ArgyllCMS vs Color Grabber

ArgyllCMS is a free, open-source ICC-compatible color management system for creating profiles and calibrating devices. Its command-line tools support scanners, cameras, film recorders, displays, and RGB, CMY and CMYK printers. It can create device-link profiles with options such as video calibration standards and 3D LUTs, and work with spectral samples, selectable illuminants and observer types, and paper fluorescent-whitener compensation. Color conversion tools handle 8-bit raster data and fully accurate 16-bit conversion. Documentation lists direct support for measurement instruments from JETI, Klein, X-Rite and Calibrite, DataColor and other manufacturers; some chart results can be converted into Argyll CGATS format. ArgyllCMS runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, but does not include a graphical interface. DisplayCAL, The Little Argyll GUI and CoCa are listed as front ends that use it. The package is licensed under AGPLv3; commercial licensing is available for code copyrighted by Graeme Gill through ArgyllPRO. On Linux, native display calibration and profiling under Wayland are not currently supported; the maker recommends X11 for color-managed displays.

Color Grabber is a Windows utility that copies the color beneath the cursor to the clipboard in a configured format. Hexadecimal is the default, and CSS rgb[a] is also available. It can copy a paint swatch rather than a color string; the default swatch size is 64. A system crosshair cursor can be used for pixel-accurate selection in the two-step selection process. When clipboard watching is enabled, the window updates to show valid colors found on the clipboard. The preview targets four frames per second by default, and visible color notifications are enabled by default. Color Grabber is included in the Color Grabber, Capture and Clipboard Utilities, Simplode Suite Complete, and Simplode Free Select packages. The free Simplode Free Select option costs nothing and allows one premium feature or feature set at a time; the selection can change once every 24 hours. The download page describes a 24-hour premium-feature trial that can be renewed up to three times. Simplode Suite supports Windows 10 and may partially work on older Windows versions. The maker describes its download as around 10 megabytes.