Nix Mini Color Sensor Review

If you are an artist, interior designer, illustrator or a creative person that is interested in color then the Nix Mini Color Sensor could be the next cool gadget you need. Successfully crowd-funded in 2014 the young inventors from Canada wanted to create a simple device that can make any color in the real world and turn it into a digital representation. Let's have a closer look with my Nix Mini Color Sensor Review.

Matthew Sheridan and his team were inspired after talking with a number of interior designers friends, that were frustrated with having to lug around big bags of paint deck systems to match colors for clients. They have to flip through cards trying to match colors and every company has its own paint line deck system.

Not only is this not convenient but also hundreds of dollars are spent on these paint deck systems and they go obsolete when a new color line comes out.

Another inspiration was a colleague that was working at the local hospital with burn victims and people with severe skin disorders. She consults with patients and manually creates custom make up to match each patient's skin tone. She was looking for an accurate and inexpensive color sensor to remove the costly manual color matching routine from the procedure.

Being a recent engineering grad Mathew thought this would help a number of people all over the world a revolutionize the process and started full time on research and development on the product.

They successfully applied for funding with a solid business plan and this allowed him to develop his product. Later they did a successful crowdfunding campaign to get the product to the public.

Color Match Paint Deck System

Build

The build is a cool looking diamond design made from plastic. The Nix Color Sensor has no buttons, all operations are done on your smartphone. On the bottom is a scanner that you can place anywhere you want to capture color and activated by your smartphone.

On the side is a USB port to connect with your smartphone and charge the device. The size of the Nix fits in the palm of your hand.

Nix Color Scanner USB Port

Nix Color Scanner Top

Nix Color Sensor Bottom

Features and functionality

The Nix Color Sensor can view any color in RGB, HSL, HSV, Lab, XYZ, HTML, or CMYK. This is Color Space is a specific organization of colors. This information can be converted to a multitude of media such as interior wall paints, oil paints, makeup, watercolor, hobby paints, wood stain, automotive paint for an exact match.

What you can and cannot scan

What you can scan

Decorative pillows
Wallpapers
Fabrics
Plants
check Plastics
check Paper
check  All things bright and colorful

What not to scan

Mirrors
close Glass (transparent or translucent)
Liquids
close Uneven surfaces (the Nix Mini must sit flat on the scanned surface)
close Items smaller than 0.5”

App

Nix Paint App

The Nix Paint app works with the Nix Mini Color Sensor and the Nix Pro Color Sensor. A great tool for designers and paint professionals, the Nix Paints app gives you easy paint matching in seconds. Touch the Nix Mini to any surface and match to a collection of 30,000+ colors on your smartphone.

The Nix Mimi Sensor will take a color scanned and the Nix Paint App will present you with various color palettes to help you pick the right complementary colors. I think this could help a lot of novices that need a little help in picking the right colors.

You can then save all scanned colors to a custom swatch and locate the closest store to purchase your paint.

Nix Digital App

This is more for graphic designers and creators, the Nix Digital app offers instant digital color data for scanned surfaces. Simply place the Nix Mini or Nix Pro to any surface and instantly view RGB, CMYK, HEX, and CIELAB values on your smartphone or tablet. After you scan a surface, you can now swipe between various color palettes such as monochromatic, complementary, triadic and more…

Nix Pro App Only Available with Nix Pro Color Sensor

Nix Pro Color Sensor can measure the exact color of any surface and provide instant in-app matches to a massive color library of paints and vinyl. With the ability to import your own custom libraries, conduct A/B color comparisons, and customize your scan settings, it makes quick work of measuring colors around you.

Whether you’re working with paint, vinyl, leather, plastic, dyes, or fabric, the Nix Pro will provide quick and objective color measurement in seconds. Each device will block out all ambient light, meaning you’ll get an accurate reading no matter where you a

Compare Nix Mini Color Sensor and the Nix Pro Color Sensor

There are two models available the Nix Mini Color sensor and the Nix Pro Color Sensor. The Nix Mini is retailing for $99 and the Pro goes for $349. See current Amazon pricing.

The Nix Mini will serve the purpose of most people but for professional people that would like to incorporate the data into a quality control system and require a little more precision and features the Nix Pro, Color Sensor would be the better choice.