Color Picker

A native desktop color picker built with Odin and Raylib. Features a color wheel and square picker, RGB/HSV sliders, hex input, color harmony generation, WCAG contrast checking, color vision deficiency simulation, palette management, and image palette extraction.

Features
Requirements
Building
Running
Running Tests
Keyboard Shortcuts
Project Structure
License

Features

Dual picker modes — color wheel and saturation/value square
RGB & HSV sliders with direct hex input
Color harmonies — analogous, complementary, triadic, split-complementary, square, compound, monochromatic, and shades
WCAG contrast checker — foreground/background slots with AA/AAA ratings for normal and large text
Color vision deficiency simulation — protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia (Machado 2009 model)
Eyedropper — pick any color from your screen (macOS screencapture, Linux via grim/scrot/import)
Image palette extraction — extract dominant colors from an image via drag-and-drop using median cut
Palette management — save, reorder (drag-and-drop), and persist palettes with undo support
Export — ASE, GPL (GIMP), CSS custom properties, Tailwind config, JSON, PNG swatch strip, and plain text
Color history — recent picks tracked automatically
Shade generation — configurable shade count and value range

Requirements

Odin compiler
Raylib (included with Odin's vendor collection)
macOS 12+ or Linux

Building

Build the binary:

./scripts/build.sh

Build an optimized release binary:

./scripts/build.sh --release

Build with an embedded version string:

./scripts/build.sh --release --version 1.2.3

Create a distributable package (macOS .app + .dmg, Linux .deb):

./scripts/bundle.sh --version 1.2.0

The ODIN environment variable can point to your Odin compiler if it isn't on $PATH:

ODIN=/usr/local/bin/odin ./scripts/build.sh

Running

./bin/color_picker

Show the version:

./bin/color_picker --version

Enable verbose logging:

./bin/color_picker --verbose

Running Tests

./scripts/test.sh

This runs the test suites for src/color/, src/data/, and src/ui/layout/.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Cmd+C`	Copy hex to clipboard
`Cmd+S` / `Space`	Add current color to palette
`Cmd+Z`	Undo last palette operation
`Cmd+E`	Toggle export panel
`Cmd+D`	Cycle CVD simulation mode
`Cmd+I`	Activate eyedropper
`Tab` / `Shift+Tab`	Cycle harmony type
`Escape`	Cancel eyedropper / close modal

Project Structure

The codebase is organized into three subpackages plus the root application package:

color_picker/
├── src/
│   ├── main.odin         Entry point, main loop, file drops
│   ├── input.odin         Delegated input handlers
│   ├── draw.odin          All rendering
│   ├── app_state.odin     Application state and orchestration
│   ├── app_layout.odin    Layout tree construction
│   ├── color/             Pure color math (package color)
│   ├── ui/                Theme, widgets (package ui)
│   │   └── layout/        Layout engine (package layout)
│   └── data/              Persistence, export, OS integration (package data)
├── scripts/
│   ├── build.sh           Build the binary
│   ├── test.sh            Run all test suites
│   └── bundle.sh          Create distributable packages
└── .github/workflows/
    ├── ci.yml             CI: test + build on push/PR
    └── release.yml        Release: build, package, publish on tag

`color/` — Color math

File	Purpose
`color.odin`	Core color state (HSV/RGB conversion, getters/setters)
`hex.odin`	Hex string parsing and formatting
`harmony.odin`	Color harmony computation
`shade.odin`	Shade strip generation
`contrast.odin`	WCAG relative luminance and contrast ratio
`colorblind.odin`	CVD simulation matrices and distinguishability checks

`ui/` — User interface

File	Purpose
`theme.odin`	UI color theme constants (Catppuccin Mocha)
`button.odin`	Button and toggle components
`slider.odin`	Color slider component
`dropdown.odin`	Dropdown select component
`text_input.odin`	Text input with hex filter, undo, clipboard
`modal.odin`	Modal overlay component
`swatch.odin`	Color swatch row rendering
`stepper.odin`	Numeric stepper component
`wheel.odin`	HSV color wheel and SV square image generation
`util.odin`	Utility helpers
`layout/layout.odin`	Declarative layout engine (Fixed, Fill, Percent, Fit)

`data/` — Data and persistence

File	Purpose
`history.odin`	Circular buffer color history
`palette.odin`	Palette add/remove/reorder and file persistence
`export.odin`	Palette export (ASE, GPL, CSS, Tailwind, JSON, PNG, TXT)
`eyedropper.odin`	Screen capture for the eyedropper tool
`image_extract.odin`	Median-cut palette extraction from images

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

color_picker