QColor

NAME

SYNOPSIS

Public Members

Static Public Members

RELATED FUNCTION DOCUMENTATION

DESCRIPTION

A color is normally specified in terms of RGB (red, green and blue) components, but it is also possible to specify HSV (hue, saturation and value) or set a color name (the names are copied from from the X11 color database).

In addition to the RGB value, a QColor also has a pixel value and a validity. The pixel value is used by the underlying window system to refer to a color. It can be thought of as an index into the display hardware's color table.

The validity (isValid()) indicates whether the color is legal at all. For example, a RGB color with RGB values out of range is illegal. For performance reasons, QColor mostly disregards illegal colors. The result of using an invalid color is unspecified and will usually be surprising.

There are 19 predefined QColor objects: white, black, red, darkRed, green, darkGreen, blue, darkBlue, cyan, darkCyan, magenta, darkMagenta, yellow, darkYellow, gray, darkGray, lightGray, color0 and color1, accessible as members of the Qt namespace (ie. Qt::red).

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The colors color0 (zero pixel value) and color1 (non-zero pixel value) are special colors for drawing in bitmaps. Painting with color0 sets the bitmap bits to 0 (transparent, i.e. background), and painting with color1 sets the bits to 1 (opaque, i.e. foreground).

The QColor class has an efficient, dynamic color allocation strategy. A color is normally allocated the first time it is used (lazy allocation), that is, whenever the pixel() function is called. The following steps are taken to allocate a color. If, at any point, a suitable color is found then the appropriate pixel value is returned and the subsequent steps are not taken:

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1

Is the pixel value valid? If it is, just return it; otherwise, allocate a pixel value.

2

Check an internal hash table to see if we allocated an equal RGB value earlier. If we did, set the corresponding pixel value for the color and return it.

3

Try to allocate the RGB value. If we succeed, we get a pixel value that we save in the internal table with the RGB value. Return the pixel value.

4

The color could not be allocated. Find the closest matching color, save it in the internal table, and return it.

A color can be set by passing setNamedColor() an RGB string like" #112233", or a color name, e.g. "blue". The names are taken from X11's rgb.txt database but can also be used under Windows. To get a lighter or darker color use light() and dark() respectively. Colors can also be set using setRgb() and setHsv(). The color components can be accessed in one go with rgb() and hsv(), or individually with red(), green() and blue().

Use maxColors() and numBitPlanes() to determine the maximum number of colors and the number of bit planes supported by the underlying window system,

If you need to allocate many colors temporarily, for example in an image viewer application, enterAllocContext(), leaveAllocContext() and destroyAllocContext() will prove useful.  

HSV Colors

The RGB model is hardware-oriented. Its representation is close to what most monitors show. In contrast, HSV represents color in a way more suited to the human perception of color. For example, the relationships "stronger than", "darker than" and "the opposite of" are easily expressed in HSV but are much harder to express in RGB.

HSV, like RGB, has three components:

H, for hue, is either 0-359 if the color is chromatic (not gray), or meaningless if it is gray. It represents degrees on the color wheel familiar to most people. Red is 0 (degrees), green is 120 and blue is 240.

S, for saturation, is 0-255, and the bigger it is, the stronger the color is. Grayish colors have saturation near 0; very strong colors have saturation near 255.

V, for value, is 0-255 and represents lightness or brightness of the color. 0 is black; 255 is as far from black as possible.

Here are some examples: Pure red is H=0, S=255, V=255. A dark red, moving slightly towards the magenta, could be H=350 (equivalent to -10), S=255, V=180. A grayish light red could have H about 0 (say 350-359 or 0-10), S about 50-100, and S=255.

Qt returns a hue value of -1 for achromatic colors. If you pass a too-big hue value, Qt forces it into range. Hue 360 or 720 is treated as 0; hue 540 is treated as 180.

See also QPalette, QColorGroup, QApplication::setColorSpec(), Color FAQ, Widget Appearance and Style, Graphics Classes, and Image Processing Classes.  

Member Type Documentation

QColor::Spec

QColor::Rgb

QColor::Hsv

MEMBER FUNCTION DOCUMENTATION

QColor::QColor ()

The alpha value of an invalid color is unspecified.

See also isValid().  

QColor::QColor ( int r, int g, int b )

The color is left invalid if any or the arguments are illegal.

See also setRgb().  

QColor::QColor ( int x, int y, int z, Spec colorSpec )

The arguments are an RGB value if colorSpec is QColor::Rgb. x (red), y (green), and z (blue). All of them must be in the range 0-255.

The arguments are an HSV value if colorSpec is QColor::Hsv. x (hue) must be -1 for achromatic colors and 0-359 for chromatic colors; y (saturation) and z (value) must both be in the range 0-255.

See also setRgb() and setHsv().  

QColor::QColor ( QRgb rgb, uint pixel = 0xffffffff )

If pixel == 0xffffffff (the default), then the color uses the RGB value in a standard way. If pixel is something else, then the pixel value is set directly to pixel, skipping the normal allocation procedure.  

QColor::QColor ( const QString & name )

The color is left invalid if name cannot be parsed.

See also setNamedColor().  

QColor::QColor ( const char * name )

The color is left invalid if name cannot be parsed.

See also setNamedColor().  

QColor::QColor ( const QColor & c )

uint QColor::alloc ()

Allocating a color means to obtain a pixel value from the RGB specification. The pixel value is an index into the global color table, but should be considered an arbitrary platform-dependent value.

The pixel() function calls alloc() if necessary, so in general you don't need to call this function.

See also enterAllocContext().  

int QColor::blue () const

void QColor::cleanup () [static]

See also initialize().  

QStringList QColor::colorNames () [static]

int QColor::currentAllocContext () [static]

The default context is 0.

See also enterAllocContext() and leaveAllocContext().  

QColor QColor::dark ( int factor = 200 ) const

Returns a darker color if factor is greater than 100. Setting factor to 300 returns a color that has one-third the brightness.

Returns a lighter color if factor is less than 100. We recommend using lighter() for this purpose. If factor is 0 or negative, the return value is unspecified.

(This function converts the current RGB color to HSV, divides V by factor and converts back to RGB.)

See also light().

Examples:  

void QColor::destroyAllocContext ( int context ) [static]

This function deallocates all colors that were allocated in the specified context. If context == -1, it frees up all colors that the application has allocated. If context == -2, it frees up all colors that the application has allocated, except those in the default context.

The function does nothing for true color displays.

See also enterAllocContext() and alloc().

Example: showimg/showimg.cpp.  

int QColor::enterAllocContext () [static]

Color allocation contexts are useful for programs that need to allocate many colors and throw them away later, like image viewers. The allocation context functions work for true color displays as well as for colormap displays, except that QColor::destroyAllocContext() does nothing for true color.

Example:

    QPixmap loadPixmap( QString fileName )


    {


        static int alloc_context = 0;


        if ( alloc_context )


            QColor::destroyAllocContext( alloc_context );


        alloc_context = QColor::enterAllocContext();


        QPixmap pm( fileName );


        QColor::leaveAllocContext();


        return pm;


    }

The example code loads a pixmap from file. It frees up all colors that were allocated the last time loadPixmap() was called.

The initial/default context is 0. Qt keeps a list of colors associated with their allocation contexts. You can call destroyAllocContext() to get rid of all colors that were allocated in a specific context.

Calling enterAllocContext() enters an allocation context. The allocation context lasts until you call leaveAllocContext(). QColor has an internal stack of allocation contexts. Each call to enterAllocContex() must have a corresponding leaveAllocContext().

        // context 0 active


    int c1 = QColor::enterAllocContext();    // enter context c1


        // context c1 active


    int c2 = QColor::enterAllocContext();    // enter context c2


        // context c2 active


    QColor::leaveAllocContext();             // leave context c2


        // context c1 active


    QColor::leaveAllocContext();             // leave context c1


        // context 0 active


        // Now, free all colors that were allocated in context c2


    QColor::destroyAllocContext( c2 );

You may also want to set the application's color specification. See QApplication::setColorSpec() for more information.

See also leaveAllocContext(), currentAllocContext(), destroyAllocContext(), and QApplication::setColorSpec().

Example: showimg/showimg.cpp.  

void QColor::getHsv ( int * h, int * s, int * v ) const

The hue (which h points to) is set to -1 if the color is achromatic.

Warning: Colors are stored internally as RGB values, so getHSv() may return slightly different values to those set by setHsv().

See also setHsv() and rgb().  

void QColor::getHsv ( int & h, int & s, int & v ) const

void QColor::getRgb ( int * r, int * g, int * b ) const

See also rgb(), setRgb(), and getHsv().  

int QColor::green () const

void QColor::hsv ( int * h, int * s, int * v ) const

Example: themes/metal.cpp.  

void QColor::initialize () [static]

See also cleanup().  

bool QColor::isValid () const

Examples:  

void QColor::leaveAllocContext () [static]

See enterAllocContext() for a detailed explanation.

See also enterAllocContext() and currentAllocContext().

Example: showimg/showimg.cpp.  

QColor QColor::light ( int factor = 150 ) const

Returns a lighter color if factor is greater than 100. Setting factor to 150 returns a color that is 50% brighter.

Returns a darker color if factor is less than 100. We recommend using dark() for this purpose. If factor is 0 or negative, the return value is unspecified.

(This function converts the current RGB color to HSV, multiplies V by factor, and converts the result back to RGB.)

See also dark().

Examples:  

int QColor::maxColors () [static]

Otherwise returns -1. Use numBitPlanes() to calculate the available colors in that case.  

QString QColor::name () const

See also setNamedColor().

Example: chart/setdataform.cpp.  

int QColor::numBitPlanes () [static]

The returned value is equal to the default pixmap depth.

See also QPixmap::defaultDepth().  

bool QColor::operator!= ( const QColor & c ) const

QColor & QColor::operator= ( const QColor & c )

bool QColor::operator== ( const QColor & c ) const

uint QColor::pixel () const

This value is used by the underlying window system to refer to a color. It can be thought of as an index into the display hardware's color table, but the value is an arbitrary 32-bit value.

See also alloc().  

uint QColor::pixel ( int screen ) const

Returns the pixel value for screen screen.

This value is used by the underlying window system to refer to a color. It can be thought of as an index into the display hardware's color table, but the value is an arbitrary 32-bit value.

See also alloc().  

int QColor::red () const

QRgb QColor::rgb () const

The return type QRgb is equivalent to unsigned int.

For an invalid color, the alpha value of the returned color is unspecified.

See also setRgb(), hsv(), qRed(), qBlue(), qGreen(), and isValid().  

void QColor::rgb ( int * r, int * g, int * b ) const

void QColor::setHsv ( int h, int s, int v )

If s or v are not in the range 0-255, or h is < -1, the color is not changed.

Warning: Colors are stored internally as RGB values, so getHSv() may return slightly different values to those set by setHsv().

See also hsv() and setRgb().

Examples:  

void QColor::setNamedColor ( const QString & name )

#RGB (each of R, G and B is a single hex digit)

#RRGGBB

#RRRGGGBBB

#RRRRGGGGBBBB

A name from the X color database (rgb.txt) (e.g." steelblue" or "gainsboro"). These color names also work under Windows.

The color is invalid if name cannot be parsed.  

void QColor::setRgb ( int r, int g, int b )

See also rgb() and setHsv().  

void QColor::setRgb ( QRgb rgb )

Sets the RGB value to rgb.

The type QRgb is equivalent to unsigned int.

See also rgb() and setHsv().  

RELATED FUNCTION DOCUMENTATION

QDataStream & operator<< ( QDataStream & s, const QColor & c )

See also Format of the QDataStream operators.  

QDataStream & operator>> ( QDataStream & s, QColor & c )

See also Format of the QDataStream operators.  

int qAlpha ( QRgb rgba )

int qBlue ( QRgb rgb )

See also qRgb() and QColor::blue().  

int qGray ( int r, int g, int b )

The gray value is calculated using the formula (r*11 + g*16 + b*5)/32.  

int qGray ( qRgb rgb )

Returns a gray value 0..255 from the given rgb colour.  

int qGreen ( QRgb rgb )

See also qRgb() and QColor::green().  

int qRed ( QRgb rgb )

See also qRgb() and QColor::red().  

QRgb qRgb ( int r, int g, int b )

The return type QRgb is equivalent to unsigned int.

See also qRgba(), qRed(), qGreen(), and qBlue().  

QRgb qRgba ( int r, int g, int b, int a )

The return type QRgba is equivalent to unsigned int.

See also qRgb(), qRed(), qGreen(), and qBlue().

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