yoinkctl 🎨

A lightning-fast, pixel-perfect color picker for Linux

Press a hotkey anywhere, click a color, done. No windows, no hassle.

Features • Installation • Quick Start • Configuration • Contributing

🎯 What is yoinkctl?

yoinkctl is a modern color picker built for speed and precision. It runs silently in the background, ready to capture any color on your screen with a single hotkey press. Whether you're a designer matching brand colors, a developer debugging CSS, or just someone who loves pixel-perfect accuracy, yoinkctl gets out of your way and lets you work.

No windows to manage. No apps to open. Just colors.

Why yoinkctl?

⚡ Instant access — Global hotkey from anywhere
🎯 Pixel-perfect — Magnified preview with crosshair targeting
🪶 Lightweight — Minimal resource usage, native performance
📊 Multiple formats — HEX, RGB, and HSL at a glance
📜 Smart history — Recent colors saved and searchable
🎨 Beautiful UI — Clean, modern interface with dark theme
🚀 Zero latency — Rust-powered performance

✨ Features

Core Functionality

🔥 Global Hotkey Activation — Press your custom hotkey combo from any app
📸 Fullscreen Picker — Transparent overlay captures your entire workspace
🔍 5x Magnifier — Smooth, anti-aliased zoom for precise color selection
📋 Instant Clipboard Copy — Colors automatically copied on click
🎨 Color History — Last 50 colors saved with click-to-copy
🖥️ Multi-Monitor Support — Works seamlessly across all displays

Display Options

Choose which color formats to show:

HEX — #FF5733 (web standard)
RGB — RGB(255, 87, 51) (design apps)
HSL — HSL(9, 100%, 60%) (color theory)

Configuration

⌨️ Customizable Hotkeys — Set any modifier+key combination
🔧 Adjustable Magnifier — Preview size from 50px to 200px
🚀 Autostart Daemon — Launch at system boot
💾 Persistent Settings — Config saved in ~/.config/yoinkctl

📦 Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

Download and install in one command:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gimigkk/yoinkctl/main/install.sh | bash

This will:

✅ Download the latest release for your architecture
✅ Install to ~/.local/bin/yoinkctl
✅ Set up desktop entry for application menu
✅ Optionally enable autostart

Build from Source

Requirements:

Rust 1.70+ (rustup.rs)
X11 development libraries

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install libx11-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev

Fedora:

sudo dnf install libX11-devel libxcb-devel

Build & Install:

git clone https://github.com/gimigkk/yoinkctl.git
cd yoinkctl
./install.sh

Manual Installation

# Build
cargo build --release

# Copy binary
cp target/release/yoinkctl ~/.local/bin/

# Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

🚀 Quick Start

1. Launch the Config App

Search for "yoinkctl" in your application menu, or run:

yoinkctl

You'll see the main control panel with:

Daemon status — Start/stop the background service
Quick launch — Test the picker without hotkey
Color history — View and copy recent colors

2. Start the Daemon

Click the Start button in the Daemon card, or run:

yoinkctl daemon

The daemon registers your hotkey and runs silently in the background.

3. Pick a Color!

Press the default hotkey:

Super + Shift + A

Screen freezes with magnifier overlay
Move cursor to desired pixel
Click to copy color
Press Esc to cancel

The color is now in your clipboard! 📋

⚙️ Configuration

Changing the Hotkey

Open yoinkctl settings (⚙️ icon)
Select modifiers: Super, Shift, Ctrl, Alt
Choose a letter key (A-Z)
Click Save Settings
Restart the daemon for changes to take effect

Example combinations:

Super+Shift+C — Quick and easy
Ctrl+Alt+P — For non-tiling WM users
Super+Shift+X — One-handed convenience

⚠️ At least one modifier is required to prevent conflicts

Display Preferences

Toggle which color formats appear in the picker:

✅ Show HEX — Standard web format
✅ Show RGB — Red, green, blue values
✅ Show HSL — Hue, saturation, lightness

Magnifier Size

Adjust the preview zoom window from 50px to 200px. Larger sizes are easier to target but take up more screen space.

Autostart

Enable "Launch daemon at startup" to have yoinkctl ready when you log in. Works with systemd-based systems.

📁 Project Structure

yoinkctl/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs          # Entry point & mode routing
│   ├── picker.rs        # Color picker overlay UI
│   ├── gui.rs           # Config app & main window
│   ├── config.rs        # Settings management
│   ├── history.rs       # Color history storage
│   └── autostart.rs     # System integration
├── assets/              # Icons & desktop files
├── install.sh           # Installation script
└── Cargo.toml

Architecture

yoinkctl operates in three modes:

Command	Purpose
`yoinkctl`	Launch settings GUI (default)
`yoinkctl daemon`	Run background hotkey service
`yoinkctl pick`	Show color picker overlay

The daemon monitors for your hotkey and spawns picker instances on demand. Each picker uses a file lock to prevent double-spawning.

🧪 Technical Details

Built With

Rust — Systems programming language
egui/eframe — Immediate mode GUI
xcap — Cross-platform screen capture
global-hotkey — System-wide hotkey registration
arboard — Clipboard management

Platform Support

Platform	Status	Notes
Linux	✅ Fully Supported	X11 and Wayland
macOS	⚠️ Experimental	Hotkey support may vary
Windows	⚠️ Experimental	Daemon management differs

Note: Daemon process management (pgrep, pkill, nohup) is optimized for Linux. MacOS and Windows support is theoretical but untested.

🐛 Troubleshooting

Daemon won't start

Check if already running:

pgrep -f "yoinkctl daemon"

View daemon logs:

journalctl --user -u yoinkctl -f

Hotkey not working

Verify daemon is running: look for "● Running" in the GUI
Check for hotkey conflicts with your desktop environment
Try a different key combination
Restart the daemon after changing settings

Colors not copying

Ensure arboard has clipboard access. On Wayland, you may need wl-clipboard:

sudo apt install wl-clipboard  # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo dnf install wl-clipboard  # Fedora

Picker appears on wrong monitor

This is a known issue with multi-monitor setups using different scales. The picker captures the primary monitor. Future updates will add better multi-monitor targeting.

🗺️ Roadmap

Wayland native support — Better compositor integration
Color palette management — Save and organize color schemes
Export formats — CSS variables, SCSS, Tailwind configs
System tray icon — Quick access without opening GUI
Keyboard-only mode — Navigate picker with arrow keys
Color gradients — Pick multiple colors for smooth transitions
Contrast checker — WCAG compliance for accessibility
macOS & Windows builds — Full cross-platform support

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Whether it's bug reports, feature requests, or code improvements, your input helps make yoinkctl better.

How to Contribute

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/gimigkk/yoinkctl.git
cd yoinkctl
cargo build
cargo run  # Launch config GUI

Code Style

Follow Rust standard formatting (cargo fmt)
Run clippy before submitting (cargo clippy)
Add tests for new features when applicable

📄 License

MIT License — Free to use, modify, and distribute.

See LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

egui community — For the excellent immediate mode GUI framework
Rust ecosystem — For making systems programming accessible
Linux community — For providing a platform where tools like this can thrive

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 14 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
assets		assets
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
README.md		README.md
build-appimage.sh		build-appimage.sh
create-icon.sh		create-icon.sh
install.sh		install.sh
uninstall.sh		uninstall.sh

gimigkk/yoinkctl

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation