A step-by-step guide
Turn the color you see into the pastel you need.
Soft Pastel Color Studio brings 23 well-known pastel brands together in one free color workspace. Match a photograph, compare makers, build an image palette, or explore color harmonies.
Every answer is a real pastel stick. Results use each maker’s own color name and number, so a screen color can become something you can take from your box or look for in a shop.
Image
Upload a photograph or a picture of any painting. Crop to the area you need, then move the cursor to sample a color. The studio identifies it and searches the pastel ranges you choose.
- 1Upload and crop the image if needed.
- 2Tap or click a color; recent selections remain available at the top.
- 3Search every brand, or only the ranges you choose.
- 4Print, save as PDF, or share the resulting list from the printer icon.
Color
Choose a color directly on the wheel, with or without a photograph. If you arrived from Image, the sampled color is already waiting here for you to refine.
- HAdjust the hue around the wheel.
- SRaise or lower the saturation.
- VChange the lightness with value.
Use the brand menu to search every maker at once or one range on its own. Choose one brand, several brands, or all of them. If a result is in your collection, the studio marks it.
Alternative
Start with one exact stick, then ask other manufacturers for their closest alternatives. This is useful when a color runs out, a brand is hard to buy locally, or you want more variations of a complex shade.
- 1Select the original brand and pastel.
- 2Choose the brands you want to compare.
- 3Review only genuine alternatives; a visibly different nearest color is marked not a match.
Palette
See how an entire photograph or painting can be represented with a chosen number of sticks from one manufacturer’s range.
- 1Upload an image and crop it if needed.
- 2Select one brand and the number of pastels to use.
- 3Review the simplified image and the exact sticks below it.
- 4Tap an area to see which stick represents that color.
Harmony
Explore harmonious combinations using actual sticks from one manufacturer. Choose a brand, place the main color on the wheel, then select a color scheme such as complementary.
- 1Select a pastel brand.
- 2Choose the main color and a harmony.
- 3Move the color or adjust saturation and value; every suggested stick recalculates automatically.
Recent Colors
The last eight colors you selected wait at the top of the page. The row is shared by Image, Color, Alternative and Harmony, so a color sampled from a photograph is still within reach after you have moved on.
- 1Select a color anywhere; it joins the row.
- 2Tap any color to return to it — it opens in Color, ready to refine.
- 3Clear empties the row when you start new work.
Keep exploring
One studio, many ways to find a color.
Identify a pastel from a photograph, find an equivalent from another brand, build a palette for a whole painting, or explore color harmonies.
Open Soft Pastel Color Studio and try it as you read.
The central idea is simple: translate the color you see into a specific stick you can use.
It is completely free, so do try it and find your own way of using it. Even simply exploring is interesting: these are real sticks from real ranges, and it is worth seeing for yourself how complete each brand’s range is, where the brands meet, and where they have nothing in common at all.
