datacolor ColorReader EZ: Scan Any Colour to Match and Coordinate Paint and Digital Colour Values Instantly, Eliminating Stressful Indecision

Handy little device for a decent price. Really helped me with decorating my kitchen and choosing the right colours. Will definitely be recommending this to my work colleagues.

Do not buy. Only reads for Australia. Why is it being sold in the UK???

After testing this device from a novice decorator point of view, I can see this being useful in some situations but probably not for everyone. The device itself is small powered by an included CR3203 button battery. There is an app to download, and once switched on it will connect to the app, then all you have to do is to place it on the object you want the colour test and press the button, the app will then give you the colour information and you may choose the best matching colour products that they recommend from a library. It seems simple enough. However, I am not sure about a couple of things: - The library of colour products seem to gear towards German market, I only recognise Valspar products that I can get from B&Q and their paints are not cheap - The device has no 'off' button, once it is on you will need to wait for it to turn off by itself The colour information given seems to be comprehensive, As to how close this is matching I can only trust their ad which is >85%, whereas the other devices from this company have higher accuracy >90%+ . So if you are a colour professional I don't think you will go for this model. I can see that this will be useful if there is a colour that you really like matching from an object or a custom mix, say you want your room matching the colour of your favourite vase, this device will help you with the colour information (hex code, RAL etc) and you may take this code to shops for them to mix. It seems to fill a very narrow gap in the market, people probably just go for the readily available colours for a close match. But if you are really colour sensitive, or you have colour weakness that you are not able to match any colour correctly with your eyes, then this device can help.

I ordered this device as I was having some difficulty accurately identifying the paint colour in a few rooms in my house after moving in. The ColorReader was really easy to set up and works well on my phone. The app works well and has a number of useful features. I particularly liked the feature which suggests colours that coordinate with the main colour you match. I would recommend this device. I feel it was good value for money and a useful bit of kit. Much easier than relying on guess work or multiple colour card matches to identify possible colour matches!

Not at all accurate. When tested four times on the same smooth flat wall all within 100mm it returned 4 different results. Battery lost 15% power in first 10 minutes of use.

For uk use this is pretty rubbish. The colours available are f&b and valspar and then ral. All the best colour matches are to Dulux Australia but not Dulux UK, no little Greene, crown, any of the main Uk brands. So far has not found close matches for any colours tried.

I decorated my main room, spare room and bathroom using this tool. It really helped me with the colour scheme as it recommends particular colours that would go well with your main colour. It also recommends brands also. Very easy to use so highly recommend.

First thoughts: I had this set up and ready to go in minutes. The packaging was just the card the device was laying on but that was all it needed. The reader identifies the colour the lens is in contact with and outputs the colour or closest match using the RAL system for accurate procurement. As RAL is a set standard you can give this to almost any European paint manufacturer and it can be recreated accurately and consistently across the board. I don’t need to eyeball the colour of something I like and try to find a match by sight. I just pop open the lens flap, fire up the app on my phone and click the button while it’s in contact with the surface of an item I like the colour of. Detail and things to note (See pictures and video): Small reader device with a single button on the top side and a folding flap covering the lens on the bottom. App was easy to find on the app store and paired with the device quickly without any issues. The device serial number detailed on the backing card is used to identify the device in the app. Find a colour you want to use and lay the device lens on the surface, click the button to scan. The matching colour or closest match is displayed on the app with supplementary information if it’s available (RAL number, paint brand, name of the colour etc.). It will also provide the colour match in Hex and RGB although I personally wouldn’t try to shop for paint using those methods. It would however be useful in design scenarios. Recent scans are saved in the app history for quick recall later. Final thoughts: Although it suggests it should be used on a hard, flat surface, I managed to match the green screen material while it was hung up on the wall. This seems to be a versatile and accurate device. If you’re familiar with locating paint colours by RAL number then this could be a powerful tool in your kit. I’ve been using it constantly on this home project and so I’d happily recommend this.

Bij het inrichten van een woning moeten er veel keuzes worden gemaakt. Opzoek gaan naar die ene kleur die goed past bij die andere kleur, is tijdrovend en stressvol. Daarom is de Datacolor Colorreader iets wat ik al jaren geleden had willen hebben. Een kleur gekozen voor mijn keuken die ik moet combineren met ander kleuren. Door de Colorreader heb ik de juiste kleur nu in mijn app en kan ik eindeloos kleuren combineren en beoordelen wat ik mooi vind passen.

Tenía mis dudas tras leer algunas reservas para comprarlo pero finalmente lo compré y funciona bien. Yo uso una carta RAL y va fenomenal.

Ottimo prodotto

I just received this 30min ago and I was immediately blown away. Setup was super easy (iOS): Installed the App, Connect, Scan. The device doesn’t look like much: It reminds me of an advertising flashlight LED key chain. As soon as it was ready I turned to the first pained surface nearby. I happen to have painted my kitchen walls about one year ago so I tested this on 2 walls. The result came up with the name and also the brand. I knew the brand was right but I wasn’t sure about the color names... so I went down to the garage to find the leftover cans and they were both correct! I was expecting the color match but i didn’t expected it to get the brand too. After this I am very confident I’ll be able to match the paint in another room. I’ll update this once I find out. Update : Used this device to match a yellowish brown paint for touch-up over patched dents. My first attempt at "manually" matching using the palette samples was way off: Too dark. Second attempt using this device was mostly a success: The scanned color was called "green xxx" and I frankly would have never guessed it was a green. I came back with the paint in much doubt it was a match. I applied the new pain over the patches and waited for it to dry and was pretty good. Is it perfect? No. The new paint is noticeably darker than the old paint. But I think it's my fault: I used this device to scan the old paint in multiple places in the room to get an "average". But instead of following up on a good idea, ended up picking one of the darkest samples for the new paint. In retrospect, I should have made an extra trip to the paint store to pick the palette samples for each of the scans and select the best match before actually buying the paint on a "hunch" that the correct sample was the darkest one. But it's really close enough not to be worth redoing it. So overall, I'm quite satisfied.

Der Datacolor ColorReader EZ ist ein praktisches Werkzeug für die Farberkennung. Die Handhabung ist einfach und die Ergebnisse sind ziemlich genau. Es ist sehr nützlich, um Farben zu identifizieren und passende Farbpaletten zu erstellen. Ein kleiner Nachteil ist jedoch, dass die Genauigkeit manchmal je nach Lichtverhältnissen variieren kann. Außerdem könnte die Kompatibilität mit verschiedenen Oberflächen verbessert werden.