Color Chooser Menus

November 1999
Color Chooser





The Color Chooser menu is displayed when you double-click on a color square in the color
scheme shown on the Color Key tab. It allows you to change an existing color in the color
scheme (and, subsequently, on the program window).

The horizontal menuBar consists of two buttons, Views and Options, both of which control
what is visible on the Color Chooser menu. On this menu is one pullDown menu, Color
Method, which determines the method for defining the color scheme. Below this menu is a solid
colored rectangle, showing the current color. If you change the current color, the top half of the
rectangle will stay the same, but the bottom half will show the new color. At any point, you can
double-click on the top half to return to that color.

The right-hand side of the plot will depend on the Views selection, and will consist of a color
wheel, a color plane, a palette of named colors, or a menu of color tolerances. For the first three
options, double clicking on any of the colors will make it the new default, and change the bottom
of the colored rectangle.

At the bottom of the plot are three sliders, one for Red, Green, and Blue (or HLS, or CMY,
depending on the chosen option). The two triangles on each slider indicate the amount of each of
the primary colors in the default color. The numerical value of each color is shown on the right-
hand side of the sliders. By pointing and clicking on the triangles, you can change the amount of
each primary color. Finally, the Saved Colors bar at the very bottom the plot allows you to store
a series of custom colors using the Add Saved Colors option on the Options list.
Hampson-Russell Software Services Ltd.
November 1999
Clicking on Ok will save the new color. Clicking on Cancel will revert to the previous color.

The items on the horizontal menuBar are:

Views: This pullDown menu has three options: Color Wheel/Plane, Named Colors, and
Color Tolerances. Each of these options controls the display in the right-hand corner of
the main Color Chooser window.

Color Wheel/Plane: This pullDown menu will display a color wheel or plane
depending on which Color Method is being used (HLS, RGB, CMY, or Gray).
For the HLS and Gray options a color wheel is displayed, whereas for the RGB
and CMY options, a color plane is displayed. The color wheel and plane give you
a continuum of color. You can choose a particular color by double clicking on the
wheel or plane. If you dont see the color that you want on the displayed plane or
wheel, you can slide to another one using the sliders at the bottom of the
window. To understand this procedure, it is important to know the differences
between the various color schemes, and also to be familiar with the RGB/CMY
color cube and HLS double hexcone models. The RGB/CMY model states that
any color can be thought of as a mixture of percentages of three primary colors,
either Red, Green, and Blue, or Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. The RGB and CMY
color schemes are related as follows:

Red = Magenta + Yellow
Green = Cyan + Yellow
Blue = Cyan + Magenta
Cyan = Green + Blue
Magenta = Red + Blue
Yellow = Red + Green

Also, black and white can be thought of as end members of the color spectrum,
where:

Black = 100% x (Cyan + Magenta + Yellow)
= 0% x (Red + Green + Blue)

White = 0% x (Cyan + Magenta + Yellow)
= 100% x (Red + Green + Blue)
Color Chooser Menus
November 1999
This can be more efficiently arranged in the RGB/CMY color cube, shown in
Figure 1(a). Both the RGB and CMY options under Views will display a plane
through this cube. Moving the slider bars will move along the X, Y, or Z-axis of
the cube. If we look at the cube along the black-white diagonal, we see the result
shown in Figure 1(b). This can be thought of as a hexagon, with pure colors (or
hues) around the outside, and the black/white axis in the centre. As you move up
this axis, the lightness of the color changes, and moving out from the center of
this axis changes the saturation of the color. This leads to the HLS
(Hue/Lightness/Saturation) hexcone model shown in Figure 2(a). In the program,
this hexcone is simplified to the vertical cylinder shown in Figure 2(b), and the
color wheel can be thought of as a horizontal slice through the cylinder. The hue,
lightness, and saturation sliders have obvious meaning with respect to this
cylinder.



Blue
Cyan
Magenta
Red
Yellow Green
Blue Cyan
Magenta
Red
Yellow
Green Black
White
(a) (b)
Black/White
RGB/CMY Colour Cube Model

Figure 1
Hampson-Russell Software Services Ltd.
November 1999

Figure 2

Named Colors: This pullDown menu will display a palette of named colors. The
palette will be sorted by alphabetical color name or by hue, depending on the
option chosen under Options. This is the simplest way of choosing a color.
Simply scroll through the palette of colors until you find the one you want, and
double-click on this color to make it the new color. The color on the bottom of
the rectangle will change, and the sliders will also move to show you the
composition of the new color. You may then change the sliders to adjust the
color. If you do this, notice that the default color changes but not the color on the
palette.

Color Tolerances: This pullDown menu is recommended only if you want to fine-
tune your colors. Choosing this option will let you change the Dither Area (no
dithering, 2x2, 4x4, 8x8, or 16x16), and to choose between changing delta values
for the three colors, or a single distance parameter. Dithering involves the
number of pixels used to display the colors.
Color Chooser Menus
November 1999
Options:

Reform Slider Images: This option will refresh the slider bars.

Red-Green/Cyan-Magenta Plane: This will display the Red-Green plane if the Color
Wheel/Plane or Named Colors options are chosen under Views and the RGB
option is chosen under Color Method, and the Cyan-Magenta plane if the CMY
option is chosen under Color Method. For all other options, this item is grayed
out.

Red-Blue/Cyan-Yellow Plane: This will display the Red-Blue plane if the Color
Wheel/Plane or Named Colors options are chosen under Views and the RGB
option is chosen under Color Method, and the Cyan-Yellow plane if the CMY
option is chosen under Color Method. For all other options, this item is grayed
out.

Green-Blue/Magenta-Yellow Plane: This will display the Green-Blue plane if the
Color Wheel/Plane or Named Colors options are chosen under Views and the
RGB option is chosen under Color Method, and the Magenta-Yellow plane if the
CMY option is chosen under Color Method. For all other options, this item is
grayed out.

Sort by Name/Sort by Hue: These two options control how the color palette is
arranged if the Named Colors option is chosen under Views.

Add saved color: This option allows you to add the current color to the Saved Colors
strip at the bottom of the menu. Notice that up to 16 colors can be saved. Any of
the saved colors can be written over (i.e. resaved) at any time.
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November 1999
Default color tolerances: This option relates to the options in the upper right hand part
of the menu if the Color Tolerances option is turned on under Views. The
names relate to the Dither Area (in pixels) and the Delta Value (in %) in the
following way:

Default Dither Area Delta Value

Large Dither 8 x 8 0.39
Small Dither 2 x 2 6.25
Solid No Dithering 25.00
Precise Large Dither 16 x 16 0.19
Precise Small Dither 4 x 4 1.56
Precise Solid No Dithering 6.25


On the Color Key menu, the items are:

Color Method: This pullDown menu allows you to choose the color-mixing scheme.
The options are:

HLS Hue/Lightness/Saturation
RGB Red/Green/Blue
CMY Cyan/Magenta/Yellow
Gray Gray level only

Color Rectangle Window: This shows the old color at the top and the new color on the
bottom. If the color has not been changed, the whole rectangle is a single color.
To reset the new color back to the old, double-click on the old color at the top.

Color Wheel/Plane Window: If the Color Wheel/Plane option has been chosen under
Views, the upper right-hand side of the main menu will show either the color
wheel or plane.

Named Colors List: If the Named Colors option has been chosen under Views, the
upper right-hand side of the main menu will show a palette of named colors.
Color Chooser Menus
November 1999
Dither Area: If the Color Tolerances option has been chosen under Views, this
pullDown menu lets you choose from the following options:

No dithering
2x2
4x4
8x8
16x16

Delta Values: This option allows you to change the percentage of each color to use in
the Dithering option.

Distance: This allows you to define an equal delta value for all colors.

RGB/CMY/HLS Scroll Bars: Depending on the options chosen, the three scroll (or
slider) bars at the bottom of the menu allow you to change the mix of colors (or
HLS) in the final color.

Saved Colors: This is a band of 16 slots that are initially empty. You can fill them
with saved colors using the Add Saved Color option under Options.