mirror of https://github.com/python/cpython
333 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
333 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Pynche - The PYthonically Natural Color and Hue Editor
|
|
Author: Barry A. Warsaw <bwarsaw@python.org>
|
|
|
|
Introduction
|
|
|
|
Pynche is a color editor based largely on a similar program that I
|
|
originally wrote back in 1987 for the Sunview window system. That
|
|
editor was called ICE, the Interactive Color Editor. I'd always
|
|
wanted to port this program to X but didn't feel like hacking X
|
|
and C code to do it. Fast forward many years, to where Python +
|
|
Tkinter provides such a nice programming environment, with enough
|
|
power, that I finally buckled down and re-implemented it. I
|
|
changed the name because these days, too many other systems have
|
|
the acronym `ICE'.
|
|
|
|
Pynche has been tested with Python 1.5.1 using Tk 8.0. It
|
|
probably works with Python 1.5. I've tested it on both Solaris
|
|
2.6 and Windows NT. There are some funky things that happen on
|
|
Windows but I think they are primarily Tk problems. You'll want
|
|
to be sure to have Tk 8.0.3 for Windows. Also, Pynche is very
|
|
colormap intensive, so it doesn't work very well on 8-bit graphics
|
|
cards. I'll probably fix that in the future.
|
|
|
|
Pynche must find a text database of colors, in the X11 format.
|
|
Pynche is distributed with an rgb.txt file from the X11R6.4
|
|
distribution for this reason, but you can use a different file
|
|
with the -d option. The file xlicense.txt contains the license
|
|
only for rgb.txt and both files are in the X/ subdirectory.
|
|
|
|
Pynche is pronounced `Pinch-ee'.
|
|
|
|
Running Standalone
|
|
|
|
On Unix, start it by running the `pynche' script. On Windows, run
|
|
pynche.pyw to inhibit the console window. When run from the
|
|
command line, the following options are recognized:
|
|
|
|
--database file
|
|
-d file
|
|
Alternate location of the color database file. Without this
|
|
option, the first of /usr/openwin/lib/rgb.txt or X/rgb.txt
|
|
will be used.
|
|
|
|
--initfile file
|
|
-i file
|
|
Alternate location of the persistent initialization file. See
|
|
the section on Persistency below.
|
|
|
|
--ignore
|
|
-X
|
|
Ignore the persistent initialization file when starting up.
|
|
Pynche will still write the current option settings to the
|
|
persistent init file when it quits.
|
|
|
|
--help
|
|
-h
|
|
Print the help message.
|
|
|
|
initialcolor
|
|
a Tk color name or #rrggbb color spec to be used as the
|
|
initially selected color. This overrides any color saved in
|
|
the persistent init file. Since `#' needs to be escaped in
|
|
many shells, it is optional in the spec (e.g. #45dd1f is the
|
|
same as 45dd1f).
|
|
|
|
Running as a Modal Dialog
|
|
|
|
Pynche can be run as a modal dialog, inside another application.
|
|
It supports the API implemented by the Tkinter standard
|
|
tkColorChooser module, with a few changes. By importing
|
|
pyColorChooser from the Pynche package, you can run
|
|
|
|
pyColorChooser.askcolor()
|
|
|
|
which will popup Pynche as a modal dialog, and return the selected
|
|
color.
|
|
|
|
There are some UI differences when running as a modal
|
|
vs. standalone. When running as a modal, there is no "File" menu,
|
|
but instead there are "Okay" and "Cancel" buttons.
|
|
|
|
When "Okay" is hit, askcolor() returns the tuple
|
|
|
|
((r, g, b), "name")
|
|
|
|
where r, g, and b are red, green, and blue color values
|
|
respectively (in the range 0 to 255). "name" will be a color name
|
|
from the color database if there is an exact match, otherwise it
|
|
will be an X11 color spec of the form "#rrggbb". Note that this
|
|
is different than tkColorChooser, which doesn't know anything
|
|
about color names.
|
|
|
|
askcolor() supports the following optional keyword arguments:
|
|
|
|
color
|
|
the color to set as the initial selected color
|
|
|
|
master[*]
|
|
the master window to use as the parent of the modal
|
|
dialog. Without this argument, pyColorChooser will create
|
|
it's own Tkinter.Tk instance as the master. This may not
|
|
be what you want.
|
|
|
|
databasefile[*]
|
|
similar to the --database option, the value must be a
|
|
file name
|
|
|
|
initfile[*]
|
|
similar to the --initfile option, the value must be a
|
|
file name
|
|
|
|
ignore[*]
|
|
similar to the --ignore flag, the value is a boolean
|
|
|
|
wantspec[*]
|
|
When this is true, the "name" field in the return tuple
|
|
will always be a color spec of the form "#rrggbb". It
|
|
will not return a color name even if there is a match;
|
|
this is so pyColorChooser can exactly match the API of
|
|
tkColorChooser.
|
|
|
|
[*] these arguments must be specified the first time
|
|
askcolor() is used and cannot be changed on subsequent calls.
|
|
|
|
The Colorstrip Window
|
|
|
|
The top part of the main Pynche window contains the "variation
|
|
strips". Each strip contains a number of "color chips". The
|
|
strips always indicate the currently selected color by a highlight
|
|
rectangle around the selected color chip, with an arrow pointing
|
|
to the chip. Each arrow has an associated number giving you the
|
|
color value along the variation's axis. Each variation strip
|
|
shows you the colors that are reachable from the selected color by
|
|
varying just one axis of the color solid.
|
|
|
|
For example, when the selected color is (in Red/Green/Blue
|
|
notation) 127/127/127, the Red Variations strip shows you every
|
|
color in the range 0/127/127 to 255/127/127. Similarly for the
|
|
green and blue axes. You can select any color by clicking on its
|
|
chip. This will update the highlight rectangle and the arrow, as
|
|
well as other displays in Pynche.
|
|
|
|
Click on "Update while dragging" if you want Pynche to update the
|
|
selected color while you drag along any variation strip (this will
|
|
be slower). Click on "Hexadecimal" to display the arrow numbers
|
|
in hex.
|
|
|
|
The Proof Window
|
|
|
|
In the lower left corner of the main window you see two larger
|
|
color chips. The Selected chip shows you a larger version of the
|
|
color selected in the variation strips, along with its X11 color
|
|
specification. The Nearest chip shows you the closest color in
|
|
the X11 database to the selected color, giving its X11 color name.
|
|
Clicking on the Nearest color chip selects that color. Color
|
|
distance is calculated in the 3D space of the RGB color solid and
|
|
if more than one color name is the same distance from the selected
|
|
color, the first one found will be chosen.
|
|
|
|
Note that there may be more than one X11 color name for the same
|
|
RGB value. In that case, the first one found in the text database
|
|
is designated the "primary" name, and this is shown under the
|
|
Nearest chip. The other names are "aliases" and they are visible
|
|
in other Pynche windows.
|
|
|
|
The Type-in Window
|
|
|
|
At the lower right of the main window are three entry fields.
|
|
Here you can type numeric values for any of the three color axes.
|
|
Legal values are between 0 and 255, and these fields do not allow
|
|
you to enter illegal values. You must hit Enter or Tab to select
|
|
the new color.
|
|
|
|
Click on "Update while typing" if you want Pynche to select the
|
|
color on every keystroke (well, every one that produces a legal
|
|
value!) Click on "Hexadecimal" to display and enter color values
|
|
in hex.
|
|
|
|
Other Views
|
|
|
|
There are three secondary windows which are not displayed by
|
|
default. You can bring these up via the "View" menu on the main
|
|
Pynche window.
|
|
|
|
The Text Window
|
|
|
|
The "Text Window" allows you to see what effects various colors
|
|
have on the standard Tk text widget elements. In the upper part
|
|
of the window is a plain Tk text widget and here you can edit the
|
|
text, select a region of text, etc. Below this is a button "Track
|
|
color changes". When this is turned on, any colors selected in
|
|
the other windows will change the text widget element specified in
|
|
the radio buttons below. When this is turned off, text widget
|
|
elements are not affected by color selection.
|
|
|
|
You can choose which element gets changed by color selection by
|
|
clicking on one of the radio buttons in the bottom part of this
|
|
window. Text foreground and background affect the text in the
|
|
upper part of the window. Selection foreground and background
|
|
affect the colors of the primary selection which is what you see
|
|
when you click the middle button (depending on window system) and
|
|
drag it through some text.
|
|
|
|
The Insertion is the insertion cursor in the text window, where
|
|
new text will be inserted as you type. The insertion cursor only
|
|
has a background.
|
|
|
|
The Color List Window
|
|
|
|
The "Color List" window shows every color in the text database
|
|
(this window may take a while to come up). In the upper part of
|
|
the window you see a scrolling list of all the color names in the
|
|
database, in alphabetical order. Click on any color to select it.
|
|
In the bottom part of the window is displayed any aliases for the
|
|
selected color (those color names that have the same RGB value,
|
|
but were found later in the text database). For example, find the
|
|
color "Black" and you'll see that its aliases are "gray0" and
|
|
"grey0".
|
|
|
|
If the color has no aliases you'll see "<no aliases>" here. If you
|
|
just want to see if a color has an alias, and do not want to select a
|
|
color when you click on it, turn off "Update on Click".
|
|
|
|
Note that the color list is always updated when a color is selected
|
|
from the main window. There's no way to turn this feature off. If
|
|
the selected color has no matching color name you'll see
|
|
"<no matching color>" in the Aliases window.
|
|
|
|
The Details Window
|
|
|
|
The "Details" window gives you more control over color selection
|
|
than just clicking on a color chip in the main window. The row of
|
|
buttons along the top apply the specified increment and decrement
|
|
amounts to the selected color. These delta amounts are applied to
|
|
the variation strips specified by the check boxes labeled "Move
|
|
Sliders". Thus if just Red and Green are selected, hitting -10
|
|
will subtract 10 from the color value along the red and green
|
|
variation only. Note the message under the checkboxes; this
|
|
indicates the primary color level being changed when more than one
|
|
slider is tied together. For example, if Red and Green are
|
|
selected, you will be changing the Yellow level of the selected
|
|
color.
|
|
|
|
The "At Boundary" behavior determines what happens when any color
|
|
variation hits either the lower or upper boundaries (0 or 255) as
|
|
a result of clicking on the top row buttons:
|
|
|
|
Stop
|
|
When the increment or decrement would send any of the tied
|
|
variations out of bounds, the entire delta is discarded.
|
|
|
|
Wrap Around
|
|
When the increment or decrement would send any of the tied
|
|
variations out of bounds, the out of bounds value is wrapped
|
|
around to the other side. Thus if red were at 238 and +25
|
|
were clicked, red would have the value 7.
|
|
|
|
Preseve Distance
|
|
When the increment or decrement would send any of the tied
|
|
variations out of bounds, all tied variations are wrapped as
|
|
one, so as to preserve the distance between them. Thus if
|
|
green and blue were tied, and green was at 238 while blue was
|
|
at 223, and +25 were clicked, green would be at 15 and blue
|
|
would be at 0.
|
|
|
|
Squash
|
|
When the increment or decrement would send any of the tied
|
|
variations out of bounds, the out of bounds variation is set
|
|
to the ceiling of 255 or floor of 0, as appropriate. In this
|
|
way, all tied variations are squashed to one edge or the
|
|
other.
|
|
|
|
The top row buttons have the following keyboard accelerators:
|
|
|
|
-25 == Shift Left Arrow
|
|
-10 == Control Left Arrow
|
|
-1 == Left Arrow
|
|
+1 == Right Arrow
|
|
+10 == Control Right Arrow
|
|
+25 == Shift Right Arrow
|
|
|
|
Keyboard Accelerators
|
|
|
|
Alt-w in any secondary window dismisses the window. In the main
|
|
window it exits Pynche (except when running as a modal).
|
|
|
|
Alt-q in any window exits Pynche (except when running as a modal).
|
|
|
|
Persistency
|
|
|
|
Pynche remembers various settings of options and colors between
|
|
invocations, storing these values in a `persistent initialization
|
|
file'. The actual location of this file is specified by the
|
|
--initfile option (see above), and defaults to ~/.pynche.
|
|
|
|
When Pynche exits, it saves these values in the init file, and
|
|
re-reads them when it starts up. There is no locking on this
|
|
file, so if you run multiple instances of Pynche at a time, you
|
|
will override the init file.
|
|
|
|
The actual options stored include
|
|
|
|
- the currently selected color
|
|
|
|
- all settings of checkbox and radio button options in all windows
|
|
|
|
- the contents of the text window, the current text selection and
|
|
insertion point, and all current text widget element color
|
|
settings.
|
|
|
|
You can inhibit Pynche from reading the init file by supplying the
|
|
--ignore option on the command line. However, you cannot suppress
|
|
the storing of the settings in the init file on Pynche exit. If
|
|
you really want to do this, use /dev/null as the init file, using
|
|
--initfile.
|
|
|
|
To Do
|
|
|
|
Here's a brief list of things I want to do:
|
|
|
|
- Better support for resizing the top level windows
|
|
|
|
- Better support on 8-bit screens
|
|
|
|
- More output views, e.g. color solids
|
|
|
|
- Have the notion of a `last color selected'; this may require a
|
|
new output view
|
|
|
|
- Support setting the font in the text view
|
|
|
|
I'm open to suggestions!
|