Delphi Edition
Browse orderable glass by compatibility family and add an exact product to your palette.
ΔE — "delta E" — is a single number that describes how different two colors look to the human eye. It was developed by the CIE (Commission internationale de l'éclairage) to put perceived color difference on an objective scale. Smaller numbers mean the colors are closer; zero means identical.
When you click a pixel on your image, Palette reads that pixel's red/green/blue value and converts it to CIE Lab — a color space designed so that equal distances correspond roughly to equal perceived differences. It then measures the distance from your pick to every glass color in its active catalogs and ranks up to eight Best Matches across your active catalog filters.
The hex color used for each glass SKU is extracted automatically from the manufacturer's product image — center-cropped, background-masked, and averaged. Glass matches are ranked by photo-derived color, not by fired color. A fired piece will always reveal something you can't read from a thumbnail; treat the ranking as a starting point.
Palette uses CIEDE2000 (CIE standard, 2001) — the current best-practice color-difference formula. Unlike the older ΔE76 (Euclidean distance in Lab), CIEDE2000 applies lightness, chroma, and hue weighting functions, plus a chroma-rotation term that corrects for the fact that human perception of color difference is not uniform across the spectrum. The blue-green region in particular appears less different than ΔE76 would predict; CIEDE2000 accounts for that. Result: rankings are closer to how a trained colorist would order matches side by side.
Unlike paint or print, glass is a translucent material that behaves differently under back-light, reflected light, stacked layers, and in the kiln. ΔE measures one dimension of color — how your source color compares to a sample image of each product. Compatibility, opacity, and firing behavior aren't part of the ΔE score; confirm compatible COEs, review the separate Reaction check, and follow the glass manufacturer's guidance before kiln firing.
Dichroic glass is excluded from rankings. A dichroic sheet is a clear or black base with a thin metallic-oxide coating — the image captures the coating's sheen, not the glass underneath, so the extracted hex isn't a fair match target. Dichroic is still fully browsable under the Bullseye catalog (Form filter → Dichroic) for when you specifically want an accent piece.
Palette
Palette helps you translate colors from an image or exact products from the Delphi Catalog into a working glass palette. Switch freely between Image and Delphi Catalog; both tools add to the same persistent palette. Palette ranks image-based results by perceptual color difference (CIEDE2000) and lets you build, save, and export a working palette as a reference sheet or shopping list.
Everything happens in your browser. Images you upload never leave your device.
Palette — Delphi Edition connects the colors and exact products in My Palette to the Delphi Glass catalog. After choosing exact Delphi products, open Cart Review to select an available order size and quantity for every line.
Cart Review checks the complete list before anything leaves the app. Unresolved products or invalid quantities stay blocked. When every line is ready, choose Continue to Delphi cart to open those selections in Delphi’s shopping cart, where Delphi confirms current pricing and availability.
Choose Save to keep a named Palette in this browser on this device, then use Load when you want to return to it. Browser saves are convenient for your own ongoing work, but they do not move to another device and can be lost if browser data is cleared.
For a durable copy—or to share the color plan with a collaborator or client—choose Palette ⤓ and download a .palette.json file. They can Import the file into Palette to review or edit the same colors and exact product selections, or into Template Studio when exact sheet choices are ready for pattern assignment.
A shared Palette file is not an order and does not sync automatically. Review current selections in Cart Review before continuing to Delphi.
Photo picks and catalog picks live in the same palette — mix and match freely. The Reference Sheet export will show the source for each color.
No. Palette runs entirely in your browser. The image you drop in is read locally by the browser's canvas and never leaves your device. Nothing is sent to a server.
ΔE ("delta E") is a single number describing how different two colors look to a trained eye. Smaller is closer; zero is identical. Palette uses the modern CIEDE2000 formula. There's a full explainer on the footer link "How we rank matches — about ΔE."
They're a plain-language read on the ΔE number so you don't have to interpret it yourself: Excellent (ΔE ≤ 2) is a near-perfect color match, Close (≤ 5) is a good match, Fair (≤ 10) is in the neighborhood, and Loose (over 10) is a stretch. Glass is translucent, so always test a small piece before committing.
Each match shows the manufacturer's actual catalog photo of the glass rather than a single averaged color, because kiln glass varies a lot across a sheet — striations, density, striking. If you've narrowed the Form filter (say to Frit), the photo and its detail switch to that form. Click any photo to view it full screen and arrow through the other matches.
Glass is a translucent material — its color shifts dramatically with backlight, layering, and firing. The match score compares your source color to an image of the unfired sheet, which is a starting point, not a final answer. Always test with a small piece before committing a full sheet.
Hex values are extracted from each manufacturer's product images — center-cropped, background-masked, and averaged. Product identities and forms (sheet, frit, stringer, rod) come from the manufacturers' own catalogs and data sheets.
Dichroic sheets have a metallic-oxide coating; the image captures the coating's sheen rather than a "color," which makes ΔE matching unfair. Dichroic is still browsable from Delphi Catalog under Form → Dichroic when you want an accent piece.
Yes — the layout adapts to phone screens and the loupe shrinks for finger-dragging. Phone-saved palettes live on that phone's browser only; to move a palette between devices, Download it as a .palette.json file and Import it on the other device.
Up to 25 named palettes per browser. Saving past the limit asks before it removes the oldest one. For palettes you want to keep forever, use Download — .palette.json files on your computer have no cap and survive browser-data clears.
The Reference Sheet is a printable, designer-style PDF showing each color in your palette alongside its top matches and a separate Reaction check — great for studio reference. The Shopping List is a leaner PDF organized by manufacturer with SKUs and form selections, intended to be sent to a glass supplier or carried into the studio.
Yes — click the moon/sun icon in the header. Your choice is remembered for next time.
My Glass CookbookPractical planning tools for stained-glass artists.
Choose one exact order size and quantity for each Delphi product. When every line is ready, continue to Delphi’s cart.