NAME
xcolor - lightweight color picker for X11
SYNOPSIS
xcolor [-f NAME | -c FORMAT] [-s [SELECTION]] [-S SCALE] [-P PREVIEW_SIZE] [-v] [-h]
DESCRIPTION
xcolor is a lightweight color picker for X11. Use mouse to select colors visible anywhere on the screen to get their RGB representation.
By default, the selected color is printed to the standard output.
OPTIONS
- -f NAME, --format NAME
-
Specify output format. Possible values for NAME are hex, HEX, hex!, HEX!, rgb, and plain. See FORMATTING for an explanation of different formatting options. Conflicts with --custom.
- -c FORMAT, --custom FORMAT
-
Specify template for custom output format. See CUSTOM FORMATTING for an explanation of template syntax. Conflicts with --format.
- -s [SELECTION], --selection [SELECTION]
-
Save output to X11 selection. Possible values for SELECTION are clipboard, primary and secondary. If SELECTION is not supplied, clipboard is used.
- -S, --scale
-
Magnification scale of the picker, defaults to 8
- -P, --preview-size
-
Pixel size of the picker, defaults to 255
- -v, --version
-
Print version information and exit.
- -h, --help
-
Print help message and exit.
FORMATTING
By default, the color values are printed in lowercase hexadecimal format. The output format can be changed using the --format NAME switch. The possible NAME values are:
- hex
-
Lowercase hexadecimal (default)
- HEX
-
Uppercase hexadecimal
- hex!
-
Compact lowercase hexadecimal
- HEX!
-
Compact uppercase hexadecimal
- rgb
-
Decimal RGB
- plain
-
Decimal with semicolon separators
The compact form refers to CSS three-letter color codes as specified by CSS Color Module Level 3. If the color is not expressible in three-letter form, the regular six-letter form will be used.
CUSTOM FORMATTING
The --format switch provides quick access to some commonly used formatting options. However, if custom output formatting is desired, this can be achieved using the --custom FORMAT switch. The FORMAT parameter specifies a template for the output and supports a simple template language. FORMAT templates can contain special expansions that are written inside %{...} blocks. These blocks will be expanded into color values according to the specifiers defined inside the block. Here are examples of valid format strings and what they might translate to:
| Format String | Example Output |
| %{r}, %{g}, %{b} | 255, 0, 100 |
| Green: %{-4g} | Green: ---7 |
| #%{02hr}%{02hg}%{02hb} | #00ff00 |
| %{016Br} | 0000000000000011 |
Expansion blocks in format strings always contain a channel specifier (r for red, g for green, and b for blue). Additionally, they can contain an optional number format specifier (h for lowercase hexadecimal, H for uppercase hexadecimal, o for octal, B for binary, and d for decimal) and an optional padding specifier consisting of a character to use for padding and the length the string should be padded to. The diagram bellow illustrates how we can use these rules to decode a formatting template:
%{016Br}
| |||
| ||`- Channel (red)
| |`-- Number format specifier (binary)
| `--- Padding length (16)
`----- Character to use for padding (0)
The output is the contents of the red color channel formatted in binary and padded with zeroes to be sixteen characters long.
ENVIRONMENT
- XCOLOR_FOREGROUND
-
Disable daemon mode. Because of the way selections work in X11, xcolor forks into background when --selection mode is used. This behavior can be disabled by defining XCOLOR_FOREGROUND environment variable.
AUTHORS
Samuel Laurén <[email protected]> Callum Osmotherly <[email protected]>