This utility is available as a stand alone exectuable, and as a MS Visual C++ 6 Add-In dll. Both offer the standard windows colour picker window and an EyeDropper tool to select colours from anywhere on the screen. Both offer a preview pane where you can see you colour as either a background or as text on that background. At this point they digress.
The C++ Add-In offers two choices, an RGB macro or a COLORREF hexadecimal direct representation of the colour. Both of these appear for the colour selected, then you can just press the Insert button next to the one you require to have it inserted into the active editor window at the insertion point. There is also a Persist checkbox which prevents the the ColourPicker window closing after insertion. Custom Colours are preserved until the Add-In is unloaded (usually because C++ is exited). If you the cursor is on a colour in the text window (in RGB macro or COLORREF format) before calling the ColourPicker add-in, it will start with that colour selected, which can then be altered in the Windows Colour selection dialog box.
The stand alone executable has three customisable colour formats. By default these are RGB(rrr,ggg,bbb), a pure hex representation of the number for C++ (0x00colour), and an HTML #RRGGBB code. These can be changed by editing an ini file to suit any code which requires a colour. There is a Send button next to each option, which in 99% of cases will send the colour code to the insertion point of the active editor window of whatever app you are using. This is done by finding the first child of the parent of the next window underneath the ColourPicker window, and sending text to it. In some cases this is incorrect, so a Copy button has also been provided, which will place the colour code on the clipboard for use anywhere.
An installer is provided for the stand-alone version, although it is not required. Simply unzipping the files to wherever you want them installed will do the job, but for those who prefer their folders and shortcuts made for them, the installer is available. There is no installer for the Add-In, but it contains a self-extracting archive which explains where to unzip to. All files require the VB 6 runtimes to be installed.
Files available for Download:
| Description | File Name | Size | Version |
| Stand-alone including Installer | "Install.exe" | 262K | 1.00 |
| Stand-alone files only | "ColourPicker.exe" | 9K | 1.00 |
| Visual C++ Add-In | "avColourPicker.dll" | 30K | 1.01 |
| Visual Basic 6 Runtimes | "Vbrun60.exe" | 973K | SP3 |
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Please email me if you wish to comment on this program, or to send in any bug reports or suggestions. |