Color Picker
v1.0
Copyright © Ben Logan 2000 -- All Rights Reserved.
See the Readme for info on
copying or modifying this software.
How it came about.
I was designing a scene in Pov-Ray
one night and found myself opening Paint in order to find the
colors I wanted. Then I had to convert the RGB values into the format
Pov-Ray uses...a bit of a pain. So I thought I'd write a little program
that would allow me to pick the color I wanted and then it would
copy it to the clipboard in the correct format. And that's how
Color Picker was born.
Screenshot
How to use it.
Defining Colors
There are two ways to define the color you want: You can either
click the "Colors" button, or right-click on one of the palette
buttons. If you click the "Colors" button, the color will not
be added to the palette buttons. It's value will be placed in
the display and copied to the clipboard. If you choose the
latter method, the color value will still be placed in the
display and copied to the clipboard, however, it will also
be placed in the next available palette button.
Deleting Palette Entries
To delete the color out of one of the palette buttons, hold down "shift" and left-click
on the one you wish to remove.
Changing Modes
The "mode" Color Picker is in determines the format
the color will be displayed and copied to the clipboard in.
Note that changing modes converts the current color to the new format, and re-displays
it as well as re-copying it to the clipboard.
Three formats are supported:
Pov-Ray
The format Pov-Ray uses is <red,green,blue> where red,green, and blue are numbers
between 0 and 1.
HTML
The HTML format is "#rrggbb", where rr,gg, and bb are hexadecimal numbers between 00 and
FF. (If you don't know what 'hexadecimal' is, don't worry! That's what Color Picker
is there for!)
Win32
The last mode is Win32. The number displayed (and copied to the clipboard) when Color Picker
is in this mode can be used when you're writing Win32 programs. It is an integer ranging
from 0 (black) to 16777215 (white).
Choosing an already defined color
To pick one of the colors in the palette buttons, left-click the button containing the
color you want.
Defining and Deleting Comments
You may create a short description to go along with a palette entry in order to help
identify the color later. When you move your mouse over the palette button, the comment will
appear in the status bar. To define one, hold down the "shift" key and right-click on the
palette button you want to associate the comment with. The button must already have
a color in it. A dialog box will pop up; type the comment in the EditBox and hit "Ok".
If you change your mind, you can hit cancel. Follow the same procedure to change an
existing comment. Setting the comment to nothing, effectively removes it.
Clearing all Palette Buttons
To delete all of the defined colors, right-click on the Color Picker window background
and a menu will pop up. Select "Clear Palette" from this menu, and the palette buttons will
be cleared.
Clearing all Comments
To remove all defined comments, right-click on the Color Picker window background and
a menu will pop up. Select "Clear Comments" from this menu to clear the comments.
Saving Your Palette
You may save the current palette and all defined comments by right-clicking on the Color
Picker window background and selecting "Save Palette" from the menu that pops up. If
you don't add a ".pal" extension to the filename you type, the program will add one.
Opening an Existing Palette
You may open a palette previously saved with "Save Palette". Right-click on the window background
and click "Open Palette". Any comments saved with the file will be loaded with the colors.
Getting Colors from an Existing Bitmap Image
By right-clicking on the window background and clicking "Load Bitmap", you may open a Windows
".bmp" file. The image will appear in a new window. Just click a point on the image and
that pixel's color value will be added to the palette. When you're done, just close
the window containing the bitmap.
The Page Control Buttons
When you fill up all of the palette buttons, the ">" (next page) button becomes available.
Pressing it appears to clear the palette entries, but actually just switches pages. Press
the "<" (previous page) or "|<" (first page) buttons to go back. There is also a last page
button (">|"). You may have as many pages as memory will permit.
Reporting Bugs
If you have any bug reports, comments, donations, suggestions, gripes, etc., I would love to hear from you. Send an
email to cycloid@techieguy.com, or write me
at
Ben Logan
97 Renfro Ridge Rd.
Hillsville, VA 24343
Thank you for using Color Picker