The main purpose of this iPhone App is to suggest matching paint colors for selected areas of a photo. It does this by applying a Match Algorithm against a database of paint colors. The key word is attempt
as there is much variability in the process and the results obtained may often be far from what you might expect (please review the About and Disclaimer sections to learn more and, if your are interested in the technical side of things, the Programming Considerations section)
The three broad capabilities for the App are Reference & Search, Paints Suggestion, and Paints Data Capture.
The main view allows a user to switch between the five types of displays (shown in the screenshots that follow):
- Match Associations (default view): An alphabetized list of photo-area collections that are part of a common photograph (each area linked to a set of suggested matching paints)
- Color Associations: An alphabetized list of color associations
- Individual Colors: An alphabetized list of the individual colors that can be filtered by category
- Keywords Listing: An alphabetized list of keywords and their associated paints colors
- Subjective Colors: Colors grouped by color-wheel categories
For a given association row (first two screenshots below), scrolling right to left exposes remaining elements of the collection and clicking on it reveals the Association Detail View. For the Individual Colors listing (third screenshot), clicking on a row takes you directly to the Swatch Detail View.
Rotating to landcape, as shown below, makes it easier to read the full names which is especially useful for mix names.
The Keywords Listing (first two screenshots below) provides a way to easily locate keyword-color associations. The Subjective Colors listing (third screenshot) buckets colors into Color Wheel groups. In this view, the elements of one or more groups can be revealed/hidden by clicking on the corresponding down/up arrow widgets.
All listings, with the exception of Subjective Colors are alphabetized and include the top-right magnifier Search button (search rules vary between listing). The Individual Colors and Keywords Listing views also provide an Alphabetical Index widget for quick access.
A new photo or an existing one can be used by clicking on the top-left photo icon. The screenshots below show the general sequence of events for this type of capture. More detailed examples of this functionality can be found here.
Photographed paint swatches can be tapped and integrated into a Mix Association as shown in the screenshots below. The Add Color Mix feature (screenshots 2 & 3) allows users to add existing reference colors to the mix. A more detailed example can be found here.
The Settings view, accessible from the bottom-right gear button, enables global App customizations. Other features include the About this App and Disclaimer pages, links to the Web Documentation, a Provide Feedback link, and Share buttons (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and so on). More about this view can be found here.
This App does not store user or location information. Specific privacy settings must be enabled in order to access the Camera or Photo Library. Alerts are issued under several conditions (though most are informational). More on Access and Alerts can be found here.
This section gives a mostly high-level overview of the program structure and development process.
Though App is pending release, there are a number of new features that I am looking to implement as well as existing ones that I plan to revisit for future releases (the initial build 10.1 (2) also has some of the functionality disabled). Enhancements include:
- Re-enable the Paints Data Capture and much of the editing functionality
- Continue Improving the Data Capture
- Extend the Dataset by adding Paints and additional Keywords associations
- Revisit the Match Algorithms and perhaps even look into data derivation formulas
- Consider Deployment to Other Platforms and/or Device Types
- Address Internationalization/Localization issues
- Improve Usability (covers things like improvements to the UI/Graphics and new User Settings, such as Fonts and Thumbnail sizes)
- Revisit the Current Data Storage Model (perhaps consider centralized data storage and queries)
- In some ways similar to the preceding point, make it easy to share swatch data
For questions/comments about this App please email me at [email protected]
Note: Clicking on this 
logo will get you back to this main page.