YACS - Yet Another Color Selector

Introduction

YACS is a project that started out as just a small function of a few lines, to just grab the color under the cursor and copy it to the clipboard. Then I decided that I wanted to see the color i was hovering over. Then I decided I wanted to see more than one pixel in the color preview. It was at that point that I realized I would need to use GDI to make this usable. Now, it's a fully featured color selector that you can use standalone, or in your own projects!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Properties

3. Methods

4. Usage

Properties

1. FontName

   • The name of the font to use for the label on the ColorPicker preview window.

2. FontSize

   • The size of the font to use for the label on the ColorPicker preview window.

3. ViewMode

   • Can be "crosshair", "grid", any other value will result in the "blank" overlay with the center dot highlighter.

4. UpdateInterval

   • The interval at which the preview will update, in milliseconds. 16ms = ~60 updates / second.

5. HighlightCenter

   • If True, highlights the pixel that the color is copied from.

6. BorderWidth

   • Thickness of the preview border, in pixels.

7. CrosshairWidth

   • Thickness of crosshair lines, in pixels.

8. GridWidth

   • Thickness of grid lines, in pixels.

9. CenterDotRadius

   • Radius of the Center Dot when not in "grid" or "crosshair" mode, in pixels.

10. TextPadding

    • The padding added above and below the preview Hex String, in pixels (half above, half below)

11. DefaultCaptureSize

    • The size of area you want to capture around the cursor in pixels (N by N square).

12. DefaultZoomFactor

    • The amount by which to multiply the preview size.

    • window side length in pixels = captureSize * zoomFactor. EX: (9 * 11 = 99x99 pixel preview)

13. LargeJumpAmount

    • How many pixels to move the preview window by when holding shift and moving it with the keyboard.

14. Color Arrays:

    • Each array holds two values. The first value in each array is for one theme, and the second value is for the other

    1. TextFGColors[], TextBGColors[]

       • Text Foreground and Background color control

       • Holds two hexadecimal values in the format 0xBBGGRR. Switch between colors while running by pressing C.

    2. BorderColors[], CrosshairColors[], GridColors[], HighlightColors[]

       • Border, Crosshair, Grid, and Highlighter color control.

       • Holds two hexadecimal values in the format 0xAABBGGRR. Switch between colors while running by pressing C.

15. Format Strings

    • The format strings control the format of the output object.

    1. HexFormat

       • Default: "#{R}{G}{B}"

       • {R}: Represents the R channel.

       • {G}: Represents the G channel.

       • {B}: Represents the B channel.

    2. RGBFormat

       • Default: "rgb({R}, {G}, {B})"

       • {R}: Represents the R channel.

       • {G}: Represents the G channel.

       • {B}: Represents the B channel.

16. Color

    • The output Color, please refer to the Color class definition for more details.

17. Clip

    • If True, copies the selected color value to the clipboard.

18. TargetHWND

    • If assigned a valid HWND, the ColorPicker will be locked inside of that window or control.

19. Callback

    • Can be assigned any function that takes a single argument.

    • The object passed to the callback function is the same as the output object.

    • The callback is called on every update of the ColorPicker. Depending on what your callback does, it can slow the operation down considerably.

Methods

1. Constructor: ColorPicker(clip := False, hwnd := 0, callback := 0)

   • Creates a new instance of ColorPicker

   • Arguments:

     1. clip: If true, the chosen color will be copied to the clipboard

     2. hwnd: When provided with a valid HWND, the ColorPicker will be locked inside of that window or control.

     3. callback: Provide a function that takes one argument. The object provided to the function is the same as ColorPicker.Color. This will be called on every update of the ColorPicker.

2. Start(clip := False, hwnd := 0, callback := 0)

   • Starts the ColorPicker instance with the provided options and property values.

   • Arguments:

     1. clip: If true, the chosen color will be copied to the clipboard

     2. hwnd: When provided with a valid HWND, the ColorPicker will be locked inside of that window or control.

     3. callback: Provide a function that takes one argument. The object provided to the function is the same as ColorPicker.Color. This will be called on every update of the ColorPicker.

3. static Run(clip := False, hwnd := 0, callback := 0)

   • Starts a ColorPicker with default values.

   • Does not create a persistent ColorPicker instance.

   • Arguments:

     1. clip: If true, the chosen color will be copied to the clipboard

     2. hwnd: When provided with a valid HWND, the ColorPicker will be locked inside of that window or control.

     3. callback: Provide a function that takes one argument. The object provided to the function is the same as ColorPicker.Color. This will be called on every update of the ColorPicker.

Usage

1. To use, just create an instance of ColorPicker. If you don't pass arguments now, you can assign those properties later:

   • picker := ColorPicker()

2. Change any properties you want to change:

   • picker.FontName := "Papyrus"

   • picker.FontSize := 16

   • picker.TargetHWND := ControlGetHwnd(control)

3. Start the ColorPicker!

   • color := picker.Start()

OR

1. If you don't want to create an instance of ColorPicker, you can use a static method :

   • color := ColorPicker.Run()