Develop Reference

Weird interpolation between colors in hsv?

I want to achieve interpolation between red and blue. something like this
but in a single line.
My java code:
private PixelData InterpolateColour(float totalLength, float curLength){
float startColourV[] = new float[3];
Color.RGBtoHSB(m_start.getColour().getR() & 0xFF, m_start.getColour().getG() & 0xFF, m_start.getColour().getB() & 0xFF, startColourV);
float endColourV[] = new float[3];
Color.RGBtoHSB(m_end.getColour().getR() & 0xFF, m_end.getColour().getG() & 0xFF, m_end.getColour().getB() & 0xFF, endColourV);
float endPercent = curLength / totalLength;
float startPercent = 1 - curLength / totalLength;
float h = endColourV[0] * endPercent + startColourV[0] * startPercent;
float s = endColourV[1] * endPercent + startColourV[1] * startPercent;
float b = endColourV[2] * endPercent + startColourV[2] * startPercent;
int colourRGB = Color.HSBtoRGB(h, s, b);
byte[] ByteArray = ByteBuffer.allocate(4).putInt(colourRGB).array();
return new PixelData(ByteArray[0], ByteArray[3], ByteArray[2], ByteArray[1]);
}
and the result i am getting is this
.
I don't understand, from where all that green is coming from. Can somebody please help me ?

why not use just RGB with simple linear interpolation for this:
color(t)=(color0*t)+(color1*(1.0-t))
where t=<0.0,1.0> is the parameter. So just loop it in the full range with as many steps as you need.
Integer C++/VCL example (sorry not a JAVA coder):
// borland GDI clear screen
Canvas->Brush->Color=clBlack;
Canvas->FillRect(ClientRect);
// easy access to RGB channels
union _color
{
DWORD dd;
BYTE db[4];
} c0,c1,c;
// 0x00BBGGRR
c0.dd=0x000000FF; // Red
c1.dd=0x00FF0000; // Blue
int x,y,t0,t1;
for (x=0,y=ClientHeight/2;x<ClientWidth;x++)
{
t0=x;
t1=ClientWidth-1-x;
c.db[0]=((DWORD(c0.db[0])*t0)+(DWORD(c1.db[0])*t1))/(ClientWidth-1);
c.db[1]=((DWORD(c0.db[1])*t0)+(DWORD(c1.db[1])*t1))/(ClientWidth-1);
c.db[2]=((DWORD(c0.db[2])*t0)+(DWORD(c1.db[2])*t1))/(ClientWidth-1);
c.db[3]=((DWORD(c0.db[3])*t0)+(DWORD(c1.db[3])*t1))/(ClientWidth-1);
Canvas->Pixels[x][y]=c.dd;
}
where ClientWidth,ClientHeight is my app form resolution, Canvas is access to the GDI interface of the form and Canvas->Pixels[x][y] is single pixel access (slow but for this example it is enough). The only important stuff is the for loop. Here resulting image:

Color interpolation is actually a fairly complex topic due to the way human vision works.
Physical intensity and wavelengths don't map directly to perceived luminance and hues. After all human eyes are not photon spectrometers, they just measure the intensity + three primaries, each with different sensitivity.
To have a metric, linear space that represents human color perception instead of physical attributes we have the CIELab. Since it's a linear metric doing interpolation between points should generally give you a linear transition between hues and also luminance.
But CIELab may not be sufficient since it only models perceptual sensitivity. If you need to match real lighting you also have to take into account that natural light sources do not illuminate all colors evenly.
If you need to match photorealistic material then additionally correcting for the intensity spectrum of natural light may also be necessary. I.e. something illuminated by a candle will not have intense blue components simply because the candle emits very little blue light that could be reflected.

Generate n colors between two colors

I'm trying to write function, which can generate colors between two colors based on a given value. An example would explain it better..
Input ..
X : 1
Y : 0.5
Z : 0
The user gives any set of color:value pairs, then enters a number(say 0.75). I have to then generate color which is a blend of Y and Z in proportion(based on the their values and the input value). I was thinking of the following approach.
Find the colors which surround the value, for 0.75 it will be 0.5 and 1.
Mix those two colors somehow, based on the value and generate new colors.
I'm completely lost, as how to generate colors and are there any libraries for this.
UPDATE:
It is part of a bigger project I'm working on. Lets say we have ..
1 : X
0 : Y
and the user inputs, 0.25
I would like to have something..
(X*0.25 + Y*0.75)
as it's more near to Y, that's why the higher proportion. If the user inputs, 0.5.. the output should be
(X*0.5 + Y*0.5)
and so on. I have no idea how to do this with RGB colors.
P.S: The questions is not specific to language, but I'm doing this in Java.

You have to blend each color channel (red, green and blue) seperately like this:
Color x,y; //set by you
float blending;//set by you
float inverse_blending = 1 - blending;
float red = x.getRed() * blending + y.getRed() * inverse_blending;
float green = x.getGreen() * blending + y.getGreen() * inverse_blending;
float blue = x.getBlue() * blending + y.getBlue() * inverse_blending;
//note that if i pass float values they have to be in the range of 0.0-1.0
//and not in 0-255 like the ones i get returned by the getters.
Color blended = new Color (red / 255, green / 255, blue / 255);
So far for the color example. Generally if you want a linear interpolation between two values you have to do the following:
var firstValue;
var secondValue;
var interpolation;
var interpolated = firstValue * interpolation +
secondValue * (1 - interpolation);
But since you have Color-Objects in your case, you cannot interpolate the whole object in one step, you have to interpolate each relevant value on its own. Eventually you have to interpolate the alpha-channel as well, don´t know that, since you didn´t mention it, but for completeness i include it in this answer.

A color is a point in a three-dimensional space. The exact coordinates used depend on what's called a "color space", of which there are several: RGB, HSV, and so on. So to compute a color in between two given colors, get those two colors in the same color space, and compute a third point between those two along the line in 3d-space between them.
The simplest way to do this would be simply to do a linear interpolation for each of the three values of the colorspace (R, G, and B, for example). But there's a further complication that the coordinate values are often not linear, so you have to linearize them first (for example, TV colors are exponential with a lambda of about 2.2). Depending on your application, incorrectly assuming linearity might work OK anyway, especially if the starting colors are already close.
(As mentioned by luk2302, add a fourth coordinate for alpha if necessary).

You could use Java.awt.color by doing somting like this:
public Color mixColors(Color color1, Color color2, double percent){
double inverse_percent = 1.0 - percent;
int redPart = (int) (color1.getRed()*percent + color2.getRed()*inverse_percent);
int greenPart = (int) (color1.getGreen()*percent + color2.getGreen()*inverse_percent);
int bluePart = (int) (color1.getBlue()*percent + color2.getBlue()*inverse_percent);
return new Color(redPart, greenPart, bluePart);
}

Color detector in Java

I have list of colors in HEX format (for example #000000) and I would like to detect color type (blue, red, green etc.) and then change color type to another color type. Is this possible and are there any frameworks/libraries for this task?
Example:
I have color #EB1369 (red) then I convert it to blue and it becomes for example #1313EB (blue).

Here's a function that will let you shift colors around the hue circle. You should read the wikipedia page on the HSB (or HSV) color system to really understand what is going on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSV_color_space
/** Converts an input color given as a String such as "ab451e" to
* the HSB color space. Shifts its hue from the given angle in degrees.
* Then returns the new color in the same format it was given.
*
* For example shift("ff0000", 180); returns "80ff00" (green is the opposite of red).*/
public static String shift(String rgbS, int angle) {
// Convert String to integer value
int value = Integer.parseInt(rgbS, 16);
// Separate red green and blue
int r = value >> 16;
int g = (value >> 8) & 0xff;
int b = value & 0xff;
// Convert to hsb
float[] hsb = Color.RGBtoHSB(r, g, b, null);
// Convert angle to floating point between 0 and 1.0
float angleF = (float)(angle/360.0);
// Shift the hue using the angle.
float newAngle = hsb[0] + angleF;
if(newAngle > 1.0)
newAngle = newAngle - 1.0f;
hsb[0] = newAngle;
// Convert back to RGB, removing the alpha component
int rgb = Color.HSBtoRGB(hsb[0], hsb[1], hsb[2]);
rgb = rgb & 0xffffff;
// Build a new String
return Integer.toHexString(rgb);
}
Detecting colors can be complex, it depends on the result you really expect.
If what you want is simply an approximation (red, green, blue, yellow, etc.) then you can look at the hue circle of the HSB color-space, choose a hue value for each color you want to define, and then map the color you get in input to the closest one you chose.
You can also rely on things like named HTML colors: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colornames.asp . Take this list, create a mapping in your program, then all you have to do is map the color you get to the closest one in your map, and return its name. Be wary though: computing the distance between two colors can be tricky (especially in RGB) and naive approaches (such as channel-by-channel difference) can give surprisingly bad results. Colorimetry is a complex topic, and you will find good methods on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_difference

Try convert RGB values to HSV (HSB exactly) - it is format for colors which is more comfortable for human. After conversion, all u need to do is change H V (probably) and convert it back to RGB.

I guess that you like to convert RGB color to HSB. YOu can do this wuth:
java.awt.Color.RGBtoHSB(...)
then you can easily determine whetther H value fits in your definition of blue, and modify it to whatever you like. After this, you can easily convert it back to RGB via:
java.awt.Color.getHSBColor(...)
And ifg you do not like jawa.awt.color just multiply color vector by transofrmation matrix.

Each HEX Color has three parts in it, red, green and blue the # identifies a HEX color, the following two letters are the amount of red; the next two are green and the next two are blue. i.e: RGB
The two letters can have a maximum hexidecimal value of FF which is 255, and a minimum of 00 which is zero.
So you can argue like this, I want a color with 2 red parts, 7 green parts, and zero blue parts, which will give you #020700
That is why #FFFFFF is white (all the colors together) and #000000 is black (no colors at all)
With this logic you can modify the color in any way you want; The Color class can also help a lot.

What's the appropriate way to colorize a grayscale image with transparency in Java?

I'm making an avatar generator where the avatar components are from PNG files with transparency. The files are things like body_1.png or legs_5.png. The transparency is around the parts but not within them and the images are all grayscale. The parts are layering fine and I can get a grayscale avatar.
I would like to be able to colorize these parts dynamically, but so far I'm not having good luck. I've tried converting the pixel data from RGB to HSL and using the original pixel's L value, while supplying the new color's H value, but the results are not great.
I've looked at Colorize grayscale image but I can't seem to make what he's saying work in Java. I end up with an image that has fairly bright, neon colors everywhere.
What I would like is for transparency to remain, while colorizing the grayscale part. The black outlines should still be black and the white highlight areas should still be white (I think).
Does anyone have a good way to do this?
EDIT:
Here's an image I might be trying to color:
Again, I want to maintain the brightness levels of the grayscale image (so the outlines stay dark, the gradients are visible, and white patches are white).
I've been able to get a LookupOp working somewhat based on Colorizing images in Java but the colors always look drab and dark.
Here's an example of my output:
The color that was being used is this one (note the brightness difference): http://www.color-hex.com/color/b124e7
This is my lookupOp
protected LookupOp createColorizeOp(short R1, short G1, short B1) {
short[] alpha = new short[256];
short[] red = new short[256];
short[] green = new short[256];
short[] blue = new short[256];
//int Y = 0.3*R + 0.59*G + 0.11*B
for (short i = 0; i < 30; i++) {
alpha[i] = i;
red[i] = i;
green[i] = i;
blue[i] = i;
}
for (short i = 30; i < 256; i++) {
alpha[i] = i;
red[i] = (short)Math.round((R1 + i*.3)/2);
green[i] = (short)Math.round((G1 + i*.59)/2);
blue[i] = (short)Math.round((B1 + i*.11)/2);
}
short[][] data = new short[][] {
red, green, blue, alpha
};
LookupTable lookupTable = new ShortLookupTable(0, data);
return new LookupOp(lookupTable, null);
}
EDIT 2: I changed my LookupOp to use the following and got much nicer looking colors:
red[i] = (short)((R1)*(float)i/255.0);
green[i] = (short)((G1)*(float)i/255.0);
blue[i] = (short)((B1)*(float)i/255.0);

It seems what will work for you is something like this:
for each pixel
if pixel is white, black or transparent then leave it alone
else
apply desired H and S and make grayscale value the L
convert new HSL back to RGB
Edit: after seeing your images I have a couple of comments:
It seems you want to special treat darker tones, since you are not colorizing anything below 30. Following the same logic, shouldn't you also exempt from colorizing the higher values? That will prevent the whites and near-whites from getting tinted with color.
You should not be setting the alpha values along with RGB. The alpha value from the original image should always be preserved. Your lookup table algorithm should only affect RGB.
While you say that you tried HSL, that is not in the code that you posted. You should do your colorizing in HSL, then convert the resulting colors to RGB for your lookup table as that will preserve the original brightness of the grayscale. Your lookup table creation could be something like this:
short H = ??; // your favorite hue
short S = ??; // your favorite saturation
for (short i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
if (i < 30 || i > 226) {
red[i] = green[i] = blue[i] = i; // don't do alpha here
}
else {
HSL_to_RGB(H, S, i, red[i], green[i], blue[i])
}
}
Note: you have to provide the HSL to RGB conversion function. See my answer on Colorize grayscale image for links to source code.

changing rgb color values to represent a value

I am trying to make a color change on a canvas in java to respresent how strong or weak the values respresented by color are relative to each other.
The rgb colors have to be the same color just different shades, like white to grey to black and every shade of grey in between. How can I change the rgb values considering that the values I am representing vary a lot, from -9999999 to positive 9999999.

I think you should take a look at HSL/HSV instead of RGB.
While RGB is elementary in nature in that it expresses colors in terms of the primaries, it does not allow you to make "understandable" changes to the R, G or B values to arrive at "similar" colors. With a HSL/HSV model, you will be able to make changes to Brightness/Lightness/Value (L/V) to arrive at colors with varying amounts of gray, or make changes to Hue (H) to obtain similar colors across the spectrum. You can start at full brightness (White) and create darker tones of gray by decreasing the value of L/V and eventually reach the color of no brightness (Black).
A very mild introduction to color theory, for developers is available here.
As to your question, you should express your colors in terms of HSL, with increasing values of Saturation to have a range of colors starting from white to black. Of course, if you want gray tones in between white and black without any other color, you should keep the hue to a minimum.
A short example on how to get a range of colors follows. For brevity, I've populated the colors into an array, but that is not required since you might want to use the color rightaway (besides considering memory requirements).
private Color[] produceColorRange(int steps)
{
float value = 1.0f; //Starting with full brightness
Color[] colors = new Color[steps];
for(int ctr = 0; ctr < steps; ctr++)
{
value = value - (1.0f/steps); //tend to darkness
int rgb = Color.HSBtoRGB(0.7f, 0.0f, value); //create a darker color
//Hue is Blue, not noticeable
//because Saturation is 0
Color color = new Color(rgb);
colors[ctr] = color;
}
return colors;
}
If you use the above method and paint a JFrame, you will be able to get a result similar to the one below (except that I've modified the hue and saturation to get my color range).
Note that if you want a simpler way of getting a color range, initialize a Color object with Color.WHITE and invoke color.darker(). Of course, you will not be able to control the increment.

Yes, scale your values to fit your domain. That depends on how your RGB values are stored. Usually, 8 bits are used for each. Since grey has R = G = B, you want to scale values in range (-9999999,9999999) to (0, 255).
Consider x in the first interval. Since the first range covers also negative numbers, first, do a shift.
x = x + 9999999
Now x is in the interval (0, 19999998). And the next step is to scale it down to (0, 255). Since the colour values grow linearly in that interval, all you have to do is this:
x = x * 255 / 19999998
Now x is in the interval (0, 255) just like you want.
Generally, if your inital values are in an interval (a, b) and want to transform it into (0, c), apply this formula: (Note that a can be negative)
x = (x - a) * c / (b - a)
So if you R, G, B values are 16 bits long, c will be 2**16 = 65536 and the formula:
x = (x + 9999999) * 65536 / 19999998
Hope that helps.

I'm not completely sure I understand your question, but, if I do:
Why not just scale the RGB values to the values in your range (from -9999999 to positive 9999999)? Moreover, set R, G, and B all to the same value so that you're using shades of gray to represent the value.
Like this:
private final int MIN = -9999999;
private final int MAX = 9999999;
public Color getScaledColor(int val) {
int gray = (int) Math.round((double) (val - MIN) / (double) (MAX - MIN)
* 255.0);
Color color = new Color(gray, gray, gray);
return color;
}
Note that this solution will not give unique colors for all the values in the range you specified. But also keep in mind that the human eye can only distinguish between so many shades (and 2 * 9999999 + 1 is probably more than the number of shades than it can distinguish between).

The HSL Color class implements the formulas provided in the Wikipedia link on HSL/HSV provide above.