Color scheme vs. color space question

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Watts Martin

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Oct 1, 2020, 12:23:54 PM10/1/20
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After Greg's question yesterday about color schemes, I thought about trying to make a BBEdit version of Nord. And I did... except the background color is really, really light compared to what it should be.

So, I double-checked: I'd entered the proper background color, #2E3440, and BBEdit indeed says that's what it is. So I used the Digital Color Meter app and set it to sRGB -- double-checking that now it measured the background color of this swatch on the Nord web page as #2E3440 -- and BBEdit's background measured as #3D4451. It seems like all of BBEdit's color swatches are being changed to colors that don't match. However, if I change the color meter to "Generic RGB," then BBEdit's background measures as #2E3440... but the web page color swatches no longer match the hex codes they're supposed to be.

So: is BBEdit operating in a different color space that I'm going to have to convert these color hex codes to, or is something else going on here? (I'm hesitant to report this as a "bug," although a cursory check of a couple other popular color scheme web sites -- Dracula and Solarized -- suggests they're mapping their hex codes to sRGB, too, so this could make porting schemes to BBEdit extra fiddly.)

François Schiettecatte

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Oct 1, 2020, 12:31:09 PM10/1/20
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Sorry if these are obvious questions:

- Did you check your color calibration in the Display System Preferences?

- Did you check Night Shift settings in the Display System Preferences?

- Finally did you check Display settings in the Accessibility Preferences (specifically Display Contrast, happened to a client of mine)?

Cheers

François
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Watts Martin

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Oct 1, 2020, 5:01:25 PM10/1/20
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On Thu, Oct 1, 2020 at 9:31 AM François Schiettecatte <fschiet...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry if these are obvious questions:

They're totally reasonable ones. :)


- Did you check your color calibration in the Display System Preferences?

I did; changing my calibration profile doesn't seem to affect the hex codes the Digital Color Meter app picks up, though. I suspect the profile changes the way color #2E3440 looks on your display, but programmatically the color  still #2E3440. (But to get the same color between profiles you'd need a different code.)


- Did you check Night Shift settings in the Display System Preferences?

I have the same experience and get the same numbers with Night Shift on and with it off, so I suspect it's the same here, too.


- Finally did you check Display settings in the Accessibility Preferences (specifically Display Contrast, happened to a client of mine)?

I hadn't, but I did just go check now and "Display Contrast" is set at normal (and "Increase Contrast" is not checked).

-- Watts

François Schiettecatte

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Oct 1, 2020, 5:49:55 PM10/1/20
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Watts

I took a deeper look at this, I set my background to 2E3440, took a screen snapshot, opened that up in Acorn and zoomed in as far as it would go, the background is not flat, the pixels are not the same color so there is a texture there.

I also get an issue if I set the background color to the current background color using the droplet tool, the background color becomes lighter.

Not sure what is going on here, maybe someone from BB can chime in, or you could file a bug report with them.

Cheers

François
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Greg Raven

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Oct 2, 2020, 6:41:04 AM10/2/20
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The release notes from last night include this item:

* Corrected the color space used for converting color
representations from external forms (such as the value strings in
color schemes).

Thanks, Rich!

Rick Yentzer

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Oct 2, 2020, 9:18:53 AM10/2/20
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Hey Watts, I've seen the same thing happen that you describe. In the past, I have copied the correct color value and then adjust visually to get a closer match.

Greg Raven

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Oct 2, 2020, 9:44:00 AM10/2/20
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I've had pretty good results going 5 percent darker on the background and 5 percent lighter on the text while experimenting with matching Cobalt2.

François Schiettecatte

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Oct 2, 2020, 9:51:41 AM10/2/20
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Thanks Rich, I am still curious why the background is not a flat color though? Was this done for clarity/readability?

François
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Rich Siegel

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Oct 2, 2020, 10:17:27 AM10/2/20
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On 2 Oct 2020, at 9:51, François Schiettecatte wrote:

> Thanks Rich, I am still curious why the background is not a flat color
> though? Was this done for clarity/readability?

Sorry, I don't understand the premise of the question.

R.

--
Rich Siegel Bare Bones Software, Inc.
<sie...@barebones.com> <https://www.barebones.com/>

Someday I'll look back on all this and laugh... until they sedate me.

François Schiettecatte

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Oct 2, 2020, 10:28:34 AM10/2/20
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Sorry have been clearer.

I set my color scheme to BBEdit Dark.

The background is not an even #141414, using a tool like Kelir to sample the background I also see #151314, #131313, and others.

If I take a screen snapshot of the background and zoom in 10000% I can see that the pixels are slightly different colors.

Make sense?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kelir/id1145215534?mt=12

F.
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Rich Siegel

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Oct 2, 2020, 10:33:05 AM10/2/20
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On 2 Oct 2020, at 10:28, François Schiettecatte wrote:

> Sorry have been clearer.
>
> I set my color scheme to BBEdit Dark.
>
> The background is not an even #141414, using a tool like Kelir to
> sample the background I also see #151314, #131313, and others.
>
> If I take a screen snapshot of the background and zoom in 10000% I
> can see that the pixels are slightly different colors.

The application asserts absolutely no control over that behavior; it
simply paints the desired color. So I don't have an explanation for you.

R.

François Schiettecatte

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Oct 2, 2020, 10:40:24 AM10/2/20
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Thanks, curiouser and curiouser…

F.
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Fletcher Sandbeck

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Oct 2, 2020, 10:56:27 AM10/2/20
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These could be the effects of the Display Profile chosen in the display system preferences, automatically brightness adjustment, Night Shift, or sub-pixel rendering or anti-aliasing.

[fletcher]
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