I am looking for a tool that lets me select any pixel on the screen and get its RGB color and absolute (x, y) location.
I have used tools on Windows that show a large magnified square with a crosshair letting me easily select the pixel I want and get its details.
Is there anything like this for ubuntu?
After searching long and hard, it appears none of the available tools for Ubuntu/Linux fulfill both your criteria, i.e. magnification and coordinate display.
So we go for a tiny Windows tool that -- critically -- just works with a default WINE install, no configuration, installation, DLLs, etc. needed.
It features adjustable zoom, one-click copy in multiple formats and co-ordinate display:
1. Install Wine
sudo apt-get install wine
(that's it!)
2. Download ColorPix
ColorPix can be officially downloaded as a tiny, portable 600KB exe here
I suggest downloading directly to your local binaries directory with:
sudo wget -O/usr/local/bin/ColorPix.exe http://www.colorschemer.com/ColorPix.exe
3. Create a launcher for ColorPix
Let's get an icon first:
sudo wget -O/usr/share/icons/colorpix.png http://cdn.alternativeto.net/i/22e49edc-efa7-e011-979d-0025902c7e73_11865.png
Press Alt+F2 now and type gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/colorpix.desktop, and paste the below and save the file:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=ColorPix
GenericName=ColorPix
Comment=ColorPicker via WINE
Exec=wine /usr/local/bin/ColorPix.exe
Terminal=false
Icon=/usr/share/icons/colorpix.png
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
From a terminal, run:
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/colorpix.desktop
In a few seconds, it will be available in the launcher as:
4. Using ColorPix
Start it, and the very first time it may take a few seconds while WINE initializes.
The screenshot below shows it in action, with:
Press any key once you are on your desired pixel to lock values
