Color Pickers for Windows

There are several very easy to use color pickers for Windows. The options I mention here are free to use. The first two do not provide the ability to save color schemes but they are great for reading colors directly from your graphics or anything that you have displayed on your Windows machine.

Quick HTML Color Picker
This program is available from  AllGraphicsTools.com

After a very simple installation you will be able to launch the window program. It provides the window that you see above. All you need to do is position the mouse pointer over the color you want and read the values.

Pixie
Another worthy program that does a similar feat is called Pixie.  It is available from Nattyware

Pixie functions very similar to Quick HTML Color Picker and allows you to read the color values from anything you have displayed. It definitely is bare bones but it does the job quite well.

ColorPic
ColorPic is available from Iconico
If you want to be able to store colors and pull them up when needed than I suggest the program called ColorPic. It has a drop down list of Palettes that you can add to and edit. It’s a little more complicated to use than the other color pickers but is a worthwhile program should you need to develop your own palettes.

These are only a few of many different color picking programs that are available for Windoes. I encourage you to look for others if these don’t suit your needs or if you have a favorite, by all meas let me know about it.

Macintosh Color Picker

 

One of the best color pickers for the Mac comes with Macintosh OSX. It’s called Colors and is part of nearly program that is made specifically for the Mac and you are probably already somewhat familiar with it.

 

The Colors Application found in Many Mac Programs

 

 

You can create a script so that you can use it as a stand alone application. 

 

To do this, simply run AppleScript Utility (Applications -> AppleScript -> Script Editor) and enter this text:

 

choose color

 

 

 

Then go to the file menu and Choose Save As and use the following settings.

 

Save as an Application in your Applications Folder

Remember to save it in you Applications folder with the file format being an Application rather than a script.

 

One final thing you should thing you should add is HexColorPicker from WafflesSoftware. 

 

This utility adds a button that is a # symbol on a round blue background at the right side of the color picker toolbar. HexColorPicker adds the ability to quickly read the hex number for any selected color. 

 

The hex button makes it easy to read your hex code for your colors.

Overall, it’s a very easy setup for creating this convenient Hex window for choosing your colors. The Colors window itself offers many ways of creating your own lists of colors including exporting them to other computers. It is well worth exploring. 

 

HTML and CSS Editors

 

Big Boys

• Adobe Dreamweaver – DreamWeaver is development standard. Odds are if you try to get a job the company will be using this so it is better to know how to work with it. Available in both Windows and Mac. It is an excellent development tool and far outnumbers the next two products in use and utility.

• Microsoft Expression Web 2 – Expression web is the replaced for the retired FrontPage series. It is more standards compliant than FrontPage. According to their site it reduces complexity and eases data integration by using powerful design tools and task panes to design for ASP.NET, PHP and XML. 

• Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 – Likely the premiere tool for developing Microsoft .NET Framework ASP applications and pages. It provides you with a great set of tools, wizards, more than 60 reusable controls, and hundreds of reusable code snippets to reduce the time and effort needed to create an attractive professional web application. The Visual Web Developer gives you the ability to visually designing your web sit through the use of toolbox, property window, login controls, webpart controls, navigation controls, document outline, master page, and table designer.

 

Windows

 

• HTML-Kit – A popular editor. Offers many languages and extensions, supports PHP, JavaScript, HTML, XHTML, XML, and CSS. Registration is $65 for access to tools and other extras.

• 1st Page 2006 – The latest version includes hundreds of new features and bug fixes. First Page 2006 now includes full support for HTML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion, Javascript, CSS, SSI and Perl.

• Amaya – Open Source, started as an HTML + CSS style sheets editor. I has been extended to include XML and an increasing number of XHTML, MathML, and SVG. It allows all of those vocabularies to be edited simultaneously in compound documents.

• Vim – Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems. Originally meant for Linux it has a steep learning curve as it works more with command line sort of work. Vim is charityware. Its license is GPL-compatible, so it’s distributed freely, but they ask that if you find it useful you make a donation to help children in Uganda through the ICCF.  Mac and Windows.

• KompoZer – KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. MPL, Gnu GPL, and Gnu LGPL licenses. It has a number of people who recommend it. Mac and Windows.

• NoteTab – Text and HTML editor. Available in three versions: Light, Standard and Pro. NoteTab Light is the freeware version, and remains free even when used in a business context.

• Emacs – Popular and even loved by a few. It is GNU and is basically a Command line editor and because of this has a steep learning curve. Considered a classic editor. Mac and Widows.

• Arachnophilia -  Written in Java and available for most OSes.  It is Freeware. This is a program that has been around a while. It is very simple and therefore an excellent editor for beginners learning HTML.

• Selida – Selida features a very effective WYSIWYG editor, Code Completion and a complete HTML 4 reference. Selida was engineered to be complete and capable. It’s Free. Selida does differ from many ‘free’ HTML Editors in that it is truly full featured and easy to understand

•  skEdit – Text Editor. Easily add support for new languages or tweak existing languages. For each language, you can customize the syntax highlighting, code folding, code completion, code navigator, and code indexing. Mac or Windows.

• CoffeeCup HTML Editor – The most downloaded HTML editor on the Web is now even easier to use with almost 12 years of refined features. This helps new people who are learning HTML or CSS become Webmasters faster. More advanced users will find that the Code Editor is exactly what they need the most. HTML and CSS code completion makes coding easier and faster than ever. It’s a mean, clean, coding machine with a speed nobody can beat. Windows Only.

• AceHTML – Freeware. The clean, functional interface arranges projects under folder tabs and sheathes the usual weaponry in useful groupings. The internal browser feature and easy switching among error reports and source code make editing a near-WYSIWYG process. The foreign-language encoding, spelling checker, and paste-as-HTML function will make novices swoon with imagined coding prowess. Windows Only.

• NetObjects Fusion – intuitive website design program that creates a true drag-and-drop experience for both designers and developers. Quickly layout images, text or any object exactly where you want it on the page. Easily create professional Ajax user interfaces with the power of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and XML. Data-bind any object to database or RSS feeds to add dynamic content to your site. No access to the code behind the site that you are creating. Not great if you want a modicum of control. Windows Only.

 

 

Macintosh

• Creatext – I think about the most popular pure Mac editor, highly recommended to me.

• Nvu – A complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a “new view”) makes managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML. 

• Emacs – Loved by a few. It is GNU and is basically a Command line editor like a DOS window. Takes a lot of getting used to, but is considered a classic.

• RapidWeaver – With powerful tools under the hood, yet a beautifully-familiar user interface built especially for Mac OS X Leopard, RapidWeaver is ideal for anyone looking to create a beautiful website. 

• Taco HTML Edit – full-featured HTML editor and PHP editor. As an HTML editor, Taco HTML Edit empowers its users to rapidly create their own web sites. It is designed exclusively for Mac OS X and has many advanced features including spell checking, live browser previewing, PHP previewing, syntax checking, and much more. 

• BBEdit – BBEdit is the leading professional HTML and text editor for the Macintosh. Specifically crafted in response to the needs of Web authors and software developers, this award-winning product provides a plethora of features for editing, searching, and manipulation of text. BBEdit transforms text with high performance.

• Create – One low-cost application with all the features of professional page layout, illustration and web-authoring systems and Free Upgrades for Life

• Rage Web Design – RAGE Software’s products can help you design professional websites quickly and easily. Then use our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and web promotional products to increase your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.

• PageSpinner – PageSpinner is an easy-to-use, web page editor for Mac OS supporting HTML, XHTML, PHP, SSI, CSS and a built-in JavaScript generator.

• Tumult HyperEdit – Tumult HyperEdit is a lightweight HTML editor with a preview pane that displays the web page live as you type. HyperEdit breaks the tedious cycle of writing html, saving the file, then reloading and viewing the page in the browser by combining the writing phase with the viewing phase.

• Coda – So, we code web sites by hand. And one day, it hit us: our web workflow was wonky. We’d have our text editor open, with Transmit open to save files to the server. We’d be previewing in Safari, adjusting SQL in a Terminal, using a CSS editor and reading references on the web. “This could be easier,” we declared. “And much cooler.”

 

Other languages 

 

CSS

• TopStyle CSS – he program offers many unique features, including the option to upgrade your HTML documents by replacing outdated markup with equivalent styling.  Windows Only

• EditCSS – A Firefox Extension.

 

PHP

• EditPlus2 – Really nice tools and plugins. 

• PHP Designer – phpDesigner is more than just a powerful and lightning fast PHP IDE and PHP editor, it is also a full-featured HTML, CSS and JavaScript editor and even more! — for both beginners and professional developers.

• Rapid PHP – Rapid PHP editor is a powerful, quick and sophisticated PHP editor with features of a fully-loaded PHP IDE and speed of the Notepad. Convenient features enable you to instantly create and edit not only PHP, but also HTML, XHTML, CSS and JavaScript code, while integrated tools allow you to easily debug, validate, reuse, navigate and format your code. 

• CodeLobster PHP Edition – Starting developing on PHP, probably you often face the problem which IDE to choose. Whereas most companies sell it at high price (100-500$), we offer our multifunctional IDE absolutely FREE all standard features:PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript highlighting, advanced PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript autocomplete, Powerful PHP debugger, SQL autocomplete, Context and Dynamic Help

 

 

XML

• Xopus XML Editor – Xopus is a WYSIWYG XML Editor that runs in your browser. Xopus enables end-users to work with structured and complex content without the need for technical knowledge. Xopus presents the user with a friendly interface to XML. Integrating Xopus requires knowledge of XML, XSD, XSL and some Javascript.

• XMLSpy – XMLSpy is an advanced XML editor and XML development environment for modeling, editing, transforming, and debugging XML-related technologies. The XML editor delivers the power you need to create the most advanced XML and Web applications, yet at the same time it’s flexible enough to allow you to work with any XML technology in a way that best suits the complexity of the document and your preferences, for instance, if you prefer to develop in a text view or graphical view, or switch back and forth between the two.