Title: Iridys Palette Extender
Author: Rob Art
Published: August 17, 2026
Last modified: August 17, 2026
---
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# Iridys Palette Extender
By [Rob Art](https://profiles.wordpress.org/robword/)
[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/iridys-palette-extender.0.1.2.zip)
* [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/iridys-palette-extender/#description)
* [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/iridys-palette-extender/#reviews)
* [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/iridys-palette-extender/#installation)
* [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/iridys-palette-extender/#developers)
[Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/iridys-palette-extender/)
## Description
WordPress’s built-in colour pickers are basic — a small square, a hue slider, a
hex box. Iridys quietly replaces them, everywhere you choose a colour, with a richer
picker that actually helps you pick well.
Wherever WordPress shows a colour control — the classic colour picker (Iris), native
colour inputs, and the classic editor’s text-colour picker — Iridys takes over with
a compact popover that adds an eyedropper, harmony schemes, a working palette, and
perceptual colour tools. Nothing to shortcode, nothing to configure: activate it
and your existing colour controls simply get better.
**What you get**
* **A better picker, everywhere.** Switchable Square, Hue-frame and Sliders surfaces;
HEX, RGB and HSL formats; and a live nearest-colour-name read-out so you know
you’ve grabbed “Striking Orange”, not just `#CE7843`.
* **Eyedropper.** Sample any colour on the page — or anywhere on screen in supported
browsers.
* **Harmony schemes.** Generate Complementary, Analogous, Triadic, Split, Square
and Tetradic sets from your current colour in one click.
* **A working palette.** Capture colours as you go and reuse them across every
screen.
* **Pick from Image.** Hover an image for a live magnifier and colour read-out,
and click to grab.
* **Dominant Colours.** Extract a whole palette from any image with a colour-count
slider.
* **Recent colours & Colour of the Day.** The colours you pick are remembered on
your dashboard, alongside a fresh named colour each day.
* **A Colour Lexicon** that explains the terms — hue, saturation, lightness, OKLCH,
complementary, and more — in plain language.
**Who it’s for**
Anyone who chooses colours in WordPress and wants to do it faster and more confidently—
theme builders, designers, agencies, and everyday site owners tweaking a block colour.
**Free and Pro**
Iridys is free and fully usable on its own. An optional Pro upgrade adds a larger
palette, named colour folders, and palettes saved to your account so they travel
with you across screens.
**Open-source credit**
Iridys bundles [culori](https://culorijs.org/), an MIT-licensed colour-science library,
used for OKLCH conversion and perceptual colour blending.
### Uninstall
Iridys cleans up after itself. When you delete the plugin from the Plugins screen
it removes everything it stored:
* Its settings, licence record, install date, review-prompt state and database-
version marker (all stored as options).
* Its cached licence-tier value (a transient).
* Its own example database table.
It writes nothing outside your own site and leaves no orphaned data behind. Deactivating
the plugin keeps your settings; only deleting it runs the clean-up.
### External services
Iridys does all of its colour work locally, in your browser and on your own server.
It makes no external network requests, sends no analytics or tracking data anywhere,
and contacts no third-party services.
## Screenshots
[⌊The Iridys picker open on the dashboard — Square surface, eyedropper, format switch
and the working palette.⌉⌊The Iridys picker open on the dashboard — Square surface,
eyedropper, format switch and the working palette.⌉[
The Iridys picker open on the dashboard — Square surface, eyedropper, format switch
and the working palette.
[⌊The Dashboard — three tool cards, Recent Colours, the Colour Lexicon and the Colour
of the Day.⌉⌊The Dashboard — three tool cards, Recent Colours, the Colour Lexicon
and the Colour of the Day.⌉[
The Dashboard — three tool cards, Recent Colours, the Colour Lexicon and the Colour
of the Day.
[⌊Pick from Image — hover for a live magnifier and colour read-out, click to grab.⌉⌊
Pick from Image — hover for a live magnifier and colour read-out, click to grab.⌉[
Pick from Image — hover for a live magnifier and colour read-out, click to grab.
[⌊Dominant Colours — extract a full palette from any image with a colour-count slider.⌉⌊
Dominant Colours — extract a full palette from any image with a colour-count slider
.⌉[
Dominant Colours — extract a full palette from any image with a colour-count slider.
[⌊The Settings screen — a single-page card grid controlling the indicator, takeovers,
picker appearance, eyedropper, recent colours and language.⌉⌊The Settings screen—
a single-page card grid controlling the indicator, takeovers, picker appearance,
eyedropper, recent colours and language.⌉[
The Settings screen — a single-page card grid controlling the indicator, takeovers,
picker appearance, eyedropper, recent colours and language.
## Installation
1. Upload the plugin to `/wp-content/plugins/iridys-palette-extender`, or install
it from the **Plugins** screen in your WordPress admin.
2. Activate it through the **Plugins** menu in WordPress.
3. That’s it — Iridys immediately takes over the colour pickers across your admin.
Open the **Iridys** menu to explore the Pick from Image and Dominant Colours tools
and adjust options on the Settings page.
## FAQ
### Do I have to change anything to use it?
No. As soon as you activate Iridys it takes over WordPress’s colour pickers automatically—
the classic colour picker, native colour inputs, and the classic editor’s text-colour
picker. There is nothing to shortcode or wire up.
### Will it work with my theme or page builder?
Iridys enhances the standard WordPress colour controls (the Iris picker and native`
` fields), so it works wherever those are used. Builders that
render their own custom colour UI instead of the standard controls may not be taken
over.
### Does it send my data anywhere?
No. All colour work happens locally in your browser and on your own server, with
no tracking and no analytics. The eyedropper samples a colour using your browser’s
own built-in screen picker — the pixel value stays on your machine and is sent nowhere.
The only external request Iridys ever makes is when you actively enter a Pro licence
key to upgrade — see the “External services” section for the details.
### What language does the picker appear in?
Iridys follows your WordPress site language (Settings General). Its screens, and
the picker panel itself, are fully translatable; French and German are included,
with more to come.
### What does the Pro upgrade add?
Pro adds a larger palette (32 colours instead of the free eight), named colour folders
to organise schemes, and palettes saved to your account so they follow you across
every screen. The free version is fully functional on its own.
### Does deleting the plugin remove its data?
Yes — see the “Uninstall” section. Deleting Iridys removes all of its options, its
cached tier value and its own table. Deactivating keeps your settings.
## Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
## Contributors & Developers
“Iridys Palette Extender” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.
Contributors
* [ Rob Art ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/robword/)
[Translate “Iridys Palette Extender” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/iridys-palette-extender)
### Interested in development?
[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/iridys-palette-extender/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/iridys-palette-extender/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/iridys-palette-extender/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/iridys-palette-extender/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).
## Changelog
#### 0.1.2
* WordPress.org compliance: the free plugin no longer contains any licence-key
entry, activation or installer code — those belong to the separate Pro add-on.
The Settings screen shows your current plan and a link to Pro, without a key
field.
* Saving and loading palettes is now a Pro feature. In the free plugin the working
palette lives in the current view only (as intended); the colour picker itself,
image tools and everything else remain fully functional.
* Translations are now delivered through WordPress.org, so the plugin no longer
bundles its own compiled translation files.
* The palette swatches now lay out a tidy eight per row.
#### 0.1.1
* Prepared Iridys for the WordPress.org Plugin Directory: full readme, documented
data handling and the one optional external service, and a security-hardening
pass (output escaping, input sanitising and inline nonce checks) across the admin
screens.
* Renamed the internal dashboard page slug for consistency; no change to how you
use the plugin.
* Documentation: added a complete description, uninstall notes and FAQ.
#### 0.1.0
* Redesigned the Iridys dashboard: three tool cards (Picker Preview, Pick from
Image, Dominant Colours), an examples banner, a Recent Colours list, and a Colour
Lexicon that explains the colour terms Iridys uses.
* Added a “Colour of the Day” panel to the main WordPress dashboard — a fresh named
colour each day with a one-click copy.
* Recent colours: the colours you pick, grab or capture are now remembered and
shown on the dashboard for quick reuse (with a Settings toggle and a count).
* Rebuilt the Settings screen as a single page with a clean card grid, and added
new options: which surface and colour format the picker opens on, which colour
controls Iridys takes over (classic picker, native inputs, classic-editor text
colour), and the recent-colours controls.
* New upgrade experience: a polished upgrade panel with a site-count selector and
pricing, plus a fuller Upgrade page describing what Pro adds.
* Each admin screen now has its own helpful sidebar — about, support, tool explanations,
and full credits for the open-source libraries Iridys uses.
* Translations: Iridys now follows your WordPress language, and its screens — including
the colour picker itself, tooltips and all — can be fully translated. French
and German are included.
* Consistent naming and icons across the plugin.
#### 0.0.8
* The classic-editor colour picker now has an Apply (tick) button in the picker
toolbar, so you confirm your colour deliberately instead of it applying when
you click away. The tick sits at the start of the toolbar, with the other tools
after it when the drawer is open.
#### 0.0.7
* The Iridys picker now takes over the classic editor’s “Text colour” and “Background
colour” custom-colour picker too. Choose “Custom…” and the Iridys picker opens
by the toolbar button; pick a colour and it is applied to your selected text.
* You can work the whole picker — sliders, surfaces and the palette drawer — before
the colour is applied, rather than it closing on the first change.
#### 0.0.6
* Colours you send to the palette from the Pick from Image and Dominant Colours
pages now follow you to the picker on other screens, instead of only lasting
on the page you added them from.
* Added “Add all to palette” on both image pages to send every collected colour
to your palette in one go.
* Redesigned the Pick from Image and Dominant Colours pages into a tidy two-column
layout — tools and colours on the left, the image on the right — so both pages
look and behave the same.
* The chosen image now fills its preview area properly instead of sitting small
in the middle.
* Fixed the magnifier so the sampled colour lines up exactly with the cursor.
* Grabbed colours now show as compact cards with their name and actions.
#### 0.0.5
* Save your palette (Pro): the Save tool now stores your default palette and all
your colour folders to your account, so they are still there next time you open
the picker. Free palettes remain for the session only.
#### 0.0.4
* Added a Copy tool to the picker toolbar — copies the current colour’s hex to
the clipboard for use anywhere. Free for all.
* Colour folders (Pro): the palette can now hold named colour sets stacked below
the default palette. Turn the Folder tool on and captures start a new folder;
turn it off and captures return to the default palette.
* Click a folder heading to aim captures at it, double-click to rename it, and (
with Delete on) click a heading to remove the whole folder.
* Harmonise is now a toggle that opens a row of harmony choices — Complementary,
Analogous, Triadic, Split, Square and Tetradic — each producing that scheme from
the current colour as a set of swatches.
* The Folder and Delete tools are now mutually exclusive — turning one on turns
the other off.
#### 0.0.3
* Added a context toolbar under the picker that shows the right tools for where
you are — Capture, and (Pro) colour sets and save — with a Harmonise action on
the Square and Sliders surfaces.
* Added Capture: send the current colour into a working palette, with a per-session
limit of 8 colours (Pro raises this to 32).
* Added a Delete toggle: switch it on and click a palette colour to remove it;
pressing any other tool switches it back off.
* Capture now also works from the Mixer, sending the mixed colour to the palette.
* Added a Settings option to sample colours from anywhere on screen (Chrome, or
the macOS colour panel in Safari), or to keep the eyedropper on-page.
* The Mixer strips now reset to clear starting points — red to white for the blender,
black to white for shades.
* Colour sets and palette saving are now Pro features, shown only with a Pro licence.
* Fixed a stray colour box that could appear inside the picker when using the eyedropper.
#### 0.0.2
* Added the Iridys colour picker: a compact popover with switchable Square, Hue-
frame and Sliders surfaces, HEX/RGB/HSL formats, eyedropper and harmony schemes.
* Iridys now takes over WordPress colour pickers site-wide — both the classic colour
picker and native colour inputs — so its picker appears wherever colours are
chosen.
* Added the Pick from Image page: hover an image for a live magnifier and colour
read-out, click to grab.
* Added the Dominant Colours page: extract an image’s palette with a colour-count
slider.
* Added a Settings page with an active-indicator toggle and style, plus a rounded/
square corner option for the picker.
* Added nearest colour-name lookup, shown alongside grabbed colours.
* Added a Dashboard picker preview for quick checks.
#### 0.0.1
* Initial scaffold.
## Meta
* Version **0.1.2**
* Last updated **1 day ago**
* Active installations **Fewer than 10**
* WordPress version ** 6.2 or higher **
* Tested up to **7.0.4**
* PHP version ** 8.0 or higher **
* Tags
* [color picker](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/color-picker/)[color scheme](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/color-scheme/)
[colour](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/colour/)[eyedropper](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/eyedropper/)
[palette](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/palette/)
* [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/iridys-palette-extender/advanced/)
## Ratings
No reviews have been submitted yet.
[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/iridys-palette-extender/reviews/#new-post)
[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/iridys-palette-extender/reviews/)
## Contributors
* [ Rob Art ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/robword/)
## Support
Got something to say? Need help?
[View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/iridys-palette-extender/)
## Donate
Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?
[ Donate to this plugin ](https://paypal.me/robsnowcreative)