Palette PicoĪustralian company Palette released Palette Pico in 2018. Before we get into results, here's a quick rundown of each of the units I tested. If there aren't any perfect match results, you can take the RGB values of the surface to paint stores like Sherwin-Williams, where they'll mix the color from a Sherwin-Williams base or tint a similar color to get it just right. Pico uses similar categories with "Great Match" and "Good Match." Colors in the excellent, great and three-star match categories are so close (or even the same just a different brand) that you'd probably never notice a difference. Nix uses the categories "Excellent Match," "Great Match" or "Good Match." Color Muse uses a three-star rating to indicate matches less than 1 Delta E, a two-star rating for 1-4 Delta E and one-star for anything outside that. What does all that have to do with the paint on your wall? The sensors and companion apps use Delta E to rank color matches. Medium difference, also obvious to an untrained eyeĬompanion apps like this one for Color Muse, display matching paint colors in a ranked order. Very small difference, only obvious to a trained eye A smaller number is better 2 Delta E is commonly thought of as the highest the difference can be before a sharp-eyed person will notice, or the "just noticeable difference." Here's a table of the most common ranges: The difference between a color as represented by its values in a color space and that color as displayed in the real world is referred to by color scientists as Delta E.
Since color sensors have varying levels of accuracy and the color reading translates the color of the paint on the wall to the not-directly-correlated RGB color scale, that's two ways errors creep in.
Behr color smart tool software#
The software assigns the closest color it can find. Paint (like all real-world colors) is reflective, not additive, so its colors don't exactly map to RGB.
Behr color smart tool plus#
RGB is an additive system, however - like you learned as a toddler, red plus blue makes purple. For instance, pure yellow is composed of equal values of red and green, and adding increasing amounts of blue makes it increasingly lighter. RGB is a way of generating colors as defined by mixes of the three primaries 0,0,0 denotes black, and in an 8-bit system 255,255,255 denotes white. Because branded apps such as Sherwin-Williams and the apps for these sensors use RGB (red, green, blue) primaries to define the colors for matching, that's what I went with in this comparison. It then translates those into digital values we're more familiar with. You press the sensor against the wall to block out light, then the sensor uses its own light source to read the color wavelengths of the reflected light. Each is a little different in hardware and app design, but they work in a similar way. I tested three color sensors: the Nix Mini, Color Muse and Palette Pico. The aim is to match the color to what shade the wall is now. Chances are it won't be the original color, and that's OK. That's where a color matcher supposedly shines. Good for you! Bad news is, if you touch up your wall with a fresh can of paint, it won't look the same. Let's say you remember exactly what brand, color and sheen you purchased back in 2013.
That perfect shade of blue you painted the living room five years ago is likely a few shades lighter today than when it was fresh. Especially in rooms with a lot of natural light, paint pigments fade over time. Paint doesn't stay the same color forever. +10 more See all photos The problem with paint
The $100 Nix Mini won me over, and it's the sensor I'd recommend if you're interested in paint matching. If you're looking for a way to match paint on old walls or paint new walls to match the color of an object (you can scan nearly anything with a smooth surface), these handheld devices are a big help.
Behr color smart tool Bluetooth#
Nix Mini, Color Muse and Palette Pico scan a spot on your wall, connect via Bluetooth to a companion phone app and show matching paint colors from multiple paint brands.Įager to find out if these could solve my paint problems, I put these color-reading gadgets to the test. Turns out, there's a tiny piece of tech here to save the day.Ĭolor sensors that measure and match colors among real-world objects aren't new, but the three I tried are among the friendliest and least-expensive options. However, picking the right paint color or trying to match existing ones gave me major choice anxiety. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and make it our own. My husband and I recently bought a house built just after World War II with rooms stuck in nearly every decade since.
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