An honest review of the Datacolor Colorreader EZ. I'll show you how this colour matching smart device works and how you can use it to renovate your home.
AD | I was paid to take the time to test the Colorreader EZ as part of my How to Paint a Door YouTube restoration project. Note, I would never work with a brand where I can't be honest.
Over the years, I've been teaching myself how to be more creative in my home. Heck, I've shared a YouTube video most week on how, which this how to decorate a room for beginners is FULL of easy tips to help you!
But it's also meant that I've become increasingly bored with safe magnolia walls since it's all I ever saw growing up. In fact, so did my husband. You can see me taking the plunge for the first time and went for painted blue walls in our hallway.
And the following year, I chose what I thought was the best colour for a bedroom with a combination of pinks and greys. It took me a week of sitting down and plan a bedroom moodboard. But if you're looking more colour inspiration ideas, then this ColorReader EZ colour reader tool might help you.
What Does the ColorReader EZ Do?
How the ColorReader EZ tool works, is, it has a small scanner on the back. It connects to your smartphone via their color reader app and when you see a colour you want to copy or find something to compliment it, you can hold it against it to scan the colour.
You don't need to worry about being in a dark or bright room for it to work as it also has a light. So, providing you hold it flat against something, it should pick ut up work. Where it does struggle, for obvious reasons, is where you're trying to pick a colour that if formed of many, like a fleck carpet.
You'd have to scan it several times and it will show you a variety of different colours. It's also battery powered and portable so you can take it anywhere with you and scan something on a whim when something catches your eye.
What Can I Do With the Colour It Picked?
Once the Datacolor ColorReader has scanned the colour, it then shows you three of the closest matches of paints to a database of brands it has stored. As of 2020, the list of brands so far include:
- Akzo Nobel
- Brillux GmbH & Co. KG
- Duha
- Farrow & Ball
- Miltonia
- NCS
- RAL
- Rust-Oleum
- STO
- Savage Universal
- Sherwin Williams
- Valspar
- EinzA Farben GmbH & Co KG
You can then can buy online or in store. I find this ability particularly useful during a lockdown, although I'd always be inclined to buy tester pots first if a perfect match is crucial.
But I'm also impressed it gives you the Hex colour codes, unlike free biased paint apps out there that only promote their colours without this information.
This means I can also match a colour to an HTML font colour online if desired. I also used this for my YouTube video's thumbnail on Ipiccy to match the text to my painted door colour. This would also be very useful for a graphic designer or bloggers creating Pinterest pins like myself.
Alternatively, any good paint shop should be able to read the codes and mix the colour you want. Note, mixing this depends on whether the paint shop have the right tools. Also, my paint shop advised that for legal reasons, some of the brands like Farrow and Ball don't allow copying.
But I think we all know it happens to either cut costs, or have a colour mixed in your favourite paint finish, like gloss, satin wood, emulsion etc.
Other Features The ColorReader EZ Offers
The other features the ColorReader EZ offers, is the ability to scan a colour you already have in your room, either on the wall or furniture. It can then come up with coordinating colours to help you build a colour scheme. These are:
There are so many hues to colours, that this is why I find the Datacolor ColorReader useful. I do have some idea of working in fashion retail and what suits my colouring. But you throw lighting and small spaces into the mix, it can baffle me.
You Can Save Your Colour Scheme
One of the key benefits of this device, is that it stores a colour history of what you scanned. I found this extremely useful as I'd got carried away zapping everything in sight while exploring its capabilities.
You can also save the colour you like, save a colour scheme and share it with someone. The latter I haven't needed to try, but I have read this is useful for interior designers sharing colour schemes with clients.
Also, if you can't find a particular colour to scan, you can flick through thousands of colours on their digital fandecks.
What's the Difference Between the Datacolor ColorReader EZ and ColorReader Pro?
Firstly, the ColorReader EZ is much cheaper, making it more affordable for the home DIYer.
It also uses one LED light to pick a colour unlike the Pro. For more comparisons I highly recommend reading DPReview's Datacolor review here.
Why Doesn't My Colour Match What I Scanned?
When I first tested out the ColorRedaer EZ, I asked this very question. I'd quickly realised I'd accidentally calibrated it while the scanner flap was open.
You need to calibrate it while the flap is closed. It's very easy to do and will prompt you during set up.
How to Set Up the ColorReader EZ
I'm not a fan of reading instructions. Luckily, I found everything I needed to know on the back of the packet.
And setting up was done in 5 minutes. All you need to do it register the device and fill in your details.
Then connect to your phone, calibrate and get scanning!
What Can You Scan With the ColorReader?
I found the best things to scan were professional solid paint jobs, such as:
- The colour of a car
- Manufactured colour plastics, like my red tape measure
- Berries - crab apple berries came up with Crabby Apple by Sherwin Williams!
- Fabrics in solid colours
- And probably many more I haven't scanned yet
You might also want to scan the colour of a wood in a room to complement it elsewhere. Or, even a pet to design bespoke coloured furniture, like a dog kennel.
Although these would fall under something naturally built of many colours where if you scan in random places, you'll get slightly different readings each time.
Things To Consider When Painting Your Chosen Colour
If it's vital that a specific colour matches to blend in with another, then I would always have some tester pots mixed up before mixing a whole can. The reason for this is:
- The type of paint finish you pick can look different and reflect light
- I recently learnt that the colour of an undercoat can alter a colour:
- I.e, a white undercoat will make your colour pop, a darker undercoat will make a colour look richer and even make it a shade or two darker
Overall, I think the DataColor ColorReader EZ is a great little tool for a small fortune if it helps people from wasting expensive paint and achieve the colour coordinated home you want.
I've also always wanted a colour wheel to help me during my food photography. I managed to scan a splash of my Queen's jam recipe (that landed on my kitchen tiles without getting the scanner dirty) and find colours to complement.
Shortly after, I scanned my new cerise Le Creuset casserole dish for a minced beef hotpot recipe, which recommended blues and turquoise. And also a banana for appropriate coloured backdrops for a banana bread.
Obviously, I don't always have fabrics and objects in these colours, so I've used the closest I can find to complement them. It's now made me curious to buy a spyder monitor calibration tool which I saw food photographer, Joanie Simon use back in 2018.
What is the ColorReader EZ Compatible With?
As of 2020, it states that the minimum requirements that your phone:
- Works with iPhone or iPod touch with iOS of 9.3 or higher
- Android smartphones with 6.0 or higher
- Bluetooth 4.0 or higher
It also offers a 1 year hardware warranty.
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