Best iPad app for color palettes: where each one fits

Start with Adobe Capture if your colors come from the world around you, and use Coolors if you'd rather generate a palette from a blank slate. Adobe's listing says Capture turns your images into color palettes, vectors, fonts, and patterns, and it's a free download [1]. Coolors calls itself a color palettes app and website, and it's free too [2]. Skip a dedicated palette app entirely if you only paint in Procreate and like mixing as you go, because the painting app is where those colors end up anyway [4].

Pick by where your colors start

Pick the app by where your palette starts. If a palette begins with a photo of a market stall, a sunset, or a fabric sample, you want a tool that samples an image, and that's what Adobe's listing describes Capture doing [1]. If a palette begins with a mood, a brand word, or a client brief, a generator that hands you combinations to accept or reject is faster, which is the job Coolors puts front and center [2].

A third start is a printed swatch. Pantone Connect is the Pantone Color app for designers and color experts, according to its listing, and it sits in the Reference category rather than Graphics & Design [3]. That tells you what it's for: looking up and matching named print colors, not sketching.

• Photo first: Adobe Capture [1]
• Blank page or brief first: Coolors [2]
• Print swatch first: Pantone Connect [3]
• Canvas first: Procreate's own color tools [4]

Adobe Capture for palettes from photos

Capture is the pick for illustrators who collect color from reference. Point it at a photo and you're working from colors that already sit together in real light, which is a good shortcut when your own picks keep coming out muddy [1]. It's a free download with a 4.8 rating from more than 24,000 App Store ratings, so it isn't a niche experiment [1].

Choose it if you shoot your own reference or keep a camera roll of textures and scenes. Skip it if you never start from images, because its main trick is sampling them [1].

Coolors for generated palettes

Coolors is the faster route when you don't have a source image and want options now. Its listing calls it the most loved color palettes app and website, and it's a free download rated 4.8 from more than 10,000 ratings [2]. The appeal is speed: you see a palette, keep the colors you like, and keep looking for the rest.

Use it for brand boards, poster work, or any project where you're testing several directions before you commit. Skip it if you already know your colors and only need somewhere to store them, since a painting app's palette panel does that job [2], [4].

Pantone Connect only for print matching

Pantone Connect earns a place when a client or printer speaks in Pantone numbers. Its listing describes it as the essential Pantone Color iOS app for designers and color experts [3]. It's a free download, but its rating is much lower than the others, 3.1 from a few hundred ratings, so treat it as a lookup tool for a specific job rather than a daily sketching companion [3].

Buy into it if you design packaging, merch, or anything that goes to a print shop with named colors, and skip it for screen-only illustration [3].

Where Procreate fits

Whatever app builds the palette, most iPad illustrators paint in Procreate, a paid app with more than 50,000 App Store ratings [4]. Think of the palette apps as the place colors are found and Procreate as the place they're used. Keeping that split simple stops you from rebuilding the same palette in three places [4].

If you're choosing hardware for this kind of work, the iPad Air with M4 is a sensible middle pick: Apple's comparison page lists it with Apple Pencil Pro support, and that's the Pencil with the fullest feature list on Apple's own chart [6], [5]. A palette app runs fine without a Pro iPad, since the painting you do afterward is what sets the hardware bar [6].

A simple palette routine

A routine keeps palettes useful instead of piling up. Here's one that works with the apps above [1], [2], [4]:

1. Collect: sample a reference photo in Capture or generate options in Coolors [1], [2].
2. Trim: keep five to eight colors, including one dark and one light anchor.
3. Move: recreate the keepers in Procreate's palette so they're one tap away while painting [4].
4. Test: paint a small thumbnail with only those colors before you start the real piece.

Don't skip the test step: a palette that looks good as swatches can still fail on a canvas, and a thumbnail tells you in minutes [4].

Bottom line

Choose Adobe Capture when your colors start in photos and Coolors when they start from nothing; both are free downloads with strong ratings [1], [2]. Add Pantone Connect only for print matching [3]. Keep Procreate as the canvas where those palettes get used, and don't let a palette app become a second place to paint [4].

Sources

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1040200189 [2] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id956480678 [3] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1491023737 [4] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id425073498 [5] https://www.apple.com/apple-pencil/ [6] https://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/