Color picker

A screenshot of theGTK+2 color picker.

A screenshot of theQtcolor picker.

GIMPcolor picker.

Acolor picker(alsocolor chooserorcolor tool) is agraphical user interfacewidget,usually found withingraphics softwareor online, used to select colors and, in some cases, to createcolor schemes(the color picker might be more sophisticated than the palette included with the program). Operating systems such asMicrosoft WindowsormacOShave a system color picker, which can be used by third-party programs (e.g., Adobe Photoshop).

History

The concept of color pickers dates back to the early days of computer graphics and digital design.Early versions were rudimentary, often featuring basic color palettes and limited functionality.

Purpose

A color picker is used to select and adjust color values. Ingraphic designandimage editing,users typically choose colors via an interface with a visual representation of a color—organized with quasi-perceptually-relevanthue,saturationandlightnessdimensions (HSL) – instead of keying inAlpha numerictext values. Because color appearance depends on comparison of neighboring colors (seecolor vision), many interfaces attempt to clarify the relationships between colors.

Interface

Color tools can vary in their interface. Some may use sliders, buttons, text boxes for color values, ordirect manipulation.Often a two-dimensional square is used to create a range of color values (such as lightness and saturation) that can be clicked on or selected in some other manner. Drag and drop, color droppers, and various other forms of interfaces are commonly used as well.

Usually, color values are also displayed numerically, so they can be precisely remembered and keyed-in later, such as three values of 0-255 representing red, green, and blue, respectively.

Eyedropper

The eyedropper is a tool present in most color pickers andgraphics softwarethat allows a user to read a color at a specific point in an image, or position on a display. This enables the color to be transferred to other applications particularly quickly.

Working

A color picker has two main parts, first a color slider and second a color canvas. The color slider has a linear or radialgradientof the sevenrainbow colorsi.e. Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. It allows you to choose any of the seven primary colors.

The color value chosen from the color slider instantly reflects in the color canvas. The colorcanvasis a mixture of two linear color gradients. First a linear gradient of the current chosen color and second a linear gradient of the black color. This mixture of color gradients lets you choose a lighter and darker version of the current chosen color from the color slider.

See also

• Alexis Spectral Data
• Color balance
• Color management
• Color space
• RGB color spaces

References

• Feisner, Edith Anderson; Reed, Ronald (2014),Color Studies,New York: Fairchild Books,ISBN9781609015312

External links

• Various color formats