This document contains instructions on how to use ColourDetective™. Its contents are as follows :
• What is ColourDetective™?
• System Requirements
• Installing the software
• Using ColourDetective™
• ColourDetective™ Window
• Using the option-click magnifier
• What do the colour values mean?
• Registering your copy of ColourDetective™
• Getting support for ColourDetective™
• Version History
• Licence Agreement
What is ColourDetective™?
Thank you for taking a look at ColourDetective™!
ColourDetective™ is a very useful utility which helps you to determine a Macintosh colour value for a given RGB colour. The values returned for an RGB colour are in several different formats. Read the section entitled "What do the colour values mean?" for more information.
ColourDetective™ is particularly useful for HTML web page constructors. When you select a colour, you get the HTML hex value for that colour. This value can be copied and pasted directly into your HTML code in the correct format. No longer do you have to waste time trying different hex values to find the colour you want for a web page background or a font colour!
It is also useful for Mac developers, too. You can get the hex values of an RGB colour which you can use in your source code.
A special feature of ColourDetective™ allows you to find the RGB value of any pixel on your screen. See the section entitled “Using the option-click magnifier” for information on how to do this.
System Requirements
ColourDetective™ requires System 7 and above. The application is small (certainly by today’s standards!) and requires only about 300k of RAM. Although it works on 1-bit black & white monitors, it really requires a colour monitor, 4-bit and above. (In fact, I can’t think of any reason why you would want to use it on anything less than 4-bit colour or greyscale!)
It will run happily on 68k Macs and PowerMacs.
Installing the software
Simply copy the software onto your hard disk.
Using ColourDetective™
• ColourDetective™ Window
There is only one window in ColourDetective™. The screen dump below illustrates the window and its key areas:
There are three ways to select a colour:
1) Click on one of the colours in the System Colours palette
2) Move any one of the RGB sliders
3) Use the option-click magnifier (explained below)
When you select a colour, its value is displayed in field (1). The HTML version of the colour is displayed in field (3). The actual colour itself is displayed in the colour area (6).
The display button (2) determines the actual values shown in field (1). Click on this button to cycle through the display types. The display types cycle corresponds with the items in the RGB Display hierarchical menu in the File menu.
The RGB slider controls (4) offer a convenient, dynamic way of viewing an RGB colour. There are three sliders, one each for the Red, Green and Blue components. As you move a slider thumb, the new colour is displayed in the colour area (6). When you release the thumb, the colour value fields are updated automatically. By clicking in the slider shaft, the RGB values increment or decrement by 1. This allows finer control over the colour you require. (If your monitor is set to display 256 colours, you may not notice too much of a difference initially as you scroll up or down a slider. If your monitor is set to thousands or millions of colours, the effect is more marked and subtle.)
The System Colours palette (5) displays the standard 256 Macintosh sytem colours available on an 8-bit monitor. Click on any one of these colours with your mouse to read its colour values.
The “Copy #FF” button (7) copies the HTML hex value for a colour into the Clipboard. You can then paste it directly into your HTML code editor.
• Using the option-click magnifier
If you hold down the option key on your keyboard, the System Colours palette is replaced with a magnified view of the current mouse location. With the option key held down, you can click the mouse button anywhere on your screen to get the colour values for the pixel at the mouse location. The mouse location is represented by the centre of the crosshair sights in the magnified view. After a mouse click, the colour values fields are updated accordingly.
When you release the option key, the System Colours palette returns.
This feature is extremely handy if you want the value of a colour which lies outside of the ColourDetective™ window, perhaps on the desktop, or a colour from a pixel displayed in a painting application running in the background.
What do the colour values mean?
Unfortunately there isn't the space here to go into detail about RGB, HSV values, et al.. If it is all gobbledegook to you, then you probably don't need to worry about it. If it means something, then you probably don't want an explanation from me! Suffice to say, and this isn't really a cop-out, the type of value displayed in field (1) can be controlled using the RGB Display menu item or the button (2) in the ColourDetective™ window. The CMY type displays the Cyan-Magenta-Yellow value of the selected colour
Registering your copy of ColourDetective™
ColourDetective™ is a copyrighted application. Use or distribution of the software which violates the Licence Agreement may render you or your organisation liable to prosecution. Please read the Licence Agreement at the end of this document.
ColourDetective™ is shareware. This means that you can use it for a limited time to see if it satisfies a requirement you may have. If it does, and you wish to continue using it, you must register the software. Registration entitles you to free technical support and future upgrades. Registered users will be informed of the availibility of upgrades.
You can pay the shareware registration fee for this software by filling in the online order form which is accessible via the “Print Order Form…” menu item under the Apple menu. Use this method if you wish to pay in £ Sterling only. The £ Sterling price for the software is £ 10.
If you wish to pay in US Dollars, or want to use a credit card, you must use the “Register ColourDetective™” application which is supplied with the software. The US Dollar price for a single use version of the software is US$ 15. Details of multiple-use and site licence pricing are available in the Register ColourDetective™ application. For non-United Kingdom users, Kagi handle the payment processing.
ColourDetective™ has the following pricing :
• 1-10 single user licenses, $15 per user
• 11-49 single user licenses, $10 per user
• 50+ single user licenses, $8 per user
• A Site License costs $600 (roughly equal to 75 users) and covers
all locations for your organization within a 160 kilometer radius
of your site (100 miles). One big advantage of a Site License is
that you do not need to keep track of how many people at your site
are using the software.
• A World-Wide License costs $1500 and it covers all locations for
your organization on the planet earth and beyond.
Open the Register program that accompanies ColourDetective™. Enter your name, your e-mail address and the number of single-user licenses you desire for each program you wish to purchase (or Site or Worldwide licenses).
Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can e-mail or fax the data to Kagi. Their e-mail address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and paste into the body of an e-mail message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an e-mail message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via e-mail are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an e-mail acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet e-mail address you will receive an e-mail acknowledgement.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-KZ
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical.
If you have a purchasing department, you can enter all the data into the Register program and then select Invoice as your payment method. Print three copies of the form and send it to your accounts payable people. You might want to highlight the line that mentions that they must include a copy of the form with their payment.
Kagi cannot invoice your company, you need to act on my behalf and generate the invoice and handle all the paperwork at your end.
Please do not fax or e-mail payment forms that indicate Cash, Check or Invoice as the payment method. As far as we know, there is still no technology to transfer physical objects via fax or e mail, and without the payment, the form cannot be processed. Payments send via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct e mail address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed. If you do not have an e mail address, please enter your complete postal address and please remember, we do not know what country you live in, so please enter that into the postal address also.
Getting support for ColourDetective™
Support for ColourDetective™ is available only for registered users. This support is provided free of charge and usually via e-mail.
If you are having problems getting ColourDetective™ to work on your machine whether you are a registered user or not, I would be interested in hearing from you.
Version History
v1.0r1 - June 1996 - This is the first release version. There are no known bugs(!). If you find any, please contact me as soon as possible.
LICENCE AGREEMENT
ColourDetective is shareware. This means that you can use it for a limited time to see if it satisfies a requirement you may have. If it does, and you wish to continue using it, you must register the software. Registration entitles you to free technical support and future upgrades. Registered users will be informed of the availibility of upgrades.
You may distribute this copy of ColourDetective™ for evaluation. It can be placed on online services and BBSs provided that it is freely downloadable without charge beyond normal connection charges.
When distributing this software, the complete contents of the package (i.e. everything contained within the ColourDetective distribution folder) must be transmitted as well, either electronically or on disk.
If you wish to distribute ColourDetective™ on disks or CD-ROMs for which a charge is made to the end-user, you must seek the permission of the author of ColourDetective™. Also, you must make it clear to the end-user that the shareware fee has not been paid for ColourDetective™ and that additional payment is due to the author.
THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN KEN MACKENZIE AND YOU, THE END-USER.
THE SOFTWARE IN THIS DISK PACKAGE IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. YOU MAY USE THE SOFTWARE 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 LICENSE GRANTS TO YOU THE RIGHT TO LOAD AND USE THE SOFTWARE ON A SINGLE COMPUTER (WITH A SINGLE CPU). YOU MUST PAY FOR ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THE SOFTWARE IF IT IS TO BE LOADED OR USED ON MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER AT THE SAME TIME (FOR EXAMPLE ON A COMPUTER NETWORK).
YOU MUST REPRODUCE ALL COPYRIGHT AND OTHER PROPRIETARY NOTICES THAT ARE ON THE ORIGINAL COPY OF THE SOFTWARE.
YOU MAY NOT REVERSE-ENGINEER, DECOMPILE, DISASSEMBLE OR CREATE DERIVATIVE WORKS FROM THE SOFTWARE. YOU MAY 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 KEN MACKENZIE 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 OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR ANY DATA SUPPLIED THEREWITH EVEN IF KEN MACKENZIE OR ANYONE ELSE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.
