Piccolo – modern GTK color picker

Piccolo is a color picker built for the modern GNOME desktop using GTK4 and Libadwaita. It provides a compact graphical environment for grabbing a color from the screen or choosing one interactively, then transferring the resulting value to another application.

The application draws on components from the developer’s Brush project and focuses on straightforward color selection rather than broader graphics or palette-management functionality. Its native toolkit, adaptive interface and keyboard support make it well suited to contemporary Linux desktop environments.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

  • Pick a color directly from the screen using desktop portal integration.
  • Select colors interactively using graphical color controls.
  • Copy selected colors to the clipboard.
  • Output colors as hexadecimal values.
  • Copy colors using CSS color-function representations.
  • Converts between different color representations using dedicated color-conversion libraries.
  • Maintains a per-session history of previously selected colors.
  • Lets users copy colors directly from history entries.
  • Provides keyboard navigation throughout the application.
  • Makes color-selector sliders accessible through keyboard controls.
  • Includes keyboard shortcuts for common actions such as copying a color.
  • Uses an adaptive layout that accommodates smaller window and screen sizes.
  • Respects desktop window-decoration layouts.
  • Provides a modern interface based on Libadwaita conventions.
  • Supports localization and has infrastructure for translated interfaces.
  • Uses the desktop screenshot portal rather than relying on display-server-specific screen capture.

Website: github.com/Azakidev/Piccolo
Support:
Developer: Azakidev
License: MIT License

Piccolo in action

Piccolo is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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