ColorSnap® Visualizer Reviews

by Skjeep9

Worst app of its kind!! The colors I was using were not even close!! I chose a Dark green, but when I put it on the pic was a very very light green. I chose other colors to see if it was only what I chose, but they were all bad! Btw, once again, I understand colors won’t match exactly, however these were not even close!! Plus you had to sign up, give email, etc. was a pain, hard to use. I’m deleting ColorSnap.
Home Depot & Benjamin Moore apps are excellent!
It’s a shame because my husband insists sherwin Williams is the best paint, he always uses it. But I doubt we will use it this time. We have bought 3 quarts already & they haven’t matched their chips so I don’t want to spend more money trying to figure out what we want. Just my opinion.

by Robot,Mr.

Was trying to check color choices for exterior of house. Tried to use it to paint from camera shot. It would say “Wall detected” then “Tap wall to paint “ or something. When I tap the wall it says something about undetermined surface and recommends I need to turn on more light. I was shooting at a large wall facing south on a sunny day. The wall was in direct sunlight. So I’m supposed to make it brighter than the sun can???

Fyi I also tried using their website version by uploading a photo. The user interface was ok and worked as expected -but- colors you get on the computer screen are not even close to same color chips, so that was a waste of time too.

Just go get actual paint samples and try them out for real. Only way to make a good selection.

by Tianaloraine

ColorSnap does not work to test colors on pictures. The colors always come out super light and almost transparent. A deep red shows up as hot pink, navy blue shows up as baby blue, I even tried black and nothing showed up at all, literally it was like the wall was painted clear! If I could rate it zero stars, I would.

Even if the colors worked halfway decent, the tools don't work as expected. Everything in the picture gets colored the same color, you can't test wall paint with trim, and if you're super unlucky everything in the picture will get "painted" except for the wall you're trying to test: the ceiling, the window panes, the leaves on plants, but not the actual wall. I have more luck using the edit tool in my phone photo album to color on the picture.

by Bre Holmdie

I have only just got ColorSnap, but I’m already ultra annoyed with it. Every time I try to add a picture for color match or even to paint a room it “freezes”. Not in the sense that it stops working at all; I can select photos, go from album to album, but it will not proceed past that. I cannot cancel the action or select that I’m done. So I have to force close ColorSnap to try again with something different. I tried the virtual reality instead, but I think the room I’m looking at is too small and it will not recognize the wall. And if it does it makes everything the color I’m looking at, including my painting, etc. That’s not very helpful. And it doesn’t save my color choices in the VR mode. Anytime I move away from it I have to re-select everything I picked. Maybe I need to create an account? Haven’t gotten that far. ColorSnap prompted me to review, so I did. I hope it gets better

by Pluviophile13

I am a property manager and oversee renovations of apartment units. I bought the datacolor ColorReader EZ in order to match existing paint colors when we need to touch up the paint. We use Kelly-Moore and Benjamin-Moore paints exclusively. To test it out, I scanned a spot of a wall that had been freshly painted with Kelly-Moore Swiss Coffee. I was so disappointed that the device came up with five different readings of the same area of the wall under the same lighting conditions, none of which were even white much less the Swiss Coffee! This reader works somewhat if you’re looking for a paint color that works with an object, but NOT for the purpose of matching wall paint. I found out that my bedsheet color matched with Sherwin-Williams Butterscotch, which is useless info for me, but at least I know it works for *something*! Glad I can write off the cost as a business expense and that there’s no charge for using ColorSnap .

by Babbleakh

There are several things I’d fix:

1. It’s really frustrating I can only choose 1 color at a time to paint an existing picture of my house, even though I have a paint pallete. If I choose a different color, it repainted everything with that new color. I can’t see how accents work with each other.
2. If I repaint the same picture several times, it starts to change the color to a whiter color than it was. It doesn’t seem to match the color I picked at all. I keep having to save my picture and reload it to get a deeper color of what I want(think of it as double coating) but this doesn’t work at all on a picture that has dark colors. Our house is deep red and I can’t get the light gray color I want to be represented without it still showing tons of red. I can’t get an accurate representation

by Bakergirl1428

Don’t waste your time trying. Buying a new home and wanted to give this a try. I didn’t find ColorSnap confusing or complicated but it simply does not work. I picked a few colors and chose my photo to paint. The swatch colors were very pretty but when I tapped on the area of the photo I wanted painted, the color placed on the photo was NO WHERE NEAR the color of the swatch I chose. I chose a darker grey swatch and it painted the wall almost white! Every color I picked had the same result. Once you’ve painted something and pick a new color for a different wall, it paints EVERYTHING you just painted the same color.

Surely these are easy fixes but I’ve seen the same exact complaints have been made for some time now with no resolutions. This has great potential but sadly falls very short.

by SciCommSadie

My landlord and I tried using ColorSnap to help us choose colors for the whole house before going into the store. Disappointingly, we discovered the colors we saw on the app were SIGNIFICANTLY different than the actual colors in the store - even the clerk made a comment that ColorSnap is never accurate.

Because I can’t trust the colors in ColorSnap , I feel like I would be wasting time by using any of the virtual visualizer features, which is a huge let down since they seem like they would be super helpful.

The color pallet picker and saver is problematic too. There are a number of layers you have to get through to edit and save a pallet and since the “Save” button is under a “…” expandable menu, I intuitively clicked “Done” on the top menu bar thinking I was saving all my work, but that was wrong - no changes were saved. When I went back to edit the pallet again (to redo my changes and properly save my work) the removal changes would save but additions would not.

So it’s getting there - it’s a great concept, but not useful yet.

by App_tinted_glasses

I decided to go with SW paint because of the quality of the paint itself, and ColorSnap is better than others but still not great. I know any kind of color preview or matching is going to be a rough estimate at best, so I get paint chips as a baseline then use ColorSnap to see what’s close to that but with more blue undertones, for example.

The palette function is very buggy, half the time it doesn’t save. I wish I could move around colors and see different things next to each other so that I can get a sense of what trim colors would work. I also wish I could just see a full screen swatch without half the screen taken up by their preview of what it would look like in a room.

Minus one star for not supporting the HGTV color line from Lowe’s, which is the only place you can even hope to get a sample pot these days.

by CoachKersey

I love the versatility of ColorSnap. You can paint walls from a picture, paint from the camera screen, take a picture to match colors, etc.
Having said that, ColorSnap needs a lot of fine tuning, from color accuracy to defining color boundaries, to the ability to paint different walls different colors with ease.
For example, well-bred brown is a gorgeous rich brown between milk chocolate to a dark chocolate. We have it in our home now.
I tried applying it via images using ColorSnap to a couple of walls in a home I’m decorating now. This well-bred brown showed up as a very light grey, almost white, to a medium gray, depending on the wall. So between the inaccuracy of the color plus the differing colors, I’d suggest not relying on your mock up without rolling an actual sample color on your wall before deciding.
Hopefully these and other issues will be resolved soon because the tool itself is very ingenious.

by Court0109

Sometimes I like ColorSnap, but it is often frustrating for me. Here are a few things that I wish could be fixed:
1) The eraser tool often doesn’t erase where I am selecting, or it erases more than I have selected. It is never accurate.
2) You can’t choose more than one color at a time. I wanted to see how a room would look with white trim and a particular paint color, but there is no way to do this. Whatever color you select, will paint the entire area.
3) The color I select very often doesn’t match the swatch. I was trying to paint a room with comfort gray, and it ended up looking white. So I don’t feel like I have been able to accurately see what the color will look like.
4) I really wish there was a way to select an area that you don’t want the paint to appear. Every single time I try to paint a wall, it paints the ceiling that color too. And, as stated above, using the eraser tool doesn’t always work.

by SuperKat3

I’m a longtime design pro and specify SW most of the time. Navigating to access the tools I want to use is awkward, slow and frustrating. even though i log in as A&D, your site sends me all over the place before I can ever get to what I came to do, such as match a photo, order large samples, etc. Your site is too contractor and consumer-based and each session has me resubmitting my login credentials multiple times. I brought this up to my wonderful former A&D rep over 6 years ago and see no improvement. She understood these issues as I logged in right next to her to show her what I experience from user perspective. I experience the same frustrations whether I am on my MacBook, iPhone, IPad or Chrome or Safari browser.

by Lilieae

I really enjoyed the color snap option. I find it very helpful and easy to use. My low rating is because I took the time to paint the exterior of my house and had a pallet I was playing with. I swiped to my web browser for a bit to check on a color and when I returned all of my work was gone. Everything refreshed. I was moments away from saving my pallet once I finalized the last color in the set. I’m so disappointed. So much time invested went down the drain. I had gone back and forth to my photo album to reference saved colors and there was no issue then. Please fix it so ColorSnap continues to run in the background until closed out.

by Voldemort3000

I love the idea of ColorSnap since many times I have trouble trying to imagine the color on the wall using a small slip of paper. However ColorSnap was a bit confusing to try and work but I eventually figured it out. The other problem was it has trouble figuring out what’s the wall and what’s not. The gray color I tried covered the walls fine and I got a small preview of what the room would look like. However, some objects near the walls were colored the gray as well. This isn’t a huge problem but it just doesn’t give the full look of what it would look exactly like. Besides for those two reasons i think it’s a great app that can really help you ihr picking a paint color.

by Bama909

The Color Snap app has been so much fun, as I research different colors to plan painting the exterior of our home. I have spent hours searching Pinterest, Houzz, & the Internet for photos of house exterior colors that I want to possibly use for our house. I take s screenshots & crop the image, then use “Color Match” (within the Color Snap app) to determine exactly what paint colors I like.
I love the ability to pull my favorite screenshots, to determine which Sherwin-Williams paint color is the closest match to the colors used within the photo.
The ability to “Paint a Scene” is easy enough, when using their selection of scenes. The developers need to improve the ability to paint a scene from my own screenshots. Otherwise, ColorSnap offers a lot of snapping fun!

by GD879

I was trying to find a color match for my shed. I took a picture and ColorSnap made a color suggestion. Initially, the color the computer picked seemed too dark, so I went to the store to try and match the color old fashioned way. However, when I looked at the computer suggested color tile at the store, it was lighter, and actually matched perfectly. So not sure if it’s my phone brightness, or the way it shows up in ColorSnap , but ColorSnap did pick the right color. Satisfied.

by Scottysteph

ColorSnap is great. I was worried it wouldn’t work based on negative reviews. You have to learn how to use it. If you click on paint a scene, you have to choose a color either new or from your saved SW paint perks colors, then it will access your camera. It does at first, take you to a pre loaded scene, but go back to the camera live using the arrow at the top, then touch the screen and it will load it to your own live picture. It just takes a little exploring, but it does work. It may not be flawless but it’s the best I have used to get a color on your own actual wall to see what it will look like. I’m not sure the color it paints is very accurate. I wouldn’t choose a color based on this first. I would choose a color you really like, then put it in ColorSnap to get a “general” idea what it will look like. All electronic devices are going to vary in their pixels and look different. The chip is still going to be the most accurate.

by Addie'sDaddy

I have been a residential painter for 30 years. This technology has been essential for my business in guiding the customer to choose the best color for their project. I have suggested ColorSnap to my customers after some basic instructions on how to navigate through the functions. I have used the RGB function to compare the customer color choices to each other for warmth and neutrality. The Share palette is perfect for collaborating between individuals and groups. I still carry a color sample book to consultations, but it is mostly to verify that the color choices are accurately represented by the electronic devices screen being used that day.

by Whimsical-wonder

I’ve been using ColorSnap since Sherwin Williams first came out with it, and so far it’s helped me decide which paints and colors to use, with each and every renovation, painting projects.

At times (due to time of day, lighting, and most likely whatever filter I’m using on my phone at the time) the colors can be off a little, or a lot less often, by a lot. However, it’s another way to let me envision colors I’ve chosen, BEFORE I actually decide which paint colors are best, for every project.

Paint chips taped to the wall (although helpful) are just too small for me to get a total important impression of what a room is going to turn out like, before I spend too much on the incorrect hues, tones, undertones, etc.

I’m VERY thankful to SW for allowing us to download and use this much appreciated tool, for the most perfect painting jobs ever!

Also, SW paints are my favorite, due to their amazing coverage, and the butter like spreadability of their paints.

Only problem is... I love to paint, and because of this, it’s difficult for me to keep my walls, and other painted surfaces the same colors for very long. Good thing SW also offers us such amazing discount offers throughout the year.

Thank you Sherwin Williams! 👍❤️

by Emily Nolin

I adore ColorSnap. I am very deliberate about apps on my phone. I am so minimal with them. I am moving to Asheville with my family and I am in charge of the color so I am looking for perfect paints. I went to Sherwin Williams today and found the color chips that I liked; I had already downloaded ColorSnap. I am blown away with the way that this works. It is so amazing. It gives you such a good idea of the way the colors will look in the rooms. Between going into the store and using ColorSnap, I have VERY EASILY, VERY ENJOYABLY found colors that I adore for our rooms in our new home. This is exactly the way I envisioned apps-- practical, useful, easy-to-use, leading-edge, enjoyable and fun. This has been a pleasure to use and has helped me so much in my move. I love ColorSnap and it's a value to this store, ensuring just another reason for customers to use SW paint. Thank you!!!

by PW In Atlanta

This used to be an easy, straightforward app and a very useful tool for visualizing how a color would look on the house I’m working on. SW has improved it to the point that I can’t access any tool except the fill tool and the Undo feature. That’s the main one I used since selecting a color and touching the screen fills the whole photo. Where is the edge detection feature? The brush tools? Way to go, guys. You took a perfectly good app and made it worthless. I’ll jump over to one of your competitors and find something that actually works.

P.S. I’m a SW Pro

by LaneGrem

We've used Sherwin Williams paint exclusively since we built our home. They keep records of the paint colors on file for us. Today we went in and the guy couldn't find them (new guy). He said just use ColorSnap . Well I used it on 2 walls that I still have the cans for, so I know the exact color names. ColorSnap doesn't not work. It pulled up colors that are way different. I tried using lots of light, flash, etc. nothing close is pulled up. Tricorn black should be easy and it didn't even match that one. Good luck. I'm not going with their suggestions.

by AnnaBits

False advertisement. If I would have read the reviews versus what was falsely advertised I wouldn’t have downloaded app. Bought a new house and wanted to see if the colors would look nice. No go! They have a preloaded picture for you to use instead of using a picture of your own room. Can’t even upload a photo of the room I want to paint to even get a better idea. Will continue to go with the old school route-get swatch colors of interest and put them up on a wall to narrow it done. Then get the sample paints of each and make a foolproof decision from that. This method never fails for me.

by Danimology

How is ColorSnap so SO bad? It’s by far the worst I’ve tried so far, and that’s really saying something. I tried to select the exterior of a bright tan house surrounded by blue sky and vibrant greenery. It should not be a problem to differentiate the areas in order to apply a bucket fill (the only option to try a paint out) to just the bright tan house. However, it paints everything the new color - sky, grass, EVERYTHING. The eraser tool is a farce. It randomly works and randomly doesn’t. ColorSnap also doesn’t sample the existing color you’re laying paint over, so where it does apply, the new color is completely changed by the underlying color. That’s a serious issue when trying to visualize COLOR. Sherwin Williams should have never launched ColorSnap. It’s embarrassingly awful.

by Trixie:-)

App is hard to navigate. I thought it might be just me, so I had tech-savvy 24 yr old try it. She, too, said it was aggravating and not intuitive.

I had big dreams of "painting" my pics of the rooms in my home for which I am choosing paint colors. That is what the ad for ColorSnap promised as well as several DYI shows who promoted ColorSnap. But NO!!!

I can't find the area within ColorSnap the has this feature, and after reading other reviews looking for help, I may not have access to this feature.

I'm using an iPad. I switched to using ColorSnap on it when ColorSnap on my iPhone would not allow me to test paint my own pics. I guess it's up to my imagination if a color will look good or not. Or, I could use a different paint that has an app that delivers on its promise.

by Danjh

Good if you want to take a picture and have it pick out colors from the picture - however, if you want to visualize a new color scheme using a picture of your walls it is useless.

It is very easy to identify wherein Williams. Plots but if you can apply those colors to walls in a picture I was not able to figure out how to do it.

Many other apps out there that are much better at visualization.

by TJ From Ohio

I used SW’s color tool about 6 or 7 years ago and it worked great! I could upload a photo, mask off areas to be painted. And choose different colors in same photo. I couldn’t figure out how this new app worked but after reading other reviews, like selecting your photo, select your paint color, then click the fill icon it will work. It found the edges OK in my photo. But I think you can only choose one color per photo.

by Guitarcords

I am SO HAPPY Sherwin Williams made ColorSnap! I have had other color match apps before, but they only gave color values, not existing paint chips. Matching to paint chips is much more useful. The ONLY complaint I have is that you can’t organize your saved color palettes. They just go into chronological order, based on the most recent one you changed. If the user could even make folders it would be helpful. Other than that, AWESOME!

by Blakemienster

After reading the reviews I was pretty skeptical about this device. I’ve used it two times and both times it has nailed it! The paint match so well once feathered you couldn’t even see the shade variance. I’d recommend this for anybody who is a do it yourself kind of person or a business owner. It saves a lot of time.

by Her8675309

I was apprehensive because people were complaining that ColorSnap didn't work as stated. But I was impressed that I could pick a color and tap on the screen where my wall was and it would change the color so that I could actually see what that color would look like with my flooring and furniture. Impressive!

by SpikaneLinda

This lets me explore color so easily.
When I needed to find a color to paint trim that would go around wood shelfs, I was able to find exactly what I needed to make the entire project look built in.
I have explored all the colors in a tapestry that allows me to find something I would like to use on the wall that the tapestry will hang on.

by SytheticElegance

No idea why the bad reviews. ColorSnap allows you to sample colors from photos and creates a palette using Sherwin-Williams paint colors.

For example, I had a picture I had saved in which I just loved the color palette. All I did was upload the photo to ColorSnap , and it helped me match the colors in the photo to the available paint colors.