A WordPress color picker can be a simple yet professional part of your website design. We'll show you how to add one in just a few minutes!

Designing a great form isn't always easy. You have to choose the fonts, format, and even the color. If you've ever done all of this manually, you probably understand that it can be a long and frustrating process. Your visitors might share the same feelings.
Fortunately, a manual form isn't your only option. A simple color picker can make it easier to view results and find exactly the shade you want. By adding a WordPress color picker to your form, you can also streamline your visitor's experiences on your website.
In this article, we'll cover a few reasons why form design elements are so important. Then, we'll show you how to add a color picker to your forms. Let's dive right in!
Why a WordPress color picker can be important for design
If you've found yourself searching for "how to add a WP color picker", chances are you already know how helpful this tool can be. There's no need to understand complex hex codes. You can simply point and click on the shade that you like, instead.
Additionally, this kind of freedom means you have a huge selection of colors at your fingertips. A pre-set palette doesn't limit you or your users. This means you can customize your site design quickly.
However, it's not just about the specific benefits. A color picker can also make your site look more professional. This tool is widely known. As such, offering one can show that you're committed to providing the best user experience possible.
Finally, adding a color picker can also be easy. You don't even need a WordPress color picker plugin. If you're using Formidable Forms, we've included an easy way to add this element to any of your forms.
How to add a WordPress color picker to your forms
Here's how to add a color picker option to your WordPress forms!
Step 1: Load the WordPress color picker code
First, you'll need to edit your theme files. These files tell your website how to display your content. As such, you'll need to change your site's code to create a WordPress color picker.
You can start by navigating to your WordPress dashboard. Then, go to Appearance → Theme Editor:

You'll get an alert from WordPress warning you to be careful while editing. We'll only be making one simple change. However, if you'd like to be extra cautious, you can also use a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client instead.
Select the functions.php file from the right-hand Theme Files menu. Scroll to the bottom of the page. Then, copy and paste the following code:
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'custom_enqueue_color_picker' );
add_action( 'wp_default_scripts', 'wp_default_custom_scripts' );
function custom_enqueue_color_picker() {
wp_enqueue_style( 'wp-color-picker' );
wp_enqueue_script( 'wp-color-picker' );
}
function wp_default_custom_scripts( $scripts ){
$suffix = SCRIPT_DEBUG ? '' : '.min';
$scripts->add( 'iris', '/wp-admin/js/iris.min.js', array( 'jquery-ui-draggable', 'jquery-ui-slider', 'jquery-touch-punch' ), '1.0.7', 1 );
$scripts->add( 'wp-color-picker', "/wp-admin/js/color-picker$suffix.js", array( 'iris' ), false, 1 );
$scripts->set_translations( 'wp-color-picker' );
}
Click on Update File to save your work. This should be all you need to do. Still, keep in mind that these changes will only apply to your current theme.
If you change your theme, you'll need to repeat this step. You can also use a child theme for this process instead.
Step 2: Create your form
Next up, you'll create your form. You can also edit an existing one, but we'll start from scratch for this walkthrough.
Go to Formidable → Forms → Add New:

From here, you can add fields to build your form. You can get as creative as you like, making anything from a simple contact form to a fun WordPress quiz. Insert as many or as few fields as you need. We've chosen to work with a single text field for this walkthrough.
Click on Update to save your work. You should now have a form field that displays your text on the front end. Users who click on it can use it like any other text field.
For reference, here's what ours looks like at this point:

Make any necessary changes to your fields. When you're ready, you can move on to the final step.
Step 3: Add the Javascript code and publish
Finally, you can add the required Javascript code.
Start by adding an HTML field to your form. Then, copy and paste the following code, where 30 is the ID of the single text field that you want to be the color picker.
<script>
jQuery(document).ready(function() {
jQuery( '[name="item_meta[30]"]' ).wpColorPicker();
});
</script>
Afterward, save your work. Your field should now look something like this:

Your form can now display a large selection of possible colors. Keep in mind that you will need to repeat this process for every field where you want to add a WordPress color picker.
When you're done adding a color picker, you may also want to think about other ways to improve your forms. For example, you might choose to make a longer form more enjoyable by breaking it into multiple steps.
Finally, publish your form on the page you'd like. Your users will now be able to access it and submit their information.
Conclusion
A color picker can be a handy tool. However, adding one isn't always simple. Fortunately, that's not the case with Formidable Forms. By adding a few lines of code, you can start offering an easy design option to your visitors.
In this article, we showed you how to add a WordPress color picker in three steps:
- Add the color picker code to your theme files.
- Create your form or edit an existing one.
- Add the custom CSS to your field of choice.
Color pickers aren't the way to make a better user experience. Check out other ways that our Formidable Forms plugin can help improve your site today!
Great explanation as your the only one I could actually follow and get it working.
Do you know how to hover over an image and get the color change?
Thanks.
You want the color to change in the color picker field when hovering over an image? This would be a fairly intense modification and wouldn't be within the scope of this demo...It may be possible to find something on this demo page for the javascript, but anything there would need to be tied in with some sort of plugin or javascript that can detect and save the hex color of the hovered location. I think anything on the web is possible, but this would most likely take some time, research, and a decent amount of javascript/ajax knowledge.