Making Panic's Developer ColorPicker (DeveloperColorPicker.colorPicker) work in macOS BigSur & macOS Catalina

DeveloperColorPicker.colorPicker-macOS-Catalina.md

Context

Panic's Developer ColorPicker (v1.5.4) does not work in macOS Catalina or macOS BigSur. This is due to enforcement of code-signing. Until Panic releases a newer version that supports Catalina/BigSur, below is the workaround.

Prerequisite

You need a Developer Account. This could be a free account. Refer: https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/27/how-to-create-free-apple-developer-account-sideload-apps/

Get the latest version of developer-color-picker

https://panic.com/blog/developer-color-picker-1-5/

Install

Unzip and copy DeveloperColorPicker.colorPicker to ~/Library/ColorPickers

Code sign it

Code sign

 security find-identity -p codesigning

Verify whether the above command lists at least one valid identity. Among the identities copy the identity name with which you would like to sign. Identity name will be a text in the format "Mac Developer: [YOUR_EMAIL] ([YOUR TEAM])"

cd ~/Library/ColorPickers
codesign --force --sign "Mac Developer: [YOUR_EMAIL] ([YOUR TEAM])" ./DeveloperColorPicker.colorPicker

If you do get the error ./DeveloperColorPicker.colorPicker: resource fork, Finder information, or similar detritus not allowed, execute the below command and re-try code signing.

xattr -cr ./DeveloperColorPicker.colorPicker

Works perfectly. Thank you SO MUCH for writing this up.

Same here—exactly what I needed. Developer Color Picker working again, and no more annoying popups letting me know it broke. Thank you! 😍

codesign --force --deep --sign - ./DeveloperColorPicker.colorPicker
can do the same thing without specify a certicate

Hello -- I'm a serious hobbyist, but not a serious developer, though I do have a developer account. I too would like to regain use of Panic's colorpicker. However, when I create my self-signed certificate, at the very end step I get "Unknown error: -2,147,414,007." I am using this short YouTube video as my guide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbbhhXEGH8o
I appreciate any help or questions.
Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Mick

Hello -- I'm a serious hobbyist, but not a serious developer, though I do have a developer account. I too would like to regain use of Panic's colorpicker. However, when I create my self-signed certificate, at the very end step I get "Unknown error: -2,147,414,007." I am using this short YouTube video as my guide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbbhhXEGH8o
I appreciate any help or questions.
Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Mick

Hello @Mick536

As you rightly mentioned, the Youtube video you mentioned is to create a self-signed certificate. But am afraid a self-signed certificate wouldn't work.
Instead, we need an Apple-issued developer certificate. You could get it for free. You may use the content link in the prerequisite section as a guide to creating one. You would need to download Xcode which is again a free developer tool to have the Apple-issued developer certificate on your Mac. I am unaware of any method that doesn't require an Xcode installation :(

Happy Thanksgiving to you too :)

Hi @Kiran-B

Thank you. First I found the error, though I never did ID what the number crossed to. It was caused by my failure to clear the check mark on the "Basic Constraints Extension” screen. I had to slow the video down to 25% speed to catch it. ;-( Which is not to mean that I know what an extended basic constraint is.

Second, in my research I came across 9to5Mac's How-To: Create a free Apple developer account for sideloading apps that seemed very close to what I wanted to do. I put 2 and 2 together and ended up with a working Developer Color Picker. I extended the approach to another color picker (RCWebColorPicker) but it only worked on my High Sierra VM. It's probably 32-bit software but I don't know how to tell when it's not an app. I can't deploy either one, but wasn't my goal.

Thank you for your guidance, and may I be the first to wish you a happy holidays.

...Mick