Pika
Free color picker for Mac that grabs any color on screen and checks WCAG and APCA contrast.
ColorSlurpPika is a colour picker for Mac. It grabs any colour on screen, shows it in the format you need and checks the contrast between a foreground and a background colour.
Press Command-D to pick a foreground colour, Shift-Command-D for a background, or Option-Command-D from any app to pick both in one go. Press X to swap them. The Basic picker uses the macOS sampler, and the Pro picker adds a live loupe with arrow-key nudging, which needs Screen Recording permission. Values come in Hex, RGB, HSB, HSL, LAB, OpenGL and OKLCH, in sRGB or Display P3, and Command-1 to Command-7 switch between them.
Contrast is checked with both WCAG 2 and APCA, so you see the ratio and the text sizes each level allows. Pika also has colour names, a history of picks with undo and redo, global shortcuts and a pika:// URL scheme for scripts. It suits designers and developers who check accessibility as they work.
Pika is made by Charlie Gleason and released under the MIT licence. It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later. The direct download is free, and the Mac App Store version costs $2.99.
Frequently asked questions
Is Pika free?
Yes. The download from superhighfives.com/pika and GitHub is free. Pika is also sold on the Mac App Store for $2.99.
Is Pika safe and open source?
Pika is open source under the MIT licence, with the code on GitHub at superhighfives/pika. Screen Recording permission is only needed for the Pro picker with the live loupe.
How do I install Pika?
Run brew install --cask pika, download the DMG from superhighfives.com/pika, or buy it on the Mac App Store.
What macOS version does Pika need?
Pika needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
How does Pika compare to ColorSlurp?
ColorSlurp is a colour toolkit for Mac and iOS with a palette manager and an iPhone camera picker, offered as a free download with a paid Pro upgrade. Pika focuses on picking colour pairs and checking contrast, runs only on the Mac and is fully free and open source.
How do I check colour contrast in Pika?
Press Option-Command-D to pick a foreground and background, then press C to show the compliance panel. It lists the WCAG 2 ratio and the APCA Lc value for the pair.
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