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BLBlender

Palette Grabber

by auphinity.tools·Workflow

Images © auphinity.tools. Used for product review; image policy.

Why we like it

Palette Grabber earns its place in the Blender library for closing a gap the app doesn't cover natively: extracting a palette from an image and getting those colors onto objects as materials without eyedropping each one by hand. K-means extraction, dedupe filtering, and one-click Apply to Selected keep the whole process inside the N-panel.

What is Palette Grabber?

Palette Grabber is a Blender add-on for pulling color palettes out of reference images and turning them into materials. You load an image, set how many colors you want, and click Extract Palette; the add-on analyzes the pixel data with k-means clustering and returns the dominant colors as editable swatches in the N-panel. Selecting your objects and clicking Apply to Selected assigns those colors as solid Principled BSDF materials, either sequentially or randomized.

The color count is adjustable from 3 to 32, with a seed for reproducible results, and dedupe filtering merges near-identical colors so a request for six colors doesn't return six slightly different grays. A separate Color Harmony generator builds palettes from a base color using Complementary, Analogous, Triadic, Split-Complementary, or Monochromatic rules, with no image required. Palettes can be saved into Blender's palette data for Texture Paint, Vertex Paint, and Grease Pencil, or exported as .GPL or .hex.

Palette Grabber is non-destructive by default: it never alters your images or scene structure, and Apply to Selected only replaces material slots on mesh objects, which stays undoable with Ctrl+Z.

Who is Palette Grabber best for?

Palette Grabber is best for concept artists and illustrators matching reference colors to a 3D scene, game artists doing quick color blockouts before texturing, and stylized or NPR artists working with flat or simplified palettes.

How much does Palette Grabber cost?

Palette Grabber is completely free to download and use.

Key features

  • K-means extraction of statistically dominant colors, with an adjustable color count (3–32) and a seed for reproducible results
  • Editable swatches in the N-panel that open in Blender's native color picker
  • Dedupe filtering that automatically merges near-identical colors
  • Apply to Selected assigns colors as solid Principled BSDF materials, sequentially or randomized; a brush icon applies a single swatch to all selected objects
  • Color Harmony generator with five modes: Complementary, Analogous, Triadic, Split-Complementary, and Monochromatic
  • Save palettes into Blender's palette data for Texture Paint, Vertex Paint, and Grease Pencil, export as .GPL or .hex, and copy hex values to the clipboard
  • Works with any render engine and reads images Blender can load, including PNG, JPEG, EXR, TIFF, and BMP

Tags

#color palette#k-means#materials#color harmony#concept art#blockout#Blender add-on

Frequently asked questions

Does Palette Grabber work with Blender 4.0 and newer?

Palette Grabber supports Blender 4.0 and newer, and has been tested up to Blender 5.1. It installs from a single palette_grabber.zip file directly inside Blender, and it depends only on numpy, which already ships with Blender's Python, so there's nothing extra to install. The add-on works with any render engine because the materials it creates use Principled BSDF. For exact version details and any updates beyond 5.1, check the developer's page at auphinity.tools.

What image formats can Palette Grabber extract palettes from?

Palette Grabber extracts palettes from any image Blender can load, including PNG, JPEG, EXR, TIFF, and BMP. You load a reference image, set how many colors you want, and click Extract Palette; the add-on analyzes the pixel data with k-means clustering and returns the dominant colors as editable swatches in the N-panel. Near-identical colors are merged automatically through dedupe filtering, so asking for six colors won't hand you six slightly different grays.

Does Palette Grabber modify my images or scene?

Palette Grabber is non-destructive by default and never modifies your images or scene structure. The only change it makes is Apply to Selected, which replaces material slots on the chosen mesh objects, and that action is undoable with Ctrl+Z. Colors are assigned as solid Principled BSDF materials, either sequentially or randomized across your selection, and you can apply a single swatch to all selected objects by clicking its brush icon.

Can Palette Grabber build palettes without a reference image?

Palette Grabber can build palettes without any reference image through its Color Harmony generator. Starting from a base color, it produces a palette using one of five color-theory rules: Complementary, Analogous, Triadic, Split-Complementary, or Monochromatic. Any resulting palette can be saved into Blender's palette data, making it available in Texture Paint, Vertex Paint, and Grease Pencil, and you can export it as a .GPL (GIMP Palette) or plain .hex file, or copy hex values to the clipboard.

Is Palette Grabber free to use?

Palette Grabber is listed as free here in our catalog, and it's distributed under the GPL-2.0-or-later license. For current licensing terms and any changes to how it's offered, check the developer's page at auphinity.tools. The add-on ships as a single palette_grabber.zip that installs directly in Blender, comes with a full user guide in its Documentation tab, and depends only on numpy, which is already bundled with Blender's Python.

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