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Getting Started with WPF ColorPicker

Updated on Sep 24, 2025

Adding Telerik Assemblies Using NuGet

To use RadColorPicker when working with NuGet packages, install the Telerik.Windows.Controls.Input.for.Wpf.Xaml package. The package name may vary slightly based on the Telerik dlls set - Xaml or NoXaml

Read more about NuGet installation in the Installing UI for WPF from NuGet Package article.

With the 2025 Q1 release, the Telerik UI for WPF has a new licensing mechanism. You can learn more about it here.

Adding Assembly References Manually

If you are not using NuGet packages, you can add a reference to the following assemblies:

Telerik.Licensing.Runtime
Telerik.Windows.Controls
Telerik.Windows.Controls.Input

You can find the required assemblies for each control from the suite in the Controls Dependencies help article.

Selection

RadColorPicker is a control that displays a set of palettes from which the user can select a single color.

In order to use RadColorPicker in your projects you have to add references to the following two assemblies

Telerik.Windows.Controls

Telerik.Windows.Controls.Input

It has a SelectedColor property, which is of Color type and it is used to store selected color value.

Example 1

XAML

	<telerik:RadColorPicker SelectedColor="Red" />

Example 2

C#
	RadColorPicker colorPicker = new RadColorPicker();
	colorPicker.SelectedColor = Colors.Red;
VB.NET
	Dim colorPicker As New RadColorPicker()
	colorPicker.SelectedColor = Colors.Red

Whenever a color is selected the SelectedColorChanged event is raised:

Example 3

C#
	colorPicker.SelectedColorChanged += new EventHandler(RadColorPicker_SelectedColorChanged1);
	
	void RadColorPicker_SelectedColorChanged1(object sender, EventArgs e)
	{
	   RadColorPicker colorPicker = sender as RadColorPicker;
	   Color selectedColor = colorPicker.SelectedColor;
	}
VB.NET
	colorPicker.SelectedColorChanged += New EventHandler(RadColorPicker_SelectedColorChanged)

	Private Sub RadColorPicker_SelectedColorChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
		Dim colorPicker As RadColorPicker = TryCast(sender, RadColorPicker)
		Dim selectedColor As Color = colorPicker.SelectedColor
	End Sub

Populating

You can populate the RadColorSelector with any of the built-in palettes using the ColorPreset enum . It has HeaderPalette, MainPalette and StandardPalette properties, which represent the corresponding parts of the selector.

MainPalette property:

Example 4

XAML

	<telerik:RadColorPicker MainPalette="Grayscale" />

Example 4

C#
	RadColorPicker colorPicker = new RadColorPicker();
	colorPicker.MainPalette = ColorPreset.Grayscale;
VB.NET
	Dim colorPicker As New RadColorPicker()
	colorPicker.MainPalette = ColorPreset.Grayscale

HeaderPalette property:

Example 6

XAML

	<telerik:RadColorPicker HeaderPalette="Office" />

Example 7

C#
	RadColorPicker colorPicker = new RadColorPicker();
	colorPicker.HeaderPalette = ColorPreset.Office;
VB.NET
	Dim colorPicker As New RadColorPicker()
	colorPicker.HeaderPalette = ColorPreset.Office

StandardPalette property:

Example 8

XAML

	<telerik:RadColorPicker StandardPalette="Standard" />

Example 9

C#
	RadColorPicker colorPicker = new RadColorPicker();
	colorPicker.StandardPalette = ColorPreset.Standard;
VB.NET
	Dim colorPicker As New RadColorPicker()
	colorPicker.StandardPalette = ColorPreset.Standard

If you prefer to use your own collection of Colors you can always use HeaderPaletteItemsSource, MainPaletteItemsSource and StandardPaletteItemsSource.

StandardPaletteItemSource property

Example 10

XAML

	<telerik:RadColorPicker StandardPaletteItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource ColorList}}" />

Example 11

C#
	RadColorPicker colorPicker = new RadColorPicker();
	colorPicker.StandardPaletteVisibility = Visibility.Visible;
	Collection<Color> colors = new Collection<Color>();
	colors.Add(Colors.Red);
	colors.Add(Colors.Green);
	colors.Add(Colors.Blue);
	colorPicker.StandardPaletteItemsSource = colors;
VB.NET
	Dim colorPicker As New RadColorPicker()
	colorPicker.StandardPaletteVisibility = Visibility.Visible
	Dim colors1 As New Collection(Of Color)()
	colors1.Add(Colors.Red)
	colors1.Add(Colors.Green)
	colors1.Add(Colors.Blue)
	colorPicker.StandardPaletteItemsSource = colors1

HeaderPaletteItemSource property

Example 12

XAML

	<telerik:RadColorPicker HeaderPaletteItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource ColorList}}" />

Example 13

C#
	RadColorPicker colorPicker = new RadColorPicker();
	colorPicker.HeaderPaletteVisibility = Visibility.Visible;
	Collection<Color> colors = new Collection<Color>();
	colors.Add(Colors.Red);
	colors.Add(Colors.Green);
	colors.Add(Colors.Blue);
	colorPicker.HeaderPaletteItemsSource = colors;
VB.NET
	Dim colorPicker As New RadColorPicker()
	colorPicker.HeaderPaletteVisibility = Visibility.Visible
	Dim colors1 As New Collection(Of Color)()
	colors1.Add(Colors.Red)
	colors1.Add(Colors.Green)
	colors1.Add(Colors.Blue)
	colorPicker.HeaderPaletteItemsSource = colors1

MainPaletteItemSource property

Example 14

XAML

	<telerik:RadColorPicker MainPaletteItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource ColorList}}" />

Example 15

C#
	RadColorPicker colorPicker = new RadColorPicker();
	Collection<Color> colors = new Collection<Color>();
	colors.Add(Colors.Red);
	colors.Add(Colors.Green);
	colors.Add(Colors.Blue);
	colorPicker.MainPaletteItemsSource = colors;
VB.NET
	Dim colorPicker As New RadColorPicker()
	Dim colors1 As New Collection(Of Color)()
	colors1.Add(Colors.Red)
	colors1.Add(Colors.Green)
	colors1.Add(Colors.Blue)
	colorPicker.MainPaletteItemsSource = colors1

Events

SelectedColorChanged RadColorPicker has SelectedColor property which is of Color type and is used to store selected color value. Whenever a color is selected SelectedColorChanged event is raised.
DropDownClosed Raised when the SplitButton is closed.
DropDownOpening Raised when the SplitButton is about to be opened.
DropDownOpened Raised when the SplitButton is opened.
Click Raised when the left part of the SplitButton is clicked.

Properties

IsDropDownOpen - Opens or closes the drop down content.
DropDownPlacement - Sets the DropDownPlacement of the drop down content
ContentTemplate - Should be used to define the custom Content of the RadColorPicker. Content property should not be used for this purpose
PaletteItemsTemplate - Should be used in MVVM scenarios to get or set the ContentTemplate of the RadColorPaletteViewItems from the MainPalette, HeaderPalette, StandartPalette. It is not applied to RecentPalette items.
ColorPropertyPath - the control uses this path to find the property of type System.Windows.Media.Color in the DataContext of the RadColorPaletteViewItems. The behavior of this property mimics the behavior of the ItemsControl.DisplayMemberPath property.
SelectedItem - should be used in MVVM scenarios and it holds the selected ViewModel - the DataContext of the selected RadColorPaletteViewItem.
IsRecentColorsActive - defines wether a customized color, not existing in the MainPalette, HeaderPalette, StandartPalette or RecentPalette should be added in the RecentColorsPaletteView. If there is such a color this palette will be visible.
AdditionalContent - can be used to add customized content under RadColorPicker control.