Hue-topia and the Apple colour picker

Since version 1.6, the Philips Hue home lighting controller for OSX, Hue-topia, has had a colour picker built in rather than previously a circular slider. (improved in 1.6.1 and 1.6.2)

Hue-topia now displays the colour in a way which is more akin to the bulb itself, but the colour picker itself is the standard OSX colour picker. The tips below apply to Hue-topia and any other app which uses the standard colour picker.

1. Favourites

When you've found a colour you like, save it as a favourite. Just drag and drop from the large swatch near the top (or from another colour well) to the little palette at the bottom. From now on you can just click on the little palette square to select the colour. Bonus tip - grab and drag that little handle just below the palette when it gets full.

2. drag and drop between colour wells

You don't even need to open the colour picker to copy a colour from one well to another. This works in any app that uses standard colour wells.

3. Other ways to choose colour

You're not limited to that colour wheel. The picker has several options built in - sliders, palettes, image (you can even drag your own image in there) and the very old favourite, crayons.

See the magnifying glass just below the toolbar? Click that to pick a colour from anywhere else on your screen.

If all of this isn't enough, you can add third-party plugins to the picker.

I bet there are some tricks that I've missed. Write them in the comments below.

Screensleeves' new Full-Screen mode

Did you used to prop the album cover up beside the record player when you listened to an LP? Or even sit and hold it while you listened?

The Screensleeves Screensaver is a great way to see the album cover art when you're listening to music (iTunes, Spotify and Snowtape supported). Now it has a full-screen theme which really shows off good artwork or works well if you're a distance from your screen.

It respects the 'Keep centred and static' option. In that case it fits the whole album cover in the screen, with or without the 3D tilting effect. Otherwise it'll use a Ken Burns effect and enlarge the artwork according to your 'Artwork size' setting.

This new theme is in Screensleeves 3.5 which is available for download now. Use it for free (the only limitation is a small 'please support' message).