THE HEXTRACTOR

THE HEXTRACTOR is a quick-and-dirty command-line tool that scans images and lists every unique color it finds. It reads each pixel in an image and saves the colors as RRGGBBAA hex codes in a text file.

It’s simple, fast, and built to do one job well — no ads, no limits, no online upload tools, no nonsense.

Fair notice: I used ChatGPT as a coding assistant while making this tool. I can code, but I’m slow at it and I tend to get frustrated when writing boilerplate or repetitive logic. So I used ChatGPT to help draft an early version of the program, and then I rewrote and corrected it myself into the final working form.

The original AI-generated code did not run as-is, and the finished version has been heavily modified and tested by me. I’m sharing this openly because I acknowledge that others care about AI usage, and I think transparency is the moral thing to do.

How to use it

1. Put your images in the input folder.
   (Supports .png, .jpg, .jpeg, and .bmp)

2. Run the .exe.

3. Follow the prompts.

4. Your results will appear as .txt files in the output folder.

That’s it.

Why I made this

I was frustrated with the limits and hoops in most free online tools — file caps, weird UI, sign-ins, etc. This program is rough and minimal on purpose. It just works.

If enough people find it useful and choose to donate, I may add more features later — such as:

• a graphical interface

• non-text export formats

• .hex palette output

• auto-generated palette images

For now, it gives me exactly what I need, and maybe it will help you too.