GUIDE
How to pick a colour from anywhere on your screen
6 August 2026
You can see the colour. You need the hex code. Here are the ways to get it on Windows, free ones first.
If it is in a browser
Chrome and Edge have an eyedropper in developer tools. Press F12, click any colour swatch in the Styles panel, and the picker that opens has an eyedropper that can sample anywhere on the page. Free, already installed, and fine if the colour is on a web page.
If it is anywhere else
PowerToys Color Picker is Microsoft's own, free, and works system-wide. Press its shortcut, click a pixel, and the hex lands on your clipboard. If you already run PowerToys, you may not need anything else.
What Clarus adds
Press Ctrl+Shift+P and the screen becomes a picker with a magnified view of the pixels under your cursor, so you can hit the exact one you meant rather than the anti-aliased pixel next to it. Click to copy.
Press Space, Tab or F to cycle the format between HEX, RGB and HSL before you copy, which saves converting it by hand afterwards. Esc cancels without copying anything.
It reads the pixel directly rather than taking a screenshot first, so it is instant and it does not leave a capture behind every time you check a colour.
Which to choose
If you have PowerToys and only need a hex code, use it. Clarus is worth it if you want the magnifier for precision, the format cycling, and the picker in the same tool as everything else you do with the screen.