I searched the web for a while to find a WPF HLS Color selector like Interactive Designer is equipped with.
Since I didn’t find anything I thought about creating my own one.
The most difficult task was to convert .NET Rgb Color Values to HLS values (the difference is explained here). In my opinion the HLS color system is superior to the RGB system. After hours of searching I found a VBA sample and ported it to WPF (the code can be found at the bottom of the article).
The next thing to do was to create a new slider for the Hue and a triangle for Lightness and Saturation values.
The Slider
It was easy to create a Color Slider since it is possible to override the default template. I created a gradient from hue 0 over hue 0.1, hue 0.2 … to hue 1.0 and put it into the background. At last I restyled the value selection thumb using Interactive Designer and the result looked like this.
The Triangle
The triangle was a bit more complex than the slider since I had to start from scratch. I created the triangle shape using Paths and Interactive Designer. The I assigned 3 backgrounds with different opacity masks to it.
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Background Black From lower left to upper right
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Background White From upper left to lower right
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Background Colored HLS(CurrentHue, 0.5, 1) from right to left
To show the current selected Lightness and Saturation I added an ellipse.
The next step was to attach MouseDown, MouseUp and MouseMove event Handlers to the triangle. Whenever the mouse is moved over the triangle with the left button pressed the ellipse should follow. To ensure that the ellipse is moved correctly when you leave the triangle with the left button pressed I assigned Mouse.Capture(element, Element) to the element on MouseDown and Mouse.Capture(element, None) on MouseUp.
Last but not least I had to write the code that generates the appropriate color from slider and ellipse position. The complete code can be found here.
The Result
In my opinion it was worth to spent some time to create this control. I hope that more people will begin building their own controls and make them available to the public. My control is not perfect and could be done in other ways. This is article is supposed to show only one possible way.
Rgb <--> Hls Converter Code
Imports System.Windows.Media
Public Class HlsConverter
Public Shared Function ConvertFromHls(ByVal value As HlsValue) As Color
Return ConvertFromHls(value.Hue, value.Lightness, value.Saturation)
End Function
Public Shared Function ConvertFromHls(ByVal h As Double, ByVal l As Double, ByVal s As Double) As Color
Dim p1 As Double
Dim p2 As Double
Dim r As Double
Dim g As Double
Dim b As Double
h *= 360
If l <= 0.5 Then
p2 = l * (1 + s)
Else
p2 = l + s - l * s
End If
p1 = 2 * l - p2
If s = 0 Then
r = l
g = l
b = l
Else
r = QqhToRgb(p1, p2, h + 120)
g = QqhToRgb(p1, p2, h)
b = QqhToRgb(p1, p2, h - 120)
End If
r *= Byte.MaxValue
g *= Byte.MaxValue
b *= Byte.MaxValue
Return Color.FromRgb(CByte(r), CByte(g), CByte(b))
End Function
Public Shared Function QqhToRgb(ByVal q1 As Double, ByVal q2 As _
Double, ByVal hue As Double) As Double
If hue > 360 Then
hue = hue - 360
ElseIf hue < 0 Then
hue = hue + 360
End If
If hue < 60 Then
QqhToRgb = q1 + (q2 - q1) * hue / 60
ElseIf hue < 180 Then
QqhToRgb = q2
ElseIf hue < 240 Then
QqhToRgb = q1 + (q2 - q1) * (240 - hue) / 60
Else
QqhToRgb = q1
End If
End Function
Public Shared Function ConvertToHls(ByVal color As Color) As HlsValue
Dim max As Double
Dim min As Double
Dim diff As Double
Dim r_dist As Double
Dim g_dist As Double
Dim b_dist As Double
Dim r As Double
Dim g As Double
Dim b As Double
Dim h As Double
Dim l As Double
Dim s As Double
r = color.R / Byte.MaxValue
g = color.G / Byte.MaxValue
b = color.B / Byte.MaxValue
max = R
If max < G Then max = G
If max < B Then max = B
min = R
If min > G Then min = G
If min > B Then min = B
diff = max - min
L = (max + min) / 2
If Math.Abs(diff) < 0.00001 Then
s = 0
h = 0
Else
If l <= 0.5 Then
s = diff / (max + min)
Else
s = diff / (2 - max - min)
End If
r_dist = (max - r) / diff
g_dist = (max - g) / diff
b_dist = (max - b) / diff
If r = max Then
h = b_dist - g_dist
ElseIf g = max Then
h = 2 + r_dist - b_dist
Else
h = 4 + g_dist - r_dist
End If
h = h * 60
If h < 0 Then h = h + 360
End If
h /= 360
Return New HlsValue(h, l, s)
End Function
End Class
Public Structure HlsValue
Private mHue As Double
Private mLightness As Double
Private mSaturation As Double
Public Sub New(ByVal h As Double, ByVal l As Double, ByVal s As Double)
mHue = h
mLightness = l
mSaturation = s
End Sub
Public Property Hue() As Double
Get
Return mHue
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Double)
mHue = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Lightness() As Double
Get
Return mLightness
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Double)
mLightness = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Saturation() As Double
Get
Return mSaturation
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Double)
mSaturation = value
End Set
End Property
Public Shared Operator <>(ByVal left As HlsValue, ByVal right As HlsValue) As Boolean
Dim bool1 As Boolean
bool1 = left.Lightness <> right.Lightness Or left.Saturation <> right.Saturation
If Not bool1 Then
Return left.Hue <> right.Hue And (left.Hue > 0 And right.Hue < 1) And (left.Hue < 1 And right.Hue > 0)
Else
Return bool1
End If
End Operator
Public Shared Operator =(ByVal left As HlsValue, ByVal right As HlsValue) As Boolean
Dim bool1 As Boolean
bool1 = left.Lightness = right.Lightness And left.Saturation = right.Saturation
If bool1 Then
Return Math.Round(left.Hue, 2) = Math.Round(right.Hue, 2) Or (Math.Round(left.Hue, 2) = 1 And Math.Round(right.Hue, 2) = 0) Or (Math.Round(left.Hue, 2) = 0 And Math.Round(right.Hue, 2) = 1)
Else
Return False
End If
End Operator
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Return String.Format("H: {0:0.00} L: {1:0.00} S: {2:0.00}", Hue, Lightness, Saturation)
End Function
End Structure