Need Color Selector Design

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AsmGuru62

Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1657
Location: Toronto, Canada

AsmGuru62 22 Jun 2011, 16:11

Hi everyone,

I am into Color Management in my IDE and I need a nicely looking
Color Selector thingy. At first I wanted to use the standard Windows
Color Dialog, but it looks dated (is it 1995 again?).

So, I am looking to design a custom made selector, where I can pick
any color from a full range of Win32 COLORREF element. I have something
in mind and it goes like that:

1. A square control with each side = 256 pixels
2. A slider on the side of the control - also it has 0-255 range

This way each of two sides of the control represent a color
component and slider is a third component. I can assign component
to a slider, say RED, then the other two components (GREEN,BLUE) will be
automatically placed on sides of the control (and mixed on its surface).

So, by clicking on the surface of the square I can get the mix of
two colors from the sides plus the color from slider. This way I plan
to get the full COLORREF for every color possible in Windows.

Of course, I can use the slider and see the color change as I slide.
Or I can leave slider alone and drag mouse within the surface.

This is basic design.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Maybe some existing color selectors I can 'steal' design from? Smile

Any screenshots are welcome, of course!

22 Jun 2011, 16:11

JohnFound

Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 3499
Location: Bulgaria

JohnFound 22 Jun 2011, 16:29

I have to design one for FreshLib as well. But it is not with great priority for me. The problem of the color selector is actually "3D navigation problem". There are many approaches to solve this problem. IMHO the windows selector is not the worst of them.
Several considerations:
1.It is good to have option for manual encoding - if you know what you need. Moreover it is good to support several models: RGB, HSL (HSV)
2. What about alpha-channel?
3. It looks that HSL color model is more "human-centric", so maybe the visual picker is better to be HSV oriented.

22 Jun 2011, 16:29

AsmGuru62

Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1657
Location: Toronto, Canada

AsmGuru62 22 Jun 2011, 16:57

Thanks.
Manual will be there - user can type values in.
I will take a look at HSV design.

22 Jun 2011, 16:57

bitshifter

Joined: 04 Dec 2007
Posts: 796
Location: Massachusetts, USA

bitshifter 22 Jun 2011, 17:20

The good thing about using the "dated" API color box
is that everyone will be farmilliar with what/how it works.
This is good reason to stick with standard API boxes.

If you want to mod the box, supply hook when creating it.
Then you can tweak it until your heart (or eyes) are content.

22 Jun 2011, 17:20

asmhack

Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 431

asmhack 23 Jun 2011, 00:28

chill you don't have to design a new color box from the scratch, for an IDE.

Code:

fOrMat Pe Gui
entry @@entry
include 'win32a.inc'

section '' import data code writable readable executable
library kernel32,'kernel32',comdlg32,'comdlg32'
include 'api\kernel32.inc'
include 'api\comdlg32.inc'

@@entry:
mov    [cc.lpCustColors],cc.lpCustColors
mov    [cc.lStructSize],9*4 
mov    [cc.Flags],$2 ;CC_FULLOPEN
invoke ChooseColor,cc
;test   eax,eax
;jz     cancel

invoke ExitProcess,0

struc CHOOSECOLOR
{ .lStructSize     dd $0
  .hwndOwner       dd $0
  .hInstance       dd $0
  .rgbResult       dd $0 ;COLOR
  .lpCustColors    dd $0
  .Flags           dd $0
  .lCustData       dd $0
  .lpfnHook        dd $0
  .lpTemplateName  dd $0 }

  cc CHOOSECOLOR

who will guess from witch app is the above screnshot.?? Razz

23 Jun 2011, 00:28

madmatt

Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 1045
Location: Michigan, USA

madmatt 23 Jun 2011, 11:34

Here is a small masm example I converted to fasm that may help you develop your own color picker. Unfortunately, no comments in the code.

Description:	Color Box	Download
Filename:	Colors.zip
Filesize:	7.25 KB
Downloaded:	700 Time(s)

23 Jun 2011, 11:34

AsmGuru62

Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1657
Location: Toronto, Canada

AsmGuru62 23 Jun 2011, 13:11

It is more fun to create it than use some other code!

23 Jun 2011, 13:11

JohnFound

Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 3499
Location: Bulgaria

JohnFound 23 Jun 2011, 13:25

An idea. As long as in the 1pixel field is very hard to select one particular color, it can be done with "magnifying glass" type navigation. When the cursor enters the 256x256 field zoom window appears under the cursor and the pixels are displayed as a 8x8 squares.

23 Jun 2011, 13:25

AsmGuru62

Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1657
Location: Toronto, Canada

AsmGuru62 23 Jun 2011, 17:36

I like that idea!

23 Jun 2011, 17:36

Enko

Joined: 03 Apr 2007
Posts: 676
Location: Mar del Plata

Enko 23 Jun 2011, 23:47

For my abandoned IconEditor project I had to create to custom window controls. One for color picker and the other for the HUE color selection.

In the source, there are 3 windows procs. Main windows, the HUE selector and the Color Picker.

Description:		Download
Filename:	IconEditor.7z
Filesize:	21.75 KB
Downloaded:	697 Time(s)

23 Jun 2011, 23:47

AsmGuru62

Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1657
Location: Toronto, Canada

AsmGuru62 24 Jun 2011, 13:02

Good stuff, Enko! Thanks.

24 Jun 2011, 13:02

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