily a rapid eyedropper
sxcs	Minimal X11 picking and magnification	Command line/GUI utility	X11-focused
Pigment	Extracting palettes from images	GUI/tool	Image palette extraction rather than guaranteed screen sampling

Packaging varies considerably. Eyedropper and KColorChooser have Flathub listings (Eyedropper, KColorChooser); other projects may require a distribution package, Cargo, a script dependency or a source build.

What kind of color picker do you need?

• Screen picker: samples a pixel currently displayed by an application or desktop.
• Image picker: samples an imported image or screenshot.
• Palette editor: creates, names, saves and exports swatches or color schemes.
• Color inspector: converts colors between models and may calculate names or relationships.
• Terminal toolkit: prints or manipulates colors in shell-friendly commands.
• Screenshot-assisted picker: captures the screen, then samples the resulting image.

A terminal toolkit such as pastel should not be judged as though it were a GNOME eyedropper, and an image palette extractor such as Pigment should not be presented as a replacement for a system-wide picker.

X11 and Wayland: the compatibility question

On X11, applications traditionally have broad access to screen pixels and can place cursor-following overlays more freely. Wayland deliberately restricts that access. A picker may therefore support Wayland through a desktop portal, support only wlroots compositors, work through XWayland, or support picking but not a live magnifier.

“Wayland support” is not one compatibility level. Check whether the project supports your specific environment: GNOME Wayland, KDE Plasma Wayland, or a wlroots compositor such as Hyprland, Sway or River. Also check whether the picker freezes the screen, needs a portal backend, handles multiple monitors and scaling, and copies through the Wayland clipboard.

Both hyprpicker and wayshot document screen-freezing behavior during selection. That is usually acceptable for a static design, but inconvenient when sampling video, animation, games or hover states.

25 Linux color pickers, organized by job

General graphical pickers

1. Eyedropper

Best for: GNOME users who want a polished GUI and broad format conversion.

Eyedropper can pick a color, edit it with an HSL editor, accept manually entered values, and convert among HEX, RGB, HSV, HSL, CMYK, XYZ and CIE-Lab. Its Flathub listing identifies version 2.2.1 and provides a straightforward Linux installation route.

Limitation: confirm screen-picking behavior under your compositor, particularly on Wayland. It may offer more interface than someone who only wants one copied HEX value.

Official application page · Flathub

2. KColorChooser

Best for: KDE Plasma users and anyone who wants palettes alongside screen sampling.

KColorChooser can mix colors, create custom palettes, pick a screen pixel and use supplied palettes such as Web colors and Oxygen. KDE provides the application page, and Flathub lists Linux builds including x86-64 and AArch64.

Limitation: do not assume identical screen-picking behavior on every Wayland release or desktop. KDE-community discussions have reported limitations in some versions and configurations.

Official application page · Flathub

3. Gpick

Best for: serious palette work, color harmonies, saved swatches and format conversion.

Gpick is a fuller palette editor rather than a one-purpose eyedropper. It is a good choice when sampling a color is only the beginning and you need to compare, organize and develop a complete scheme.

Limitation: its older GTK-era appearance may feel dated, and its Wayland behavior should be tested instead of inferred from X11-oriented documentation.

Project listing and source reference

4. Gcolor3

Best for: a small GTK-style color selector with screen sampling.

Gcolor3 is a natural candidate for GTK desktops. A technical discussion about desktop color picking identifies portal-based capture as a route that can work across X11 and Wayland, but the exact result depends on the installed project version and portal environment.

Limitation: verify clipboard behavior, supported formats and current maintenance before relying on it for a production workflow.

Project page

5. Pick

Best for: users seeking a small Python-based graphical picker.

Pick belongs on the shortlist when simplicity matters more than an extensive palette workspace.

Check first: whether the current release samples the whole screen or imported images, which desktop protocols it supports, what it copies to the clipboard, and which Python/GTK dependencies it requires.

Project listing and source reference

6. xcolor

Best for: users who prefer a small Rust color utility.

xcolor is aimed at a lightweight native workflow. Before choosing it, confirm current output formats, magnification, clipboard integration, protocol support and available packages.

Project listing and source reference

7. Colorpicker

Best for: users comfortable with an Electron-based desktop interface.

Its cross-platform style may be familiar, but Electron can bring greater memory overhead than a native GTK, Qt, Rust or terminal application.

Limitation: Wayland support, current runtime, release activity and packaging must be checked. Do not treat an Electron picker as automatically native or Wayland-ready.

Project listing and source reference

8. Picket

Best for: screen picking with a magnifier and customizable output formats.

Picket is worth investigating if a loupe or format template matters more than a minimal interface. Confirm whether its magnifier is live or frozen, whether global shortcuts work in your session, and how it handles multiple monitors.

Project listing and source reference

9. Deepin Picker

Best for: Deepin users wanting a simple desktop-integrated picker.

It may fit most naturally into the Deepin ecosystem. Users on GNOME, KDE or another desktop should check current Wayland support and integration rather than assuming that the same behavior is available everywhere.

Project listing and source reference

10. ColorSmith

Best for: readers interested in a focused color utility.

Check its current screen-picking method, formats, clipboard behavior, license and release activity before assigning it a role in a dependable workflow.

Project listing and source reference

11. Bella

Best for: one-task color sampling with minimal interface overhead.

Bella may suit users who do not need palette management or extensive conversion tools. Its practical value depends on current protocol support, maintenance and packaging.

Project listing and source reference

Wayland, wlroots and screenshot workflows

12. hyprpicker

Best for: Hyprland, Sway and other wlroots-based Wayland desktops.

hyprpicker is a lightweight command-line screen picker explicitly described by its project as wlroots-compatible. Arch users can install it with:

sudo pacman -S hyprpicker

For a source build, the project documents CMake and dependencies including Pango, Cairo, Wayland, Wayland protocols, hyprutils and xkbcommon:

cmake --no-warn-unused-cli 
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Release 
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX:PATH=/usr 
  -S . -B ./build

cmake --build ./build 
  --config Release 
  --target hyprpicker 
  -j"$(nproc 2>/dev/null || getconf _NPROCESSORS_CONF)"

sudo cmake --install ./build

Important limitation: hyprpicker freezes displays while you select. It is a strong static-design tool, but not ideal for sampling moving content.

Official repository

13. wayshot

Best for: wlroots users who already use a screenshot tool and want integrated color picking.

Although wayshot is primarily a screenshot application, it documents:

wayshot --color
wayshot --clipboard

Its color-picker feature freezes the screen and selects a pixel. A screenshot pipeline can also extract a pixel from the resulting image:

wayshot -g - | convert - 
  -format '%[pixel:p{0,0}]' txt:- |
  grep -E "#([A-Fa-f0-9]{6}|[A-Fa-f0-9]{3})" -o

This fallback samples the image pipeline, not necessarily the same pixel path as a native picker. wayshot is aimed at wlroots-based compositors and is written in Rust.

Official repository

14. wl-color-picker

Best for: Wayland/wlroots users who prefer a composable shell script.

Script-based tools can fit neatly into a keyboard-driven workflow, but they are environment-sensitive. Identify every external dependency, distinguish wlroots support from universal Wayland support, and confirm how the selected value reaches the clipboard.

Project listing and source reference

15. Wayland Color Picker

Best for: users seeking a newer GTK4-oriented Wayland application.

The name alone does not establish compatibility with every Wayland desktop. Check compositor and portal support, especially if you use GNOME or KDE Plasma rather than wlroots; also check magnification, output formats, clipboard behavior and packaging.

Project listing and source reference

16. PixelKit

Best for: users interested in a newer picker combining magnification and color editing.

PixelKit is a promising newer project, but newer does not automatically mean mature or universally packaged. Check the current README, release activity, compositor support and installation requirements before making it your only picker.

Official repository

X11 and lightweight utilities

17. Xgrabcolor

Best for: a basic picker on a traditional X11 session.

Its X11 focus makes it a sensible minimal option for users who still run Xorg. Do not recommend it to native Wayland users without explicit evidence of compatible capture.

Project listing and source reference

18. sxcs

Best for: X11 users who want a small picker with magnification.

Before depending on it for detailed UI work, confirm its magnification level, pixel grid or coordinate display, clipboard output and multi-monitor behavior. Running an X11 utility through XWayland is only a fallback and does not prove native Wayland support.

Project listing and source reference

19. delicolour

Best for: users who prefer a lightweight color finder.

Confirm whether it samples the screen or images, which formats it returns, how it handles the clipboard, and whether current packages exist for your distribution.

Project listing and source reference

Palette design and image analysis

20. Rickrack

Best for: creating harmonious palettes rather than grabbing one pixel quickly.

Rickrack is best considered a color editor and palette-design application. Investigate its harmony modes, manual editing, export formats and image extraction support if you need to turn artwork or references into a usable palette.

Project listing and source reference

21. epick

Best for: harmonic color palette work.

Its differentiator is color relationships and harmony generation. Confirm screen sampling before treating it as a desktop eyedropper.

Project listing and source reference

22. Paleta

Best for: generating palettes quickly.

Paleta belongs in a palette-generation category unless the current project documentation confirms system-wide screen sampling. Check export formats and installation options before choosing it for a production design pipeline.

Project listing and source reference

23. Pigment

Best for: extracting a palette from a photograph, illustration, screenshot or other image.

Pigment solves a different problem from a live screen eyedropper: it derives colors from image content. That makes it useful for painting references and visual mood boards, but not necessarily for copying the exact pixel under your cursor.

Project listing and source reference

Terminal and developer tools

24. pastel

Best for: developers, shell users, automation and color conversion.

pastel is primarily a terminal toolkit, but it also provides interactive screen picking:

pastel pick
pastel format hsl ff8000
pastel distinct 8
pastel list
pastel format name 44cc11

It supports RGB/sRGB, HSL, CIELAB, CIELCh, ANSI 8-bit and ANSI 24-bit representations, and can generate, analyze, convert and manipulate colors. Installation paths documented by the project include Debian testing/unstable, Arch, Snap and Cargo:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install pastel

sudo pacman -S pastel

cargo install pastel

The Debian package should not be assumed to exist in every stable Debian or Ubuntu release. Check your distribution’s repositories and the project README.

Official repository

25. pik

Best for: keyboard-driven terminal color picking.

Before installing, determine whether the current version samples the screen directly or expects an image or screenshot as input. Also check terminal requirements, output formats, clipboard integration and X11/Wayland support.

Project listing and source reference

26. cpick

Best for: an extensive terminal color-picker workflow.

cpick is worth considering when a single HEX value is not enough. Check its interactive terminal interface, palette handling, mouse and keyboard controls, supported color models and clipboard behavior.

Project listing and source reference

27. Coulr

Best for: a developer- and designer-oriented color utility.

Confirm whether the current project is graphical, terminal-based or both, and verify screen picking, color models, package availability, license and project activity.

Project listing and source reference

Note: the roundup used as the source for this broad list contains 25 names but also says in its introduction that it compiled 17 applications. The entries above preserve the 25-project premise while separating direct eyedroppers from palette and terminal tools.

Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Support on Ko-Fi

Formats, precision and clipboard behavior

For web and UI work, HEX and RGB are usually sufficient. HSL and HSV are useful for adjusting hue, saturation and lightness/value. CMYK is relevant to print-oriented workflows, while CIE XYZ, LAB and LCH are more useful for color analysis and perceptual manipulation. ANSI formats matter mainly in terminal tools.

Do not assume that a picker automatically copies the selected value. Check whether it copies HEX, RGB or both; whether the format is configurable; whether it maintains a history; and whether the clipboard survives application exit. On Wayland, a program may depend on the desktop clipboard implementation or an external tool such as wl-copy.

A magnifier can improve precision, but “magnifier” may mean a live cursor-following loupe, a frozen-screen overlay, a pixel grid or simply post-capture zoom. For UI inspection, also consider mixed-DPI monitors, fractional scaling, monitor boundaries, refresh rates and different display profiles.

Troubleshooting a picker on Linux

1. Identify the session

echo "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE"

x11 and wayland require different expectations. On Wayland, identify the compositor as well: a wlroots picker may work on Hyprland or Sway but not provide the same experience on GNOME or KDE Plasma.

2. If native screen picking fails

1. Check the project’s documented compositor and portal requirements.
2. Try a portal-based application if direct capture is unavailable.
3. Confirm that the appropriate desktop portal backend is installed and functioning.
4. Use an X11 picker through XWayland only as a fallback; this is not native Wayland support.
5. Use a screenshot-based workflow such as wayshot when the native picker cannot access the screen.

3. If copying does not work

Check whether the application copies automatically or requires a button or keyboard shortcut. On Wayland, install and test wl-clipboard when the project documents it as a dependency. Clipboard managers can also affect whether a value remains available after the picker closes.

4. If the color looks wrong

Most desktop pickers read the displayed pixel value from a captured desktop image. That is not the same as calibrated measurement. A picker does not automatically provide ICC-profile-aware physical measurement, HDR or wide-gamut validation, spectrophotometer accuracy, or print-production proofing.

How to choose

• One HEX value quickly: choose Eyedropper, KColorChooser or a picker proven compatible with your session.
• GNOME and many formats: start with Eyedropper.
• KDE palettes: try KColorChooser.
• Hyprland, Sway or another wlroots compositor: start with hyprpicker.
• Advanced palette design: use Gpick or Rickrack.
• Shell automation and conversion: use pastel.
• Image-derived palettes: use Pigment.
• Minimal X11: try sxcs or Xgrabcolor.

For a more systematic comparison, evaluate each candidate separately for screen-picking ability, Wayland and X11 compatibility, magnification, output formats, clipboard integration, palette features, terminal scriptability, packaging, maintenance, resource use and ease of use. Do not collapse those dimensions into a universal score: the best palette editor is not necessarily the best eyedropper.

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