Paint Color Matcher

1. Take the photo in daylight, with the flash off, facing the wall straight on. Avoid the warm cast of evening lamps.
2. Upload it above (JPG, PNG, WebP or iPhone HEIC). The photo is read in your browser and never uploaded.
3. Tap an evenly lit patch of wall, away from shadows, corners, glare and trim. The loupe shows the pixels you are sampling; drag or use the arrow keys to fine-tune.
4. Read the matches. Each paint shows its ΔE: the lower, the closer. Tap a match to compare it side by side with your color, and use the brand chips to search only the brands your store sells.
5. Order samples of the top two or three and test them on the wall before you buy.

The tool averages the pixels in a small circle where you tap (2, 5 or 10 px radius on the photo scaled to 1,600 px), so camera noise and texture don’t throw the color off. It averages in linear light, the way colors mix, then converts the result from sRGB to CIELAB, a color space built to match human vision.

It then compares your color with all 13,485 paint colors using CIEDE2000, the color-difference formula standardized by the CIE, as published by Sharma, Wu and Dalal (opens in a new tab). Our implementation reproduces all 34 of their test pairs. The closest colors across brands are listed first, then the three closest in each brand.

Delta E (ΔE) is the distance between two colors. A ΔE under 1 is a difference most people can’t see, and 1 to 2 shows only when the colors sit side by side. Two brands seldom publish the exact same color, so a cross-brand match is rarely exactly 0.

The tool opens with this example color. Its three closest paints are:

• Benjamin Moore Cedar Key (OC-16, #D7CEBF): ΔE 0.5, near-identical.
• Sherwin-Williams Grecian Ivory (SW 7541, #D8CFBE): ΔE 0.6, near-identical.
• PPG / Glidden Crushed Silk (1024-3, #D8CFBE): ΔE 0.6, near-identical.

The furthest of the three is ΔE 0.6 (near-identical). Choose between them by brand, sheen and LRV, then test samples.

Use this table to find a close color in another brand. A ΔE under 2 is a near swap; above 2, compare samples side by side first.

LRV, light reflectance value, is how much light a color reflects. The scale runs from 0, reflecting no light, to 100, reflecting all light (Sherwin-Williams (opens in a new tab)). Two colors with the same hue can feel very different on a wall if their LRVs differ: Sherwin-Williams suggests higher-LRV colors for north-facing rooms, which get less direct light.

The matcher shows LRV for Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore colors, where the source data includes it. For Behr, Valspar and PPG, check the brand’s color page.

A photo records light, not paint. Four things change it:

• Light source. Daylight is cool, many bulbs are warm, and the same wall shifts through the day.
• White balance. Phones correct color automatically, which can make a warm white look gray or blue.
• Exposure and shadows. A wall in shade or next to a window can be several shades apart in one photo.
• Your screen. Brightness, night mode and the display itself change how swatches look. Benjamin Moore notes that on-screen colors may vary from actual paint colors (opens in a new tab).

For touch-ups, a photo is not enough. Take a physical piece of the paint to a paint store: Sherwin-Williams asks for a sample the size of a quarter or larger (opens in a new tab) for its scanner. Cut it from a hidden spot, such as behind a switch plate or inside a closet.

Common mistakes:

• Ignoring sheen. The same color in flat and semi-gloss looks different; match the finish too.
• Sampling an edge or corner, where shadow darkens the color.
• Trusting one tiny swatch. Paint a large sample board and look at it in several spots.
• Forgetting that paint ages. A wall painted years ago can fade or yellow away from its original color.