Color Specimens
An iPhone fieldbook that keeps more than a color code: it remembers the photo and exact place where you found each color.
Collect colors
On the Collect tab, open the camera or choose one photo. Tap places in the image to sample their colors. Each specimen page can hold up to eight colors.
Keep a specimen page
Save the sampled colors, source photo, and sample points on your device, with an optional name, note, and tags. Use it for colors noticed on a walk, clothing or interior ideas, craft projects, or visual references.
Fine-tune your colors
Precision sampling lets you zoom up to 8×, inspect a point with the long-press loupe, and drag sample markers. Add, remove, or reorder colors, including those in a saved specimen. Colors depend on the photo, lighting, and camera adjustments; this is not a calibrated measurement of a physical object.
Find a color later
On the Specimens tab, search saved pages by name, note, tag, or HEX color code. You can also filter the collection to favorites.
Export a palette
Copy Codes copies the page's HEX, RGB, and HSL values. Share Palette sends a palette image and the color codes to the iOS share sheet in the order they were sampled.
If the camera or photo is unavailable
If the camera does not open, check camera access for Color Specimens in iPhone Settings. You can use the app without camera access by choosing an image through the system photo picker.
Backup and restore
In Settings, export a JSON backup containing photos, colors, sample points, names, notes, tags, and favorites, or import a backup to restore them. Restore only adds missing specimens: matching IDs are skipped and existing specimens are never overwritten. Backup files are not encrypted. Choose their storage and sharing destinations carefully.
Data storage
Photos, colors, sample points, names, notes, tags, and settings are processed and stored on your device. There is no account or automatic cloud sync. Exported backups and palettes are sent only to storage or sharing destinations you choose.
Contact
If a problem continues, email us with your device model, iOS version, and the steps that reproduce it.
Requires iOS 17 or later.