Pika

Pika sits quietly out of the way until you need a colour: hit a shortcut, hover anywhere on screen — even over other apps — and pick. It shows the result in whatever format you're working in, keeps a history of recent picks, and lets you swap, copy, or undo without ever touching a mouse.

Why it makes the list

macOS's built-in colour picker is functional but slow to reach and limited in format support. Pika is built for people who pick colours constantly — designers, developers, anyone matching a hex value from a screenshot — with a shortcut-first workflow and support for seven colour formats including LAB and OKLCH. It was a Golden Kitty Awards finalist in 2022, and it's stayed free and open source since.

Standout features

• Pick from anywhere on screen, including over other running apps
• Seven colour formats — Hex, RGB, HSB, HSL, LAB, OpenGL, and OKLCH
• Full keyboard control for picking, copying, swapping, and undo/redo
• Pick history so you can go back to an earlier colour
• pika:// URL scheme for triggering picks from scripts and shortcuts
• System colour picker integration when you need it

Pricing

Completely free and open source. Available via Homebrew (brew install --cask pika) or direct download.