Magnifier loupe
A 150 pt circular loupe follows your pointer and shows a 9x9 grid of magnified pixels with the center pixel outlined and its HEX value below. It works across displays with different scale factors.
Open source · macOS 14+ · Universal binary · Screen & OCR
Pick any color.
Copy it your way.
A menu bar color picker with a magnifier loupe. Press Option-Command-C, click any pixel, and the color is on your clipboard as HEX, RGB, HSL or SwiftUI code.
Free & MIT licensed · Apple Silicon & Intel · Latest release
Features
Pick, copy, keep.
The whole color workflow lives in one small menu bar popover, built only with Apple frameworks.
Five copy formats
Copy as HEX, RGB, HSL, a SwiftUI Color initializer or an NSColor initializer. Set a default, or right-click any swatch to copy it in another format.
History and named palettes
The last 50 colors are kept, with duplicates moved to the front. Pin colors into named palettes and export a palette as a plain text list.
WCAG contrast checker
Compare any two swatches to see their contrast ratio, with Pass or Fail for body text (4.5:1) and large text (3:1).
Global hotkey
Start picking from any app with Option-Command-C, or record your own shortcut in Settings. Press Esc or right-click to cancel.
Consistent sRGB output
Wide-gamut Display P3 captures are converted to sRGB, and the popover shows the color space of the display you sampled.
Screenshots
See it in action.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
SwatchSnatcher is open source and not notarized with a paid Apple Developer ID, so macOS needs one extra step the first time.
- Download SwatchSnatcher-macOS.zip and unzip it.
- Move SwatchSnatcher.app to your Applications folder.
- Clear the quarantine flag once, then right-click the app and choose Open:
xattr -cr /Applications/SwatchSnatcher.app
- When prompted, grant Screen Recording to SwatchSnatcher in System Settings Privacy Security Screen System Audio Recording, then relaunch the app.
Download
Get SwatchSnatcher for macOS
Free, forever. Built for macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.
Not notarized: on first launch right-click SwatchSnatcher.app → Open.
- macOS 14 Sonoma+
- Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- MIT licensed · open source
- No ads, no accounts, no telemetry
- Built with Claude Code · how and why
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is SwatchSnatcher really free and open source?
Yes. It is released under the MIT license, with the full source on GitHub. It has no ads, no analytics and no third-party dependencies, and an optional donation button is the only ask.
Which permissions does it need?
Screen Recording, so the loupe can read the pixels under your pointer. Without it the app explains why and links to Privacy Settings instead of returning black. Launch at login is optional, and it never asks for Accessibility, camera, microphone or network access.
Where is my data stored?
Only on your Mac. History and palettes are saved as JSON at ~/Library/Application Support/SwatchSnatcher/library.json. Nothing is sent over the network.
Why is the app not notarized?
Notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account. Right-click the app and choose Open once to get past Gatekeeper, or build it yourself from source with Xcode and XcodeGen.
Was this written by AI?
Yes. SwatchSnatcher was generated by Claude Code from a written spec as a clean-room reimplementation, with no code or assets from any commercial app. The full source is on GitHub under MIT, so you can read every line before you run it. It has had less human review than a hand-written app, so bug reports are welcome.
Support ❤️
Built by one person, given away for free.
SwatchSnatcher is a free, open-source alternative to paid utilities. If it earns a spot on your Mac, a coffee keeps the updates coming.
☕ Support Or on Ko-fi