Pick a color from a video
Video colors are hard to capture because frames change constantly and streaming compression smears flat areas. The trick is to pause on a clean frame and sample it with a system-level eyedropper that reads what's actually on screen, whether it's a browser tab or a desktop player like VLC or mpv.
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Pick a color — instant, picks from anywhere on screen (even outside the browser).
Screenshot — when you need to pick from another tab without losing focus.
#171717 rgb(23, 23, 23) hsl(0, 0%, 9%) oklch(22.04% 0.0000 0.0) Recent palette (0)
Click Choose what to capture below. Your browser will show its picker for screens, windows, or tabs.
One quick heads-up
How screen capture works
After you click Continue, your browser will switch focus to the window you're sharing. Press Alt + Tab to come back here — your captured frame will be waiting.
How to do it
- Pause the video on the frame you want. Scrub frame by frame if the player supports it (on YouTube, press , and .).
- Come back to this tab and click “Pick a color”, or use screenshot mode if the video is in another tab.
- Click the pixel you want to sample. Pick from a flat region, not a moving edge.
- Sample 2–3 nearby points and compare. If they differ a lot, you're in a compression artefact zone.
Tips and gotchas
- Watch at the highest resolution available. At 360p, compression blocks can shift a color by several HEX steps.
- HDR video is tone-mapped to your display, so the sampled value is what your screen shows, not the mastering value.
- Some DRM-protected streams (Netflix, Disney+ and similar) show as black in screen captures. The live EyeDropper may still read the pixel, depending on browser and OS.
- Fullscreen video plus the live picker: the picker opens from this tab, so use a second monitor or screenshot mode.
FAQ
Why is the color I picked from YouTube slightly off?
Streaming codecs subsample chroma (typically 4:2:0), which blurs color across neighbouring pixels. Sample the middle of a large flat area and compare a few points.
Can I pick from a video in VLC or another desktop player?
Yes, in Chromium browsers. The EyeDropper samples anything visible on screen, not just browser content.
Why does screenshot mode show a black video?
Protected (DRM) content is often excluded from screen capture by the OS or browser. Try the live picker, or pick from an unprotected source.