Excel pick color from cell – 3 ways to get RGB or reuse colors

When working in Excel, maintaining visual consistency is essential, especially when using color-coded cells to highlight key information. Naturally, users often want to reuse a specific cell color elsewhere. While Format Painter is a common first choice, it copies all formatting (such as font, border, number format), not just the fill color—making it unsuitable when you only want to replicate the color itself. Unfortunately, Excel lacks a built-in color picker or eyedropper. This tutorial introduces three practical ways to identify or reuse a cell’s color in Excel, including a powerful new feature in Kutools for Excel that extracts any color and shows its exact RGB values.

• Method 1: Identify color via Fill/Font Color Panel
• Method 2: Get RGB color value with VBA (Advanced Users)
• Method 3: Use Kutools for Excel's Color Picker (Recommended)

Method 1: Identify color via Fill/Font Color Panel

Before turning to VBA or third party tools, it's important to know that Excel itself can display exact RGB values—as long as you manually open the Custom Colors dialog. This method works for both cell background colors and font colors, and is suitable when you only need to inspect a color occasionally.

➤ How to identify the RGB color using the Fill or Font Color panel?

1. Select the cell whose fill color or font color you want to identify.
2. Go to the Home tab on the Ribbon.
3. In the Font group:
   1. Click Fill Color to check the background color.
   2. Or click Font Color to check the text color.

      

4. From the dropdown menu, choose More Colors....

   

5. In the Colors dialog box, switch to the Custom tab. Then you can check:
   • The exact RGB values (Red, Green, Blue) of the fill or font color of the selected cell.
   • The corresponding hex value of the fill or font color of the selected cell.

   

After understanding how to identify a cell’s color through the Fill or Font Color panel, it’s worth clarifying when this method is most suitable—and where it falls short. This built-in approach works well for quick, occasional checks, but it is not designed for frequent or large-scale color management.

When this method works well?

• You only need to occasionally identify one or two colors
• You don’t need to reuse or store colors for later use

Practical limitations

• You must open the dialog every time you want to check a color
• There is no way to save or collect colors
• You cannot extract colors in bulk or automate the process

Method 2: Get RGB color value with VBA (Advanced Users)

While the Fill/Font Color panel can display RGB or hex values manually, it does not scale well when you need to extract colors repeatedly, in bulk, or programmatically. In such cases, VBA provides a more automated solution by reading color properties directly from cells.

➤ How to do it:

1. Select the cell whose fill color or font color you want to identify.
2. Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA Editor.
3. Click Insert > Module.
4. Paste one of the following codes into the Module window:
   VBA code 1: Get RGB value of the fill color of the selected cell

   Sub GetCellFillColorRGB()
       Dim cell As Range
       Set cell = Selection
       Dim colorCode As Long
       colorCode = cell.Interior.Color
       Dim redVal As Integer, greenVal As Integer, blueVal As Integer
       redVal = colorCode Mod 256
       greenVal = (colorCode \ 256) Mod 256
       blueVal = (colorCode \ 65536) Mod 256
       MsgBox "RGB Color: Red = " & redVal & ", Green = " & greenVal & ", Blue = " & blueVal
   End Sub

   VBA code 2: Get RGB value of the font color of the selected cell

   Sub GetCellFontColorRGB()
       Dim c As Range
       Set c = Selection
       Dim clr As Long
       clr = c.Font.Color
       Dim r As Long, g As Long, b As Long
       r = clr Mod 256
       g = (clr \ 256) Mod 256
       b = (clr \ 65536) Mod 256
   
       MsgBox "Font Color" & vbCrLf & _
              "R: " & r & "  G: " & g & "  B: " & b
   End Sub

   

5. Run the macro by pressing F5 or from the Run menu.

The RGB code of the fill or font color will be displayed in a message box.

Method 3: Use Kutools for Excel's Color Picker (Recommended)

While Excel allows you to manually check colors through its Fill or Font panels, and advanced users can retrieve RGB values using VBA, both methods are limited — either visually ambiguous or technically complex.

Kutools for Excel’s new Color Picker tool completely changes the game. Not only can it accurately extract the fill or font color from any cell, it also displays the precise RGB values in a dedicated window, instantly adds the picked color to Excel’s Recent Colors palette, and even allows you to store up to 30 frequently used colors for future use. It’s an all-in-one visual color manager that’s perfect for designers, analysts, or anyone who works with color-coded Excel data.

Make sure Kutools for Excel is downloaded and installed.

➤ How to do it:

1. Go to Kutools > Format > Pick Color.

   

2. A Color Picker window will pop up.
   1. Click the eyedropper tool to activate it — your mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair.
   2. Hover and click anywhere in the Excel interface or worksheet to pick a color — including cells, chart elements, shapes, or even the ribbon/UI.
   3. The selected color will:
      • Be displayed in the dialog box with its exact RGB value (e.g., RGB: 218, 238, 243).
      • Be automatically added to Excel’s "Recent Colors", so you can instantly reuse it in cell fills, fonts, shapes, and more.
      • Be stored in the “Recently Picked Colors” section of the tool for future reference (up to 30 slots available)

        

   Compared to Excel’s built-in method or complex VBA approaches, Kutools offers a far more intuitive and accurate way to extract and reuse colors.

   • Instantly shows accurate RGB color values.
   • Pick colors from any part of the worksheet or even UI elements.
   • Automatically adds the picked color to Excel’s Recent Colors.

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Conclusion

Excel provides a few native ways to identify colors — such as viewing RGB values through the Fill Color dialog or using VBA for advanced extraction. However, these methods can be time-consuming or technically demanding. Format Painter is quick but often too broad, applying all formatting instead of just color.

For users seeking a precise, flexible, and hassle-free way to pick and reuse colors, Kutools for Excel’s Color Picker is the superior solution. It lets you grab colors from anywhere on your screen, view exact RGB values instantly, and reuse them from your Recent Colors list — all without writing a single line of code.

Whether you're designing dashboards, creating reports, or just keeping your workbook visually consistent, this feature brings ease and accuracy to your color workflow.