FindPaintColor

Recommended 'best paint matching app for Apple Users' by Family Handyman magazine Oct 2024.

Trying to find a paint color to match an unknown existing wall (or other surface) color? Or maybe find lighter or darker colors of the same hue, or possibly complementary colors?

FindPaintColor finds the best-match paint colors from thousands available from major paint vendors, by analyzing a photo of your unknown color with a specified white color chip available free from your paint dealer. The photo is taken within the app, and must be taken in natural (window) lighting only.

Although other high-accuracy solutions require an external color sensor, FindPaintColor uses the iPhone camera and advanced image processing, so no separate color measurement device is required.

Accuracy is similar to external color sensing devices, and will identify the nearest few color chips for your final match, including the many that are available but not usually on display at your paint store. The app can save multiple trips back and forth to your dealer and eliminates the vexing need to bring in a sample.

It finds paints from these four major paint vendors: Behr, Benjamin Moore, PPG, and Sherwin Williams.

The app also finds paints darker or lighter than your color, and complementary colors, using industry-standard color wheel methods.

It provides industry-standard ‘sRGB’ (standard Red Green Blue) values, to allow finding paints from other vendors. It also shows HSV (Hue Saturation Value) and LRV (Light Reflectance Value) numbers, to help you compare colors numerically as well as by eye.

The required white color chip is used by the app to measure ambient light – a must for accuracy, and as long used by professional photographers to ensure color accuracy.

This white chip may be any one of the following, available free from your paint dealer:
Behr: PR-W15 (PPU18-06) Ultra Pure White PR-W14U Bit of Sugar Benjamin Moore:
OC-65 (2120-70) Chantilly Lace OC-68 Distant Gray
PPG:
PPG1172-1 Snow Storm PPG1049-1 Snowy Mount Sherwin Williams: SW 7757 Highly Reflective White SW 7006 Extra White

Any one of the above chips will work to find the closest colors from all four paint vendors.

The app provides simple instructions for use, and trial demonstration photos to ensure a smooth start.