Contents Page

ColorDetective II v2.0.0 User Guide

Introduction

Using ColorDetective

Support & Registration

Software Licence Agreement


Introduction

ColorDetective II is a great new tool to help you find the exact colour you need - fast!

Choose from the full range of RGB colours available on your PC to obtain that elusive HTML colour value for your web pages. Then copy the HTML to the Clipboard, ready for pasting into your code.

Zoom into a colour at pixel level on your screen (from an icon, the desktop, an image or a photograph) and click on a single pixel to obtain its colour value.

ColorDetective is great for web page design, graphic design and desktop publishing.

And - best of all - ColorDetective is FREE!

ColorDetective has a wealth of features - some obvious, others less so. Here's a list of the main features...

Find colors fast

•	7 ways to get the color you need!

•	Access to 16.7 million colors

•	Zoom into a magnified view of the desktop at pixel level

•	Individual controls for Red, Green and Blue color values

•	Copy a color's HTML value to the Clipboard

•	Paste a color's HTML value from the Clipboard

•	Show Clipboard contents

•	Save Clipboard contents (text or image)

Use and store colors

•	Store up to 20 colors temporarily

•	Access them via pull-down menu

Check if a color is "web-safe"

•	Full access to 216 Netscape web-safe colors

•	Find closest web-safe match for selected color

You can download the latest version of ColorDetective from www.colordetective.com. ColorDetective is available via other sites, but this site will always contain the very latest version - so bookmark it for future reference.


Using ColorDetective

ColorDetective's window consists of 5 main regions as illustrated below.

Color Wash Palette

Color Box

RGB Sliders

Color Values

Toolbar


Support & Registration

We encourage you to register your copy of ColorDetective. You can do this by visiting our web site www.colordetective.com/register.asp. Registration is not obligatory, but it does allow us to keep in touch with you and to let you know of any updates, enhancements, etc..

Support is provided free of charge. To obtain the most up-to-date information about ColorDetective, take a look at our web site www.colordetective.com.

We also have a number of e-mail addresses that you can use:

To request new features, e-mail us at : how_about_this@colordetective.com

To report bugs, e-mail us at : oh_dear@colordetective.com

For all other enquiries or comments, e-mail us at : enquiries@colordetective.com

Please don't hesitate to contact us. We'd like to know how you're using ColorDetective, what problems you may be experiencing, what suggestions you have for future versions. Any comment you think relevant...


Software Licence Agreement

ColorDetective II

=================

Version : 2.0.0

Copyright 2001 Ken Mackenzie, All Rights Reserved

www.colordetective.com

____________________________________________________________

Thank you for choosing ColorDetective II. Please read the

following LICENCE AGREEMENT before installing this software

___________________________________________________________

SOFTWARE LICENCE AGREEMENT

--------------------------

This is a legal agreement between you, the user, and

the publisher of ColorDetective, Ken Mackenzie. You should

read the following terms before installing and using

this software application.

If you do not agree to the terms and conditions set out in

this document, do not install the application.

The software application that accompanies this agreement is

copyrighted material. Under no circumstances does use of

the application constitute ownership of the software.

You may use this application for as long as you like

provided that you do not violate the copyright and that

you abide by the conditions set out below.

This licence grants you the right to load and use the

software on a single computer.

You may distribute or transfer the software freely as long

as you make no charge for this service. You must transfer

all copyright and proprietary notices that are part of or

included with the original copy of the software.

You may not reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or

create derivative works from the software. You make not

make any other changes or modifications to the software.

This software is protected by international copyright

laws and treaties.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

-----------------------

REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ANY REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN FAILS OF

ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE, IN NO EVENT WILL THE PUBLISHERS

BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT

OR SIMILAR DAMAGES, INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) ANY LOST

PROFITS OR LOST DATA ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY

TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR ANY DATA SUPPLIED THEREWITH EVEN IF

THE PUBLISHER OR ANYONE ELSE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE

POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR CLAIM BY ANY AUTHORITY

OR BY ANY OTHER PARTY.


Color Wash Palette

The Color Wash Palette provides a preset palette of 256 x 256 colors. To select a color from this palette, simply click on the color you want.

ColorDetective retrieves the RGB and HTML values of the selected color and updates the Color Box, Color Values and RGB Sliders areas of the window.

If you press and hold down the mouse button and move your mouse around the palette, the relevant displays are updated dynamically to reflect the color value of the pixel the mouse is currently pointing at.


Color Box

The Color Box displays the color of the selected color/pixel.

You can add the selected color to your Recent Colors list by clicking anywhere inside the Color Box.


RGB Sliders

The RGB Sliders are 3 independent slide controls that allow you to visually set or adjust the values of a color.

•	the Red slider adjusts the amount of red in a color;

•	the Green slider adjusts the amount of green in a color;

•	the Blue slider adjusts the amount of blue in a color.

As you move a slider, the color values of the new color are updated, and the new color is displayed in the Color Box display.

The 3 sliders used in combination give you access to a rich color palette that contains a cool 16.7 million colors.


Color Values

The Color Values area of the window shows the RGB and HTML values for a color. These values are updated whenever a new color is selected or an existing color adjusted.

You can also type a value into the relevant fields. The Color Box and RGB Sliders controls are updated automatically when you adjust a value in any of these fields.

The Red/Green/Blue fields require a numeric value in the range 0 - 255.

The HTML field will accept only valid hexadecimal letters/numbers. The HTML value of a color is a hexadecimal translation of the color's RGB values; HTML uses this hexadecimal notation to denote a particular color. The first 2 characters of the HTML value correspond to hexadecimal for the Red value of a selected color; the second 2 characters correspond to the Green value; the last 2 characters correspond to the Blue value.


Toolbar

The Toolbar contains a number of useful tools that greatly assist the selection of individual colors. A brief description of the individual tools can be viewed by clicking on the relevant link, below.

  Copy HTML button

  Show Clipboard button

  Show Color Dialog button

  Show Web-safe Colors button

  Magnify/Zoom button

  Recent Colors button


ColorDetective can “remember” up to 20 colors that you specifically select within a ColorDetective session. To add a color to the Recent Colors list, simply click on the color in the Color Box. The color is added to the "Recent Colors" button.


Copy HTML button

Click on this button to copy the HTML values for the selected color to the clipboard. Alternatively, you can use the Edit|Copy… menu to do this. Once an HTML value is copied, it can be pasted into your HTML code.


Show Clipboard button

This toolbutton allows you to view the contents of the clipboard. A dialog box is presented that contains either the text you have previously stored in the clipboard, or a graphic.

The neat thing about this dialog box is that you can save the contents of the clipboard before overwriting it with anything else. If the clipboard contains text, you can save the contents to a text file. If the clipboard contains an image, you can save it either as a bitmap file or as a JPEG file.


Show Color Dialog button

This toolbutton presents the standard Windows color dialog. It is provided for convenience.


Show Web-safe Colors button

This toolbutton presents a dialog box that displays “web-safe” colors. Web-safe colors form a palette of 216 colors that display accurately in a uniform manner in most browsers. This is particularly important if you want your colors to look the same in both Internet Explorer and Netscape. If you use a color in your web pages that is not web-safe, some browsers may dither the color and it will not look as intended.

Select a color from the dialog box to display the color values in ColorDetective.

Note also that, when the dialog is displayed, ColorDetective automatically finds the web-safe color that most closely matches the currently-selected color in the main window's Color Box. This is useful when it comes to getting a web-safe color that is close to the color you specifically need.

Notice that a textual indicator is displayed (just below the HTML value in the main window) to show that the color currently selected is a “Web-Safe Color”. Also note that if a web-safe color is added to your Recent Colors toolbutton, an asterisk (“*”) is displayed next to the web-safe color in the button’s pull-down menu.


Magnify/Zoom button

This toolbutton allows you to zoom into an area of your screen in order to select a specific pixel color. As you move the mouse around the screen, the Color Wash Palette is replaced with a magnified view of the pixels that surround your mouse. A red “target sight” is also displayed in the magnified view to help you pinpoint the exact pixel the mouse’s hotspot is passing over.

Set the target pixel in the sights and click the mouse button to select the color of the specific pixel.

When the mouse is clicked, the selected color is displayed and the Color Wash Palette is displayed once again.

(While this is a handy tool, it is also great fun scrolling around the screen! My youngest child (Sam, aged 5) loves messing around with the zoom tool - he uses it as a sort of inverted space invaders game whereby he has to wend his way around the screen, maze-like, attempting to avoid bumping into colored pixels and consequently dying. At other times, he simply uses it as a gun-sight and blasts his target pixel to smithereens. Oh, what innocent fun we have!)


  Recent Colors button

ColorDetective can “remember” up to 20 colors that you specifically select within a ColorDetective session. To add a color to the "Recent Colors" button, simply click on the color in the Color Box. The color is added to the button.

You can select a color from this list by clicking on the arrow to the right of the button. This displays a pull-down menu that contains your preferred colors. To re-display a color and its values, simply select it from the menu. The colors are displayed in the order in which they were selected by you - the top-most color in the menu is the last color you selected, while the bottom-most color in the menu is the first color you selected.

The Recent Colors menu follows a “first in-first out” sequence. This means that, if you have selected more than 20 colors in the current session, and as you add additional colors to the 20 colors displayed, the bottom-most color in the pull-down menu “drops off” the menu to accommodate the new color.