Benjamin Moore is wedding its color authority to the technology of iPhones. The company, known for its premium paints and as the number-one color source for designers and architects, is debuting ben® Color Capture™, an iPhone application that, with the tap of a key, lets you snap a picture of any color inspiration, anywhere in the world, and instantly match it to one of the more than 3,300 hues that comprise Benjamin Moore’s color system. And since color touches us everyday, everywhere, ben Color Capture allows you to save your favorites for instant color coordination and comparison. What’s more, the new ben app can access the iPhone’s GPS system, locating the Benjamin Moore retailer nearest to wherever the user is at that very moment.

“Anyone interested in color must have the ben app – it’s functional, fun and a sure way to capture color on the run,” noted Carl Minchew, Benjamin Moore’s director of color technology. “While Benjamin Moore offers an assortment of professional color tools for designers and architects, we wanted to extend the simplicity of identifying color you love in an instant. With the ben app, iPhone users have the world of color at their fingertips.”

The Ben app is intuitive and easy-to-use. Simply glide a finger across the digital photo taken with the iPhone’s built-in camera, zoom into a color, and tap the “match” key. In just seconds, a strip of colors will appear below the photo, with the closest paint match highlighted. A simple shake of the phone and ben will provide up to four coordinating colors, creating an entire harmonizing palette based on the original selection. Favorites can be saved and enlarged to the size of the iPhone screen for easier viewing. There’s access, as well, to the full spectrum color wheel, which expands or contracts by fingertip control to focus on a color preference. That, too, can be translated into a Benjamin Moore color and saved as a favorite for future reference.

The application is free and can be downloaded by visiting the AppStore Web site, www.apple.com/iphone/appstore; search for ben and select to install.