Published: May 27, 2009, By Abbe Fenimore

My iphone..my new color assistant!

I just LOVE my iphone…most of the time!  I seriously need to step away from the apps, espically the ones that cost $ because those little suckers will add up!  Not only does my favorite crush Benjamin Moore have an app available ( launching June 1st), but the other man in my life…Sherwin Williams is in the iPhone App game too! Yippie, I can hardly wait to try these out and the best part is that they are FREE!

Launching on June 1, the new app from Benjamin Moore lets you “snap a picture of any color inspiration, anywhere in the world, and instantly match it to one of the more than 3,300 hues that comprise Benjamin Moore’s color system”. Favorites can be saved for “instant color coordination and comparison“.

Here’s a description of how it will work from the press release: Simply glide a finger across the digital photo taken with the iPhone’s built-in camera, zoom into a color, and tap the “match” key. In just seconds, a strip of colors will appear below the photo, with the closest paint match highlighted. A simple shake of the phone and ben will provide up to four coordinating colors, creating an entire harmonizing palette based on the original selection. Favorites can be saved and enlarged to the size of the iPhone screen for easier viewing. There’s access, as well, to the full spectrum color wheel, which expands or contracts by fingertip control to focus on a color preference. That, too, can be translated into a Benjamin Moore color and saved as a favorite for future reference.

Sherwin Williams App:  The overall idea is similar to the Ben Color Capture App – you choose a color from a photo and it will give you the closest paint match along with a coordinating palette – and this time, of course, it pulls from the Sherwin Williams line.

Here’s a full list of the features:

Choose a color and Sherwin-Williams will match it with one of its paint colors.

Receive more than a color match—you’ll get a coordinating palette that complements your chosen color.

Colors also include RGB values for architectural design pros and Photoshop fiends, making it easy to recreate the colors in renderings.

Using either iPhone GPS capability or zip code entry, find your local Sherwin-Williams store. You can direct dial or map its location all within the application.