Paint colors

The app carries no paint colors of its own: it fetches each brand’s colors from the brand, and keeps them on your computer. Seven brands are listed on the Paint colors page (in the sidebar): Sherwin-Williams, Behr, Benjamin Moore, Valspar, PPG / Glidden, HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams and Dutch Boy. The Colors tab lists the brands whose colors are here, and says how many more wait on Paint colors.

Loading a brand’s public list

Behr, Sherwin-Williams, Valspar, HGTV Home and Dutch Boy publish their colors on their websites; Benjamin Moore and PPG / Glidden publish palette files for designers (Benjamin Moore one per collection, PPG one Excel file of every color), which the app finds on the brand’s palette page. When the app opens — the first time, and every time after — it loads by itself, one after another, each brand that has no colors here yet and has Load automatically on, and keeps them on your computer; their progress shows at the bottom right, with Cancel. Load automatically, on a brand’s row, turns that off for the brand (its colors already here stay) or on again (an empty brand loads at once). A brand with no colors here has Load the colors; one already loaded has Load again, which fetches its list again; their progress shows above the list. From says where a brand’s colors came from — its public list or a palette file — and when. A load that fails says why on the brand’s row (“The last try failed: …”). Each brand’s own website terms apply to what you download — the app downloads each list for your own use.

Importing a brand’s palette file

If a brand moves its list or its files and loading fails, you can still download the brand’s palette file from its website yourself — Benjamin Moore’s ASE files on its “Download Benjamin Moore color palettes” page, PPG’s “Voice of Colour Palette … RGB and LRV Values” Excel file, or Sherwin-Williams’ and Behr’s palette downloads. On the brand’s row open the menu beside its button (the arrow) and choose Import a file… — a brand the app can only take from its palette file has Import a file… as its button — then choose the file. The app reads Adobe swatch files (.ase, .aco), Excel (.xlsx) and CSV; a CSV or Excel file needs a header row with a code or name column and a hex or R,G,B column. How big a file may be is in App Settings → General (Largest palette file (MB), 30 at first).

An import replaces the brand’s colors with the file’s. Benjamin Moore publishes one file per collection, so after importing one of them, that collection is all of Benjamin Moore you have — Load again brings back the whole list. The app keeps each paint by its number: colors in a file without one are left out, and the import says how many came in and what it left out.

Remove, in the same menu, takes a brand’s colors off this computer; it asks first, and names the designs that use them. Those parts show no color until the brand is added again — a house open at the time too: its Parts tab says “not in the loaded colors” — and the design keeps which color it was, so it comes back with the brand. With Load automatically on, the brand loads again the next time the app opens: to keep it off this computer, turn Load automatically off, then Remove.

When Load again or an imported file brings a list without some colors a design uses (a brand retires colors), the app names those designs. On the house’s Parts tab such a part says “not in the loaded colors” with the color’s number; pick it a new color.

How colors are named

Each color carries its brand’s number before its name — “SW 7008 Alabaster”. Benjamin Moore, Valspar, HGTV Home and Dutch Boy numbers get the brand’s letters or name in front (“BM”, “Valspar”, “HGSW”, “Dutch Boy”), so one brand’s number is never taken for another’s; Behr and PPG numbers stand alone. The Colors tab’s swatches show the name over the number alone; the full name shows when you point at one, on the chosen paint, on the Parts tab and in the schemes. Just House Paint is not affiliated with or endorsed by any paint brand; the brands’ names and color names belong to them.

Finding a color

On a house’s Colors tab: choose the brand, search by name or by number — the number without the brand’s letters (“7008”, not “SW 7008”) — and click a color to paint the selected part. Order lists the colors by Color, as a paint store’s color wall — whites, grays and blacks first, then pinks and reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and purples, each from light to dark — or by Name; the app keeps your choice. Color family shows only the Neutrals (whites, grays, blacks and the grayest beiges) or one of the hue families. The families and where each begins are in App Settings → Advanced (“How colors are ordered by color”).

Exterior colors only (on at first) hides the colors a brand marks for inside use; colors it doesn’t mark either way stay. Today only Sherwin-Williams marks its colors, so for the other brands it hides nothing. It narrows An exact color’s matches too. Color family, Exterior colors only and Show discontinued colors start over each time you open the tab; Order is kept.

An exact color — a hex color, or one from the picker — finds the brand’s nearest paints, closest first, each with its ΔE: green, under 2, is a close match — hard to tell apart from your color. When none is near: “No paint of this brand near … — try another brand, or turn off Exterior colors only.”

A color from the photo: choose Pick a color above the photo and click it — the color there goes into An exact color, with the brand’s nearest paints. On the Parts tab, the small round swatch beside a part is its color as photographed; click it to find the paints nearest the color your house has now. Light and shadow are in a photo’s colors, so the nearest paint is close, not exact — check a chip against the wall.

Discontinued colors

Some lists include colors a brand no longer sells. They are hidden unless you turn on Show discontinued colors, which lists them on the Colors tab — find the paint already on your house there by its name or number. The nearest-paint matches (An exact color, Pick a color, a part’s photographed swatch) never offer discontinued colors.