Find the Average RGB Color of a material sample and get the RGB values with free tool

In Revit, we often have to input RGB values for various color properties, such as shaded view colors for a particular material, or if you want a specific Paint color for a rendered material.  To do this, you can use Paint.NET and the Color Picker tool - the resultant properties include the RGB values you need.

However, you may obtain a sample image of a material, but the color is irregular.  For example, you scan in a paint sample and there is a color variation in the scanned image.  Or perhaps you simply want to take a detailed pattern sample image and find out the average color of a particular part of that image.

Here's how you do it:

1. Download Paint.NET
2. Download Average Color plugin
3. Copy the DLL file from the extracted Average Color ZIP you downloaded into the 'Effects' folder, which is in you Paint.NET installation directory (for example: C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\Effects\)
4. Open Paint.NET
5. Open the image you want to find an average color from.
6. Make a rectangular selection.
7. Click on the Effects menu - Average Color
8. Now click on the Color Picker tool (looks like an Eyedropper)
9. On the 'Colors' palette, click the More>> button
10. The RGB values for your selected color are shown.
11. In Revit, input those RGB values for the desired color or material

Average Color of Selection forum thread
Plugin to Average Color of Selection - Paint.NET Forum
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