Dan Dunn

Join Date 04/2003

WB 5.5 change skin color

new 5.5 removes a fine degree of color control

Running WB -v5.5.

Prior to WB 5.5 custom color control allowed EXACT color selection by allowing the individual red, green and blue values to be set.

After 5.5 you only have a hue slider, which is very difficult to get an exact color. A professional product needs finer detail than now currently enable with -v5.5.

If this is not an oversight; then it is a downgrade.

Dan Dunn

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There is a real time preview above the controls and the idea is that the exact numbers are useless and the end result (the preview) is what counts.

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and the idea is that the exact numbers are useless

I disagree. Having access to the rgb values allows an exact color, so different items can be EXACTLY the same; not just close. Isn't that why you offer a product called Theme Manager?

Custom color support is built into WinXP and Win2K isn't it? And this function was working in the first 5.5 release (and every previous release.)

I believe the artsy type folks are going to miss that feature. Especially when it now appears that they are (in the worst case) now limited to approximately 37% of the former color range (see explanation in following paragraph.)

On my screen (1600x1200x24) that hue slider is 4 cm long. I counted approximately 265 "right-arrow" clicks to advance the slider from one side to another. This would limit the number of colors which can be uniquely selected by this slider to 6396 colors. This seems to be very limiting verses the 16.8 million colors which can be selected with RGB values (and displayed on my crt screen.)

If there is a hole in my logic regarding these figures pls let me know.

Thanx

Dan Dunn

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NightTrainthedark

Join Date 07/2003

+255

I counted approximately 265 "right-arrow" clicks to advance the slider from one side to another. This would limit the number of colors which can be uniquely selected by this slider to 6396 colors.

Don't forget to add the gamma adjustments. That should mutiply your amount by quite a bit.

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I made a mistake in the percentages. What is available in the new range is only .038 percent of what was available in the last release. This is a HUGE difference don't you think?

Sorry for dropping my decimal places...

Dan Dunn

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Unless you are using a skin with colour masks, the colouring system only uses the hue value. Of which there are only 360 possible values.

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I counted approximately 265 "right-arrow" clicks

That's a lot of clicking!

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Don't forget to add the gamma adjustments. That should mutiply your amount by quite a bit.

Isn't gamma correction used to settle differences in color hardware?

I realize that this slider extends the colors available. However when attempting to have a desktop where everything matches, your hue/gamma slider is like apples and oranges, to the Windows Custom Color Selector. When the controls match I can type those 3 3-character RGB values very quickly and have EXACTLY the color I want across multiple applications.

Dan Dunn

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the colouring system only uses the hue value. Of which there are only 360 possible values.

OK, thats a little better. 16.8M / 360 = 46,666 color jumps; or .277% of what was previously available. But it's still less than 1%.

Dan Dunn

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Fuzzy Logic

Join Date 05/2002

+493

Using a combination of Hue, Saturation and Gamma, I find I have all the colours available to me...

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Using a combination of Hue, Saturation and Gamma, I find I have all the colours available to me..

I think the question here is "How do I set one object to be color [x] and then set another object to use that same color?"
One has to do some very fine clicking to get it exaclty right. Numerals would be easier to use.

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Dan Dunn: You seem to have misunderstood my post. All versions of WB5 have only used the hue. Which means you have 100% of what you previously had.

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Using a combination of Hue, Saturation and Gamma, I find I have all the colours available to me...

Saturation is also available on the Custom Color Selector (CCS).

And it is very possible that your color depth is such that a choice of 46K colors (closest higher power of two is 64K or 16bit color) would be all that is available to you.

I have available 24 bits (and more) which allows me the previously mentioned minimum of 16.8M colors. It is all a numbers game when your talking about availability; perception would be a personal issue, though.

Dan Dunn

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Dan Dunn: You seem to have misunderstood my post. All versions of WB5 have only used the hue. Which means you have 100% of what you previously had.

Well, I changed my skin earlier this week (before the latest update of WB.) I remember opening VAD_M's SD Desktop Navigator, reading the rgb values from my new wallpaper and then poking those three values into the color control panel from the previous (before yesterday's update) version of wb. I also remember opening the wb color control panel later in the week and writing down those 3 3-character numbers for setting up another desktop tool...

Doing that gave what appeared to be the primary color in my wallpaper on my wb skin. Are you saying this was all a fasade? Or am I dreaming again?

Dan Dunn

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You entered a RGB colour. WB took this and converted into HSL form. Then WB took the Hue part and used that to colour the skin.

In HSL mode you can adjust the S part as well using the saturation slider (or the combo box below it with some simple presets). If HSL mode is off then if the skin has colour masks you can adjust H S & L.

If it does not (and very few skins have colour masks), the S & L sliders do nothing.

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You entered a RGB colour. WB took this and converted into HSL form. Then WB took the Hue part and used that to colour the skin.

OK, I understand what your trying to convey. Now please try to understand what I'm trying to say.

Having access to those RGB values allowed me to use those values with other programs to achieve a matching set. You are removing this simplicity and compatibility with your change. The ironic part is it probably took some work on your programmer's part to remove these facilitating features???

My version is going to be frozen this Saturday when my OD subscription runs out. I have this release and the former releases to choose from; guess which one I'll be driving?

Thanks for listening.

Dan Dunn

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If this is a problem then I can add a registry switch to enable access to the older colouring window in the new UI. The link was simply changed to switch to the colouring page instead of bringing up that toolwindow.

I cannot promise it will go up today though.

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...I can add a registry switch to enable ...I cannot promise it will go up today though.

Well there's an enabler for getting me to extend OD or buy WB5...

Dan Dunn

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