The CLUT#8 Picker is a shareware Color Picker Manager extension that complements the Apple-provided color pickers (HLS Picker, HSV Picker, RGB Picker, etc.).
It makes it very easy to pick colors that belong to the 256 Colors 8–Bit System Color Look-Up Table (hence the CLUT#8 Picker name). This is often desirable when developing web graphics — for instance.
Features
• Partitions the 256 system colors into 19 selectable color groups (All, Web-Safe, Pure and 15/15 to 0/15).
• Displays the selected group colors in a 256–cell palette for single-click picking.
• Displays the original color and the new color in large swatches.
• Displays the new color table index in two selectable formats (8–Bit Hex or 8–Bit Dec).
• Displays the new color red, green and blue components in six selectable formats (8–Bit Hex, 8–Bit Dec, 16–Bit Hex, 16–Bit Dec, Fraction or Percent).
• Displays whether the new color is pure or not.
• Displays whether the new color is web-safe or not.
• Displays the new color value in HTML format (#RRGGBB).
• Allows the copying of the new color value in HTML format to the clipboard.
• Maps any HLS, HSV, RGB, etc. (original) color to the nearest 8–bit system color.
• Supports the Color Picker Manager 2.1 eyedropper tool facility.
• Is Balloon Help savvy.
• Can save its own ReadMe in (Adobe Acrobat format) on the desktop.
Requirements
• Mac OS 7.5 or beyond (checked through 8.0).
• Color Picker extension 2.0 or beyond (checked with 2.0, 2.1 and 2.1.1f5).
• A 256 Colors or better graphics environment. (When fewer than 256 colors are available, the color picker appears in the picker list, but it cannot be selected.)
• Any software that supports the Apple Color Picker facilities (most color savvy programs).
Purchase & Registration
About Kagi
The purchase and registration of this product is handled by Kagi (a.k.a. Kagi Shareware and Kagi Software), a payment processing company. Kagi offers two major order processing options:
• Online Processing
• Register Application Processing
Kagi supplied TacTix Software, Inc. a copy of the Register application (which they licensed from Peter Lewis) to facilitate order processing. That application is customized to handle this product only.
Pricing
(1) Single User License: $10.00 per user.
(2) Site License: $250.00 for any number of users at one site.
(3) World-Wide License: $1,000.00 for any number of users and sites.
Order Processing
Online Order Processing
Go to:
<http://order.kagi.com/?3XO> or to:
<http://order.kagi.com/?3XO&S> (Secure)
and follow the web page instructions. Notice that with this method Kagi can only process credit cards.
Register Application Order Processing
Using the Register application, Kagi supports seven payment methods:
• (Direct) Check/Money Order
• Cash
• Invoice (Check/Money Order)
• Visa
• MasterCard
• American Express
• First Virtual
Launch the Register application, located inside the CLUT#8 Picker Folder, fill-out the common boxes, select a payment method and fill-out any additional boxes. Depending on the payment method you selected, print, copy or save the order form. Notice that the Register application is Balloon Help savvy.
The Check/Money Order, Cash and Invoice order forms must be sent to this postal address:
Kagi
1442–A Walnut Street #392–3XO
Berkeley, California 94709–1405
USA
The Visa/MasterCard/American Express/First Virtual order forms can either be e-mailed to:
<mailto:sales@kagi.com>
or faxed at:
+1 510–652–6589
Remarks
• Cash can be sent in any currency supported by the Register application.
• Checks must always be drawn in US Dollars.
• If you select the Invoice method, you must push it through your organization yourself (Kagi cannot invoice your organization).
Installation
Copy the CLUT#8 Picker file to the Extensions folder (inside the System Folder) and restart the Macintosh.
Operation
The illustration below shows the CLUT#8 Picker and its environment.
The following refers to the illustration above.
[1] Click the CLUT#8 Picker icon in the picker list to select this picker.
[2] Click the Cancel button to cancel the session (without picking a new color).
[3] Click the OK button to confirm the session (and picking the new color).
[4] Click this button to save a copy of this ReadMe file (in Adobe Acrobat format) on the desktop.
[5] This prompt is supplied by the invoking program.
[6] This is the version of the CLUT#8 Picker extension.
[7] This is the version of the Color Picker extension (i.e., the version of the Color Picker Manager).
[8] This swatch displays the original color (the one to modify). This color may not be in the color table. Click this swatch to restore the new color to the value it had on entry.
[9] This swatch displays the new color (the one picked — if the OK button is clicked). This color is always in the color table.
[10] Use this popup menu to select one of 19 color groups.
[11] Click a cell in this palette to select a new color.
[12] This selected cell corresponds to the new color (see [9] also).
[13] This is the color table index of the new color displayed in the selected format (8–Bit Dec).
[14] Use this popup menu to select one of 2 index display formats.
[15] This is the red component of the new color displayed in the selected format (8–Bit Dec).
[16] This is the green component of the new color displayed in the selected format (8–Bit Dec).
[17] This is the blue component of the new color displayed in the selected format (8–Bit Dec).
[18] Use this popup menu to select one of 6 RGB component display formats.
[19] This field indicates whether the new color is pure or not.
[20] This field displays the value of the new color in HTML (#RRGGBB) format. Use the Edit > Copy command to copy the text to the clipboard.
[21] This field indicates whether the new color is web-safe or not.
Note
With Color Picker Manager 2.1 (and beyond), pressing the option key changes the cursor into an eyedropper tool, which can then be used to pick a new color anywhere on the screen(s).
Explanations
Pure Color
In the context of this color picker, a color is pure if it satisfies one of the following predicates:
• One color component is non-zero, and the other two components are zero (this defines a pure red, green or blue color).
• Two color components are non-zero and equal, and the third component is zero (this defines a pure cyan, magenta or yellow color).
• All three components are equal (this defines a gray color).
Web-Safe Color
A color is said to be web-safe (also browser-safe, etc.) if it can be displayed without dithering or substitution on both the Macintosh and Wintel platforms (and possibly others) — assuming the availability of adequate display hardware.
There are 216 web-safe colors. The corresponding Macintosh color table indexes are 0–214 plus 255.
Component Value Formats
• 8–Bit Hex: The range is 00h–FFh; table colors have component values that are multiples of 11h.
• 8–Bit Dec: The range is 0–255; table colors have component values that are multiples of 17.
• 16–Bit Hex: The range is 0000h–FFFFh; table colors have component values that are multiples of 1111h.
• 16–Bit Dec: The range is 0–65535; table colors have component values that are multiples of 4369.
• Fraction: The range is 0/15–15/15; table colors have component values that are multiples of 1/15 (of 255).
• Percent: The range is 0.0%–100.0%; table colors have component values that are multiples of 20/3%.
Color Groups
The All, Web-Safe and Pure color groups are self-explanatory.
An analysis of the 8–bit system color table shows that it is populated with colors that can be divided into 16 groups, along a brightness axis. A color belongs to the k/15 group (k = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 or 15) if at least one of its components equals k/15 and none is greater than k/15.
Each color group contains exactly 7 (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow and gray), 4 (red, green, blue and gray) or 1 (gray [black]) pure colors.
Notice that all web-safe colors are contained in the 15/15, 12/15, 9/15, 6/15, 3/15 and 0/15 groups.
The illustration below shows the partitioning of the 256 colors into 16 color towers (groups).
