Problem as experienced
I was switching between Illustrator, Photoshop, and Unity while building game UI. A color choice that looked right in a mockup was hard to reproduce in-engine. Keeping accents consistent meant re-checking hex values, sampling screenshots, and second-guessing the conversion between tools.
Why existing tools didn’t fit
Each app had its own palette system, but none of them connected. Import/export flows were brittle, and most tools assumed a single source of truth inside one program. The moment I jumped tools, the palette fragmented.
What I tried
I started with an Excel sheet of hex values and manual notes. Then I wrote a tiny utility that kept a list of hex codes with quick copy shortcuts. That helped in the moment, but it didn’t keep any context like usage, state, or where the color came from.
What broke
The spreadsheet didn’t scale past a handful of projects. The utility broke down as soon as I needed to track states (disabled, hover, pressed), element names, or link the color to a UI component. The data existed, but it wasn’t structured enough to keep the decisions together.
What changed next
I built a Windows app that treated colors like assets. It stored palettes, usage notes, state variants, and code snippets for quick CSS/Unity copy. I could import from images and other tools, export back out, and keep the decisions in one place instead of scattering them across apps.