Jul 19, 2011
Digital Color Meter in Lion
The Digital Color Meter utility in Mac OS X 10.7 no longer converts hex colors or copy to clipboard. The global utility color chooser palette does, and can be made more readily available. Just open Applescript Editor and type the words “choose color” and save as an application. Thanks to macosxhints for this tip.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060408050920158
21 Comments, Comment or Ping
Dean Flaming
Great….so not only do I have to run two apps to do what was a simple color conversion from the screen to hex, I also need to make one of the apps.
Brilliant move Apple!! Thanks for downgrading another application in Lion!
Jul 21st, 2011
technicallyrite
C’mon, it’s not that bad. You have any other examples in Lion (not Final Cut) that have lost your approval?
Jul 21st, 2011
Dean Flaming
Take that back….even the two together won’t allow conversion from screen to hex. One step closer to rolling back to Snow Leopard.
Jul 21st, 2011
Dean Flaming
A ton. All of my audio apps no longer work (Aunsoft WireTap Anywhere and SoundBoard) as Apple got rid of the ability to capture audio out from an app.
Mail no longer has a number of features for user customization….and all of my Mail plugins were deleted.
Jul 21st, 2011
Dean Flaming
Ahhh…ok so I was wrong on needing both apps. I wasn’t aware of the magnifying glass in the color chooser. My bad….
Still…as this web site (http://stu-bot.com/2011/07/16/lion-annoyance-3-ridiculous-loss-of-functionality/) correctly points out, it was someone’s JOB to remove this feature.
Does removing a feature count as a feature?
Jul 21st, 2011
technicallyrite
Wow, that is tough. I didn’t know about the audio out change, hopefully those apps can workaround that with some unix library dependency.
Jul 21st, 2011
technicallyrite
FWIW, I’m able to use Wiretap to save any audio. Perhaps those apps need to be updated, but in the meantime you could try using that as a stopgap.
Of course using audio out is probably considered piracy by now, which is something to get mad about. Some of the content protection practices are mostly an annoyance to legit users, but Apple has legalese to tend to. They’re not in a free spirited work-out-of-your-garage mindset anymore, now that revenue is in the billions. The subculture of mac users went to the masses, so there are after effects. Someday we may need to “switch”, but for now I’m very pleased with the UX changes in Lion.
Jul 21st, 2011
technicallyrite
I’ve seen some evidence of some theming capabilities and progress on resolution independence over the years, so some features may be moved simply because the new underpinnings don’t support those features yet. If it’s important to us, we should send them feedback about anything they left out at http://www.apple.com/feedback/
Jul 21st, 2011
technicallyrite
You know, browsers support rgb values now so you may not need hex for the web, and there’s a pretty good color calculator inside Colorsync Utility. It also includes a color picker loupe. One thing I haven’t figured out is why custom colorsync filters don’t show up anymore when you save a PDF.
Jul 22nd, 2011
josh
Please make sure to leave some feedback:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
Jul 22nd, 2011
James
Classic Color Meter is a $0.99 app on the app store that is just like the beloved old tool. Just bought it and it’s made my day. I guess I’m pretty easy.
Jul 27th, 2011
Michael Long
“… so some features may be moved simply because the new underpinnings don’t support those features yet…”
Doesn’t apply here. If the system can find and display the color values, then it can damn well copy them to the clipboard. And what’s with removing the decimal/hex display option???
Aug 3rd, 2011
Alison Griffiths
Just found out about the non hex thing. Very annoying. Stupid comment about websites taking rgb – many many many inputs expect hex. Thanks to the dude for the MacApp store tip – I’m off to spend .99 cents. I think Apple are going the way of Microsoft when it comes to being annoying.
Aug 6th, 2011
mano
I found this FREE replacement: http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/pipette
Use this if you just need a good-old hex-color picker.
Aug 22nd, 2011
Alexander Gutierrez
Apple need to roll back to the way this was working. I had to revert to 10.6 because of this and fonts not loading properly on other apps.
Sep 14th, 2011
DTGA
What a bunch of assholes! I used the hex constantly. And now it is gone.
Sep 20th, 2011
Chris
It’s actually still there. Just go up to “View > Display Value > AS Hexadecimal.”
Oct 28th, 2011
technicallyrite
Wow, I didn’t see that. Copy and paste text works too! Good find, thanks!
Oct 28th, 2011
technicallyrite
You can’t be serious.
Oct 28th, 2011
Steve
There is a new app on the mac app store called Classic Color Meter that works pretty much exactly how DCM in snow leopard did. It is .99 but in my book that is well worth it.
Nov 1st, 2011
Adam
Chris is right it’s still there. “View > Display Value > AS Hexadecimal.”
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/18353/how-can-i-get-the-hexadecimal-functionality-of-digital-colormeter-back#F5EEE8#BCBDCD
Mar 21st, 2012
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