[chimerax-users] inaccurate color box in the Models panel

[Elaine Meng]

Hi Daniel,
I don't know what's going on with the Mac colorsample eye-dropper.  I can see that after I color a model and click the colorwell in the Model Panel to open the Mac color tool, that color tool does show the expected hex code for that color name, as given in this table:

<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/colornames.html#builtin>

However, even when I use the eye-dropper to click on the Mac color tool's own representation of the color (the color swatch immediately to the left of the eye-dropper icon), the color in that tool changes.  So it's not necessarily a problem with the Model Panel colorwell, since doing a color sample even within the Mac dialog changes the color.  I can only guess that the color sampling tool is imprecise.

You could just copy the hex code in the dialog, not using color sampling, and use it in color commands on other models to make them the same color, e.g.

color #5 #D12310

<https://rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax/docs/user/commands/colornames.html>

I hope this helps,
Elaine
-----
Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D.                       
UCSF Chimera(X) team
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of California, San Francisco


> On Dec 17, 2020, at 12:53 AM, Daniel Larsson <daniel.larsson at icm.uu.se> wrote:
> 
> Attached are three screen dumps to illustrate the problem. The left side shows the initial state. Then I used the eye-dropper and clicked on 1. This resulted in the middle state. The RBG values at arrow-heads 1 and 2 are both (209,35,16) when checking the screen grabs in Photoshop. The model has however changed to a slightly darker shade. When I click on arrow-head 2 (no eye-dropper, just plain left-clicking), I get the right state. The RBG value at arrow-head 3 in Photoshop is (193,8,4). This seems to be the same color as the model has.
> 
> Regards,
> Daniel
> 
> 
>  <chimerax-colors.png>
> 
> 
>> On 2020-12-17, at 08:46, Daniel Larsson <daniel.larsson at icm.uu.se> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I'm trying to color multiple models in the same color using the color column in the Models panel. When I use the eye-droppper in the macOS colors panel, which pops up when I click on the color box, and then sample the middle of another color box, it gives me a slightly different RGB value. For example, if I start out with (209,35,16), what I get is (206,31,0). Another way of saying it is, if I sample the same color box with the eye-dropper repeatedly, the color changes. I can start out with a bright red color and then repeatedly sample the same box over and over and the color becomes a dark brown. What's up with this? Is it the macOS doing something with the colors of the boxes?
>> 
>> Related, is there a way of getting the current RGB color of a model (or all models)?
>> 
>> Thanks in advance!
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Daniel
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