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Show HN: A color picker for named web colors

731 pointsby arantiusover 2 years ago
I had this idea kicking around in my head for quite a while. Took an evening to make this, and a short morning to polish it a bit. So here it is!

58 comments

Waterluvianover 2 years ago
I&#x27;m not sure what the intent is, and what other people do with it, but I thoroughly _love_ having these named colours for when I&#x27;m hacking and prototyping. I can just start typing out a colour and autocomplete will show me a list. But I don&#x27;t find myself ever using them in production.<p>Also: Finally, a tool to help me decide between greenyellow and yellowgreen.
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drewmateover 2 years ago
In case the named web colors aren&#x27;t enough, we&#x27;re making excellent progress naming every color in the RGB space.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;colornames.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;colornames.org&#x2F;</a>
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cormorantover 2 years ago
Totally irrational, of course, and now set in stone for backwards compatibility. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;information-technology&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;tomato-versus-ff6347-the-tragicomic-history-of-css-color-names&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;information-technology&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;tomat...</a><p>CSS Color Module Level 4 (draft) admits as much, and states &quot;their use is <i>not encouraged</i>.&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.w3.org&#x2F;TR&#x2F;css-color-4&#x2F;#named-colors" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.w3.org&#x2F;TR&#x2F;css-color-4&#x2F;#named-colors</a>
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cdiamandover 2 years ago
I&#x27;m picturing Bob Ross standing over this palette whispering &quot;We&#x27;re going to put a happy little div here with a shade of cornflowerblue&quot;.
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h4l0over 2 years ago
Funny to me that how #FF0000 is named Red, #0000FF is named Blue, but #00FF00 is Lime. Maybe it was supposed to be RLB. Although Green is the canonical name for that color range, what we actually refer as Green in daily life is close to #008000.
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awinter-pyover 2 years ago
I am a <i>very bad</i> designer but good verbally, and when I design, color names are how I remember differences<p>I especially like hue.tools -- not sure where they sourced their name set, but combos like gecko&#x27;s dream + blood rush (interpolating to mochaccino) make life easier<p>people like me should 100% stick to backend and never produce anything that other people have to look at, but until I can afford a designer, the names keep me in the game<p>I wish sometimes for a database of &#x27;product colors through the ages&#x27;, with tags by brand identity and broad style family -- as an infant brand designer, this would help me a lot
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somid3over 2 years ago
Doesn&#x27;t work for the latest Safari browser.
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lelandfeover 2 years ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;meyerweb.com&#x2F;eric&#x2F;thoughts&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;19&#x2F;rebeccapurple&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;meyerweb.com&#x2F;eric&#x2F;thoughts&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;19&#x2F;rebeccapurple&#x2F;</a><p>Time to resurface the most human side to CSS. She&#x27;s in this color picker, too.
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notRobotover 2 years ago
GitHub repo: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;arantius&#x2F;web-color-wheel" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;arantius&#x2F;web-color-wheel</a>
hoherdover 2 years ago
PSA: these named colors can be used to set the color of Philips Hue lights using voice assistants. Most of the X11 colors can be used. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;X11_color_names#Color_name_chart" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;X11_color_names#Color_name_cha...</a>
mncharityover 2 years ago
Apropos color names, some related work:<p>[] Color map with meaningful names <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.procato.com&#x2F;rgb+index&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.procato.com&#x2F;rgb+index&#x2F;</a> [] The CNS Color Naming System <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.xanthir.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;b4JS1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.xanthir.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;b4JS1</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Color_Naming_System" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Color_Naming_System</a> [] Universal Color Language, Level 3 Color Names <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;johndecember.com&#x2F;html&#x2F;spec&#x2F;colorucl.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;johndecember.com&#x2F;html&#x2F;spec&#x2F;colorucl.html</a> [] deriving color names from photos of rainbows: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.comfsm.fm&#x2F;~dleeling&#x2F;cis&#x2F;hsl_rainbow.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.comfsm.fm&#x2F;~dleeling&#x2F;cis&#x2F;hsl_rainbow.html</a> [] determining color values by training on image searches: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lear.inrialpes.fr&#x2F;people&#x2F;vandeweijer&#x2F;color_names.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lear.inrialpes.fr&#x2F;people&#x2F;vandeweijer&#x2F;color_names.htm...</a> [] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ayushoriginal&#x2F;Optimized-RGB-To-ColorName" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ayushoriginal&#x2F;Optimized-RGB-To-ColorName</a>
joshwcomeauover 2 years ago
This is amazing .<p>Named colors have one incredible use case: as placeholders in teaching environments. In my CSS course, I’d much rather use “color: hotpink” than “color: hsl(345deg 90% 50%)” (when color isn’t the focus of the lesson)
hughjdover 2 years ago
This is great! For those who like this, you may also like <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;enes.in&#x2F;sorted-colors" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;enes.in&#x2F;sorted-colors</a> which also does the named web colours.
fabsteiover 2 years ago
Nice. Check out <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;meodai&#x2F;color-names" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;meodai&#x2F;color-names</a> for a rather large (29888!) collection of hand picked colors in case you want to expand your project.
pc86over 2 years ago
I like the way you&#x27;re displaying this.<p>How did you decide on the coordinates for each block of color? KNN on a traditional color wheel?
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FernandoMaxover 2 years ago
Which tool is used to create the circle distribution? I was trying to find a tool to create something like this one <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.howmuch.net&#x2F;content&#x2F;images&#x2F;1600&#x2F;world-gdp-updated-f4f4.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.howmuch.net&#x2F;content&#x2F;images&#x2F;1600&#x2F;world-gdp-update...</a> which is similar in the sense of distributing the shapes inside the circle. Could anyone help me?
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me_bxover 2 years ago
Interesting how some colors are so close from each other, especially &quot;Chartreuse&quot; and &quot;Lawngreen&quot; (on my middle-end monitors, at least).
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distantsoundsover 2 years ago
The colors look entirely muted on Firefox compared to Chrome (Windows 10).<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Mozilla&#x2F;Firefox&#x2F;Releases&#x2F;3.5&#x2F;ICC_color_correction_in_Firefox" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Mozilla&#x2F;Firefox&#x2F;Rel...</a><p>I had to set gfx.color_management.mode to 0 for it to look correct.
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dheeraover 2 years ago
Would be interesting to see one for this<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nipponcolors.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nipponcolors.com&#x2F;</a>
tonic4402over 2 years ago
Yandex have this <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;yandex.ru&#x2F;search&#x2F;?text=%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B9+%D1%86%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82&amp;lr=63" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;yandex.ru&#x2F;search&#x2F;?text=%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B...</a><p>Article <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;yandex.ru&#x2F;blog&#x2F;company&#x2F;94762" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;yandex.ru&#x2F;blog&#x2F;company&#x2F;94762</a><p>Also find this<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;maximal.github.io&#x2F;colour&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;maximal.github.io&#x2F;colour&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;colorscheme.ru&#x2F;color-names.html?ysclid=lascsvqk3j262126919" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;colorscheme.ru&#x2F;color-names.html?ysclid=lascsvqk3j262...</a>
graderjsover 2 years ago
This is great!<p>What is the visualization? How did you do the visualization? And where did you get the idea &#x2F; what was your thinking leading to this really cool way to do it?<p>I love using web colors. It&#x27;s basically all I use...I like that they&#x27;re just there..and also you get &quot;semantic css&quot;.<p>It will probably seem a dumb and naive question so I&#x27;m sorry, but...Looks like the blacks, whites and greys are compressed in the center, is that an accurate way to put it? Why is it like that? it&#x27;s your project so it&#x27;s not my place to tell you what to do, so I&#x27;m sorry to ask but would it be a bad idea to give a bit more space to the shades of grey &#x2F; gray?
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bernardomover 2 years ago
Cool way to learn some of these. Does anyone know why &quot;Peru&quot; is #CD853F, a brown? It has nothing to do with the flag (which is red and white).<p>(Aside: the word &quot;peru&quot; in Portuguese means turkey, like the bird. I somehow doubt this is related.)
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josheover 2 years ago
The progression of greys is fun. In order:<p><pre><code> Black Dimgrey (hmm) Grey Darkgrey (huh, darkgrey is lighter than grey) Silver (all righty) Gainsboro (of course) White </code></pre> That&#x27;s 3 out of 7 making sense.
frivoalover 2 years ago
All the history of the css colors, and lots of humor: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=HmStJQzclHc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=HmStJQzclHc</a>
Otekover 2 years ago
Doesn’t work on iPad
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c-feover 2 years ago
does not work on Safari (MacOS)
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thih9over 2 years ago
Feature request: letting the user provide their own data and maybe offering some presets; e.g. I&#x27;d like to see the XKCD color survey [1] as the base.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;color&#x2F;rgb&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;color&#x2F;rgb&#x2F;</a> ; context: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.xkcd.com&#x2F;2010&#x2F;05&#x2F;03&#x2F;color-survey-results&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.xkcd.com&#x2F;2010&#x2F;05&#x2F;03&#x2F;color-survey-results&#x2F;</a> .
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Thorentisover 2 years ago
Why on earth do both lawngreen and chartreuse exist? I can barely if at all tell the difference on my phone screen.<p>Regardless, I love this, and love using named colors when prototyping.
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edw519over 2 years ago
Cool! I love it!<p>I made one of these years ago in alphabetical order (yea I know stupid). Yours is way better. I can make great use of it.<p>I use these colors 95% of the time. I call them my &quot;FU colors&quot; (except I user the NSFW pronunciation). Every time someone sees my work, they say either, &quot;How retro,&quot; or &quot;You should really hire a designer.&quot;<p>For functionality, they cover almost everything. For &quot;higher purposes&quot; they suck, but I never cared.<p>Thank you. An evening well spent!
mixmastamykover 2 years ago
Dodger blue has always bugged me... since the turn of the century. The css color it is not even particularly close. Too bright and unsaturated:<p><pre><code> team color: #005A9C css name &quot;dodgerblue&quot;: #1E90FF </code></pre> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teamcolorcodes.com&#x2F;los-angeles-dodgers-color-codes&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teamcolorcodes.com&#x2F;los-angeles-dodgers-color-codes&#x2F;</a>
cpetersoover 2 years ago
I miss the vibrant<i>!!!</i> designs using only the 216 &quot;web-safe&quot; colors, like HotWired in the 1990s. :)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Web_colors#Color_table" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Web_colors#Color_table</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;HotWired" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;HotWired</a>
iibover 2 years ago
So simple and so elegant.<p>Would it be a good idea to make the click copy the color in the clipboard? Not the color code, of course, in the spirit of the website.
ikesauover 2 years ago
This is great. I always use the named variables in prototypes when I can (go tomato!) but have never thought about their distribution.
flawnover 2 years ago
Interesting to see that there are sections where rectangles of color spaces are aligned parallel to the circle middle. They always have one of the RGB elements set on &quot;00&quot; as the colors get more intense and the other 2 color elements get stronger
rickstanleyover 2 years ago
Why are they called &quot;web&quot; colours?<p>I understand that the term &quot;web safe colour&quot; is for colours that was within the space of 216 &quot;safe colour&quot; table, for displays that could only display 256 colours, but I think it&#x27;s another matter?
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mncharityover 2 years ago
A discussion of related color dictionaries.[1]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;people.csail.mit.edu&#x2F;jaffer&#x2F;Color&#x2F;Dictionaries" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;people.csail.mit.edu&#x2F;jaffer&#x2F;Color&#x2F;Dictionaries</a>
quickthrower2over 2 years ago
This seems such an obvious thing to do when you see it, but it is the first time I have seen it done.<p>It would be interesting to make this generic for any colour pallet. For example the 12 bit palette recently submitted to HN
mk4pover 2 years ago
Love it. One suggestion - make it so it either copies to your clipboard when you click a color, or add an explicit &quot;copy&quot; button so it&#x27;s easier to grab the name.<p>But awesome stuff - the color wheel looks so cool.
petepeteover 2 years ago
I love this! I&#x27;ve had the &#x27;Web colors&#x27; Wikipedia page in my bookmarks for years.<p>I often use them when I&#x27;m working on new designs and want to experiment on responsive layouts with colourful test elements.
FamosoRandomover 2 years ago
Very cool.<p>Would be fun to add data visualisation, like &quot;see how often those color are used&quot; or &quot;what color is associated with that subject&quot; !<p>Don&#x27;t know how you could do it but it can be interesting
issungover 2 years ago
Each of these colours should just be a single &quot;pixel&quot; in the wheel, so how did you decide what shape&#x2F;size to make each colour? Just arbitrarily?
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ossusermivamiover 2 years ago
always use the emacs list-color-display for that
phrzover 2 years ago
Broken on iPhone
oneeyedpigeonover 2 years ago
This is great! Would be useful if selecting a colour changed the URL so you could link directly to it.
auxermenover 2 years ago
Why is lightpink darker than pink?
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sourcecodeplzover 2 years ago
This is quite cool. I&#x27;ve always used some of these colors when doing initial mockups.
amsterdornover 2 years ago
Great little project! It&#x27;s cool to see the skew towards red&#x2F;green variants.
PartiallyTypedover 2 years ago
I found the limitations of my monitor, the two greens at the bottom look identical.
dugmartinover 2 years ago
Anyone know of a set of color palettes that only use named colors?
mNovakover 2 years ago
Very cool. Also this reveals the secret, that brown is dark orange!
IvanK_netover 2 years ago
Today I learned that #00ff00 is not green, but lime! :)
brandonscottover 2 years ago
Very cool and I love how clean the code is
moffkalastover 2 years ago
Lime is the greenest green, I knew it!
basic612over 2 years ago
Does not work safari mobile
punyearthlingover 2 years ago
I love this. Good job!
dotancohenover 2 years ago
I hope you like green.
indyfob2008over 2 years ago
how did you make this? is the repo public on Github?
ge96over 2 years ago
firebrick is my go to red