Cool Colour Selector Including Hue, Saturation, and Lumination

Lea Hayes

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9 Nov 2006MIT1 min read

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This colour selector helps to make selecting colours more efficient

Introduction

When I created this colour selector I was creating a 3D graphics program; I was using the standard windows common colour selection dialog box however it became a bit tedious selecting the "Define Custom Colours >>" button to select custom colours. So I designed this colour selector which I find much easier to use.

Using the code

All colour boxes can be dragged and dropped onto the custom colour boxes. Custom colour values are automatically restored each time the dialog box is displayed. The colours can all be dragged onto the "New Colour:" box to select that colour.

Clicking on the "Current Colour:" colour box will select the original colour again. However it is not possible (without modifications) to drag a colour on-top of the "Current Colour:" colour box as that would defeat the object of having it.

It is possible to change the colour reference, hue value, saturation value, lumination value, red value, green value, and the blue value.

I hope that this is of some use to you.

// declare a variable to store our color
COLORREF rgbColor = RGB(255, 0, 0);
 
// create an instance of the color selector
CSelColorDlg dlgSelColor(GetRValue(rgbColor), GetGValue(rgbColor),
                         GetBValue(rgbColor));
// display the color changing dialog box
if(dlgSelColor.DoModal() == IDOK)
{
      // select the new color
      rgbColor = dlgSelColor.GetColor();
      // change the background color
      Invalidate();
}

Points of Interest

Most of the visual appearance of the colour selector has relied on the use of GetBitmapBits() and SetBitmapBits() to save on processing time. When the colour images are generated the image is stored within a CBitmap object; then later to be drawn as usual.

History

Fixed major bug regarding desktop colour depths.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The MIT License

Written By

Lea Hayes

Software Developer Rotorz Limited

United Kingdom

I have been fascinated by software and video games since a young age when I was given my first computer, a Dragon 32. Since then I have experimented with numerous methods of development ranging from point-and-click type packages to C++. I soon realized that software development was what I wanted to do.

Having invested a lot of time into programming with various languages and technologies I now find it quite easy to pickup new ideas and methodologies. I relish learning new ideas and concepts.

Throughout my life I have dabbled in game and engine development. I was awarded a first for the degree "BEng Games and Entertainment Systems Software Engineering" at the University of Greenwich. It was good to finally experience video games from a more professional perspective.

Due to various family difficulties I was unable to immediately pursue any sort of software development career. This didn't stop me from dabbling though!

Since then I formed a company to focus upon client projects. Up until now the company has primarily dealt with website design and development. I have since decided that it would be fun to go back to my roots and develop games and tools that other developers can use for their games.

We have recently released our first game on iPhone/iPad called "Munchy Bunny!" (see: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/munchy-bunny!/id516575993?mt=8). We hope to expand the game and release to additional platforms.

Also, check out our tile system extension for Unity! (see: http://rotorz.com/tilesystem/)

IDD_COLSEL DIALOG DISCARDABLE 0, 0, 277, 183 STYLE DS_MODALFRAME | DS_FIXEDSYS | WS_POPUP | WS_CAPTION | WS_SYSMENU CAPTION "Select Colour" FONT 8, "MS Shell Dlg" BEGIN DEFPUSHBUTTON "&OK",IDOK,168,166,50,14 PUSHBUTTON "&Cancel",IDCANCEL,224,166,50,14 LTEXT "Current Colour:",IDC_STATIC,166,7,48,8 LTEXT "New Colour:",IDC_STATIC,224,7,40,8 LTEXT "Hu&e:",IDC_STATIC,171,72,16,8 EDITTEXT IDC_HUE,189,70,24,12,ES_AUTOHSCROLL LTEXT "&Sat:",IDC_STATIC,171,90,16,8 EDITTEXT IDC_SAT,189,88,24,12,ES_AUTOHSCROLL LTEXT "&Lum:",IDC_STATIC,171,107,16,8 EDITTEXT IDC_LUM,189,106,24,12,ES_AUTOHSCROLL LTEXT "&Red:",IDC_STATIC,223,72,16,8 EDITTEXT IDC_RED,241,70,24,12,ES_AUTOHSCROLL LTEXT "&Green:",IDC_STATIC,216,90,23,8 EDITTEXT IDC_GREEN,241,88,24,12,ES_AUTOHSCROLL LTEXT "&Blue:",IDC_STATIC,222,107,17,8 EDITTEXT IDC_BLUE,241,106,24,12,ES_AUTOHSCROLL LTEXT "Ref:",IDC_STATIC,167,46,15,8 EDITTEXT IDC_REF,184,44,86,12,ES_AUTOHSCROLL PUSHBUTTON "<< &Add Custom Colour",ID_ADDCOLOUR,174,136,89,14 END

#define ID_ADDCOLOUR 3 #define IDD_COLSEL 129 #define IDC_DRAGITEM 130 #define IDC_HUE 1001 #define IDC_SAT 1002 #define IDC_LUM 1003 #define IDC_RED 1004 #define IDC_GREEN 1005 #define IDC_BLUE 1006 #define IDC_REF 1007

// Next default values for new objects // #ifdef APSTUDIO_INVOKED #ifndef APSTUDIO_READONLY_SYMBOLS #define _APS_3D_CONTROLS 1 #define _APS_NEXT_RESOURCE_VALUE 131 #define _APS_NEXT_COMMAND_VALUE 32773 #define _APS_NEXT_CONTROL_VALUE 1008 #define _APS_NEXT_SYMED_VALUE 101 #endif #endif

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