Paint Tester 4+

Very good app. I was able to snap a pic of my room (wall), apply some colors, realized that I couldn’t find a color that I liked on the wall. ( had I went to the store, picked a color, came home and painted, I would have been disappointed, this app saved me the time, money and frustration) Using this app I was able to decide on painting another portion of the room, found a color I liked. The paint codes were useless at Lowe’s, but this app gave me a color that I was able to save to my photo album, then using Sherman Williams app, I was able to import the color (pic) from Paint Tester and Sherwin Williams found a matching color. My results match Paint Tester to a T, I got exactly what I was able to produce using the app. I love this and would recommend it.

In fairness, I am trying to use Paint Tester in for an exterior job, while I believe the program was designed with interior jobs in mind. The difference is significant. Lighting variations outdoors can be much greater than indoors, and surfaces can be more variable.

Paint tester does allow you to get a rough visualization of how colors will look in a particular application and relative to other colors. It also provides a read out on the formulas ( % of various colors in each) for every color you use in your project and saves a palette, including formula information, for each project/photo.

On the downside:

It’s difficult to get an even coat. The color varies according to variations in the surface you’re covering. This is inevitable if the program is to preserve textures in the original, but the trade off is a very uneven look.

Colors don’t remain true. Colors change in an attempt to adjust to lighting and, again, according to the color you’re trying to cover. The adjustments are not always on target.

Program doesn’t always respond appropriately. On a number of occasions, while working on a photo, I’ve wanted to bring in a color from another photo. Paint Tester does not always allow this. It will pull up palettes; it will allow me to choose another color from the photo I’m working on; but it will not open and allow me to browse my photo library.

Finally, Paint Tester crashes with much too much regularity, taking unsaved work with it.

Once you get some colors where you want them it's really easy to change the colors multiple times. Takes a little learning curve to use the tools but they are simple enough and plenty of directions given. Lots of colors to choose from unlike the other app I tried. This one leaves details like handles on the photo and not just painting on a photograph. Love this app. Thanks. Yes it's a square paint brush. But you can make it small and use the corner of the square to cut into tight spaces. The negative reviewer must not have tried it very long.