An app by Pink Octopus Labs
Match any colour with the paints you own.
Pick a reference photo, tap the colour you want, and Paletteable suggests how to mix it from the exact oil paints you have, giving you a confident starting point instead of a guess.
Why I built Paletteable
I started oil painting a few years ago and quickly discovered how challenging it was to mix colours and understand the broader process of creating a painting. I was fortunate to have a great teacher at Perth Art Academy who helped me work through those challenges. Seeing how much the right guidance could help inspired me to build Paletteable for people like me: passionate about oil painting, short on time, and looking for practical help to turn the colours they see into paint on canvas. It isn't a replacement for a teacher or practice; it's a companion that helps make the next step clearer.
One-off purchase · No subscription
Buy once. It's yours.
No subscriptions, no recurring fees. Paletteable is a single one-off purchase, so you never have to keep paying for it.
How it works
From the colour you can see to the colour on your canvas, in three steps.
- 1
Capture
Point your camera at a colour, or pick one from a photo in your library.
- 2
Match
See the closest oil paints, or a suggested mixing recipe with ratios and a confidence score.
- 3
Paint
Save it to your palette, sync across your devices, and plan the painting with the built-in study tools.
Built for painters who are still learning
Colour mixing is the steepest part of the oil painting learning curve. Paletteable makes it approachable.
Capture colour from anywhere
Point your camera at a subject, or pick from a photo, and lift the colour you want to paint. Plein air or studio, the colour you can see becomes a colour you can work towards.
Matches that understand oil paint
Not a generic colour picker. Matching accounts for how oil pigments really behave, including undertone, opacity, and tinting strength. It uses perceptual colour science for results your eye agrees with.
Mixing recipes, not guesswork
When no single paint matches, get a suggested recipe: which paints to combine, in what ratio, and a confidence score for how close you can expect to get.
A growing, pigment-accurate database
Built on genuine artist-grade ranges, including Gamblin and Michael Harding at launch, with the database always growing. Each paint lists its pigments, opacity, tinting strength, drying time, and lightfastness.
Build palettes from the paints you own
Match using only the tubes on your table, with no suggestions for paints you do not have. Save a palette per project, or start one straight from a reference photo.
Discover and learn from the masters
Browse curated Master and Featured palettes with sample mixes, and see how a limited selection of paints created masterpieces.
Help shape the database
We're always refining the paint data and adding new brands, and your eye makes it better. If a paint looks wrong, flag it right in the app. And if there's a brand you'd like to see, let us know.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a subscription?
No. Paletteable is a one-off purchase. Buy it once and it is yours, with no recurring fees.
Which paint brands are included?
Paletteable launches with Gamblin and Michael Harding, with more brands coming soon.
Does it run on iPad?
Yes. It is a universal app for both iPhone and iPad.
Are my palettes private?
Yes. Your personal palettes are private to your iCloud account. Community sharing isn’t in the first release. When it comes later, it will always be opt-in.
Does Paletteable replace learning to mix colour?
No. It is a companion that helps you mix with confidence, not a replacement for practice or a good teacher.
How accurate are the matches?
Paletteable is a guide, not a guarantee. The colour algorithms aren’t perfect, and they’re meant to get you close rather than match exactly. Every match and mix comes with a confidence score so you can judge how near it is, and results also depend on your screen, your lighting, and the photo.
Get in touch
Questions about Paletteable, or just want to say hello? We'd love to hear from you.
Get in touch