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COLOURS & COLOR
"Some HELP to new HTMLers!"
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Important : In the following text, I use { } instead of < >, to make HTML commands visible on the screen. Remember to make the substitution, if you want to use HTML code!
A command for Coloured text
{font color=magenta}bla bla bla{/font}
gives magenta colour to the text "bla bla bla" witch is enclosed between starting and ending tags.
Example of code:
Have a {font color=magenta}nice day{/font} my dear friend
Response:
Have a nice day my dear friend
After the end of the font command, i.e. after the tag {/font}, the text returns to the last not closed or to the default colour.
Most simple colours are recognised by their name, as blue, red, green, magenta, yellow, cyan, pink, orange, violet, etc. You can try more!
There are two more ways to name colours: lets call them the # method and the &H& method. The first uses a 6-digit code, while the other an 8-digit code.
The # method describes the colour by the way it is produced on the computer screen, so it corresponds to RGB colours, i.e. the amount of Red, Green and Blue light that mixed up will produce on our screen the desired colour. Every two digits of the six-digit code correspond to the amount of one of the above three colours (hexadecimal or hex numbers).
Example of code:
#C71585 is a cherry colour that personally I like.
There are tables with the colour-code in some sites as well as in some VT members’ pages. Soon I will give you some links.
What Hexadecimal numbers are?
The decimal numbering system
Today, the commonly used numbering system is the decimal system, its "base" is number 10. We use 10 symbols, i.e. the numbers 0, 1, 2… 9.
The number 35 means: 3 times 10, plus 5, or (3x10)+5.
The number 623 means: 6 times 10x10, plus 2 times 10, plus 3, or (6x100)+(2x10)+3.
The hexadecimal numbering system
The first point to discuss is why we need the hexadecimal system. The answer is that computers function faster with it, than with the decimal system. Or they have rather to convert decimal numbers to hex and then to binary form. Detailed explanations will take long, so we stop just to this info.
The hexadecimal (Hex) numbering system needs 16 symbols. Its "base" is the number 16. It would be perfect to find 16 new symbols, to avoid any confusion, but it started in a "hard way"! So it uses the 10 known numerical digits plus the first six letters (usually the capital letters). In other words, A stands for 10, B for 11, C for 12, D for 13, E for 14 and F for 15.
The Hex number CE means: C times 16, plus E, or converted to decimal, 12 times 16, plus 14, that is
(12x16)+14 = 192+14 = 206.
The Hex number D7 means: D times 16 plus 7, or converted to decimal, 13 times 16, plus 7, that is
(13x16)+7 = 208+7 = 215.
It is clear that Hex 27 is different from decimal 27.
Decimal number 27 means: 2 times 10, plus 7.
The Hex number 27 means: 2 times 16, plus 7, that is
(2x16)+7 = 32+7 = 39, so be careful.
To make clear that a number is Hex and not decimal, we put at the beginning of the number the letter H.
So, H27 is read "hexadecimal 27", that equals 39. HD7 is read "hexadecimal D7", that equals 215.
Although we give this extended explanation, as well as the way of converting a Hex number to decimal, in most cases you have not to make the conversion: Just understanding what happens, is enough! For our purposes, you do not have to calculate the exact value. Instead, you can understand easily what hex number is greater than another, that is enough for colouring! You can try a greater or lesser number.
Now lets go back to the colours.
The Rainbow reduced in just 3 colours!
Remember what we had learned in school? The white light is composed of 7 colours, that is the light spectrum, well seen in the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet. Technology found out that for artificial reproduction of colours, we can reduce the number to 3 basic colours, that are Red, Green, Blue, still having a very good approximation. By mixing the above 3 colours, we can have almost any colour we want!
What we mentioned earlier as # method of defining a colour, can now be named as RGB Hex colour code, that is the correct name, or simply, RGB. In this representation, starting with the symbol #, we separate the 6 digits by two.
#000000 means that we shall have no Red light, no Green light, no Blue light, i.e. at that point, our screen will remain Black.
#FFFFFF means that we shall have full Red light, full Green light, full Blue light, that is at that point our screen will be White, as result of the full mixing of the three basic colours.
#FF0000 means that we shall have full Red light, no Green light, no Blue light, that is at that point our screen will be Red. So you can understand what #00FF00 and #0000FF mean.
When we start dealing with partial mixing of the colours, our usual perception of colours can not help, and this method becomes hardly applicable. The computer understands easily what to do, the command is a direct one for the computer, but the result is not clear to us. How should we make the orange colour? How much of each light beam (red, green, blue) should we mix?
Here is a table of the above:
=#000000-black
one beam colours =#FF0000-red
=#00FF00-green
=#0000FF-blue
two beam colours =#FFFF00-yellow (red+green)(in the rainbow, yellow is between red & green) =#00FFFF-cyan (green+blue)
=#FF00FF-magenta (or fuchsia, red+blue)
three beam colours =#FFFFFF-white
So, for the other colours, we have to use tables with the RGB colour codes or make experiments!
Here is a great link with colour codes and names:
http://www.htmlclinic.com/colorchart.php
It is also a very good guide on HTML, named
HTML clinic !
After the link, if you want your background music back,click below
http://www.kapatel.gr/matrix/users/yaesu/barrywh.mid
Once loaded, the link works much faster!
This picture is just decorative!
Painting
The information above is about the mixing of light, that is the way used in TV and Computer screens and in lighting (e.g. discos, clubs) to produce colours. The mixing of paints or inks follows inverse rules, that are usually better understandable.
Everybody can understand that by mixing red and yellow paint we will have some kind of orange paint. Adding more red produces a more reddish orange, while by adding more yellow, we have a more yellowish orange paint.
Scientists say that in colour mixing, we have an "addition" when mixing light, but we have a "subtraction" when mixing paints or inks. Anyway, I do not know if this point of view helps our needs.
Printing colours on paper
Imagine a white paper with Red dots on it, equally sized and spaced. If the 40% of the white paper is covered by the red dots, leaving the rest 60% white, then we can say that the paper is 40% coloured red. If the dots are very small and very close each other, still covering the 40% of the paper, then, from some distance, we see a uniform pink colour, instead of a dot field. This specific pink colour is more accurately named 40% Red. Coloured dot fields mixed up is the base of image printing technique.
Printing uses also 3 basic colours to produce the desired coloured images or shapes. But these 3 colours are not RGB. They are CMY, i.e. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow. These are the colours produced by combination of RGB colours by two, (look at the table above). So, printing technology creates the colours by combining its own 3 basic colours (three colour printing technology).
When covering a paper surface uniformly with the three basic colours (CMY), the result will be a very dark colour, almost black, that can incline towards redish, brownish or bluish. As black colour is of wide use in printing, it is preferable that the black ink will be added as a fourth to the three basic colours. So, today, typography uses mostly four colour printing technology. CMY is converted to CMYK (K stands for blacK). Ink-jet printers use a similar technique, either 3-colour (CMY) or 4-colour (CMYK) combinations to produce colours. If you have a close look on a printed paper, using a magnifying glass or a small microscope, you will get surprised by the view! Some dot combinations are really magnificent!
In Graphic Arts and Printing, an Atlas with CMYK colour combinations is widely used, but for the moment I do not know any Atlas giving the equivalence between RGB and CMYK colour codes. Possibly you will find some, for it should be a great utility, if you do, please drop me a line!
It would be easy to think that &H& method for defining colours using an 8 digit code, should be CMYK. Wrong! I am sorry, but I still try to understand how it works! You will have the news as soon as I will find out the end of the skein!
In conclusion, there are three basic colours in the RGB method of light mixing (TV, computers, lighting) and three other basic colours in the CMY method of painting and printing.
In the RGB method, (black triangle) the basic colours combined by two, produce the basic colours of the CMY method.
In the CMY method, (orange triangle) the basic colours combined by two, produce the basic colours of the RGB method.
Isn't it wonderful?
I would like to have
for background music to this page
"She is like a Rainbow"
by the Rolling Stones!
I would really appreciate if somebody can help me
where to find this music in MIDI form!
Stefanos
"TIPS on HTMLTIPS - TIPS - TIPSmore and moreT I P S"
My intention is not to write a complete guide on HTML. Besides it is a hard task, there is a lot of books and sites on this subject. HTML application in VT has its own rules, and I have to give an explanation on this point.
VT site is working under an HTML program, a great program, developed just for this purpose. Throughout this program, there are special areas forseen to be used as INPUTS of our texts, our photos, or of some multiple-choice answers.
Originally, the TEXT INPUTS, were made to accept just TEXT and nothing more. Some VT members, having some knowledge of HTML, found out that they could insert some HTML commands among their text to make it more attractive! Here starts the greatness of Virtual Tourist, that, like a locomotive, trails waggons of problems!
The story can be concentrated in the following:
The code we insert among our texts, has to be in accordance with the code preceding and the code following our input area. But we ignore both the preceding and the following code!
In other words, our text including code, is affected by the previous code, as well as it affects the following code, i.e. possibly influences the correct functioning of the program. There are some commands that, if inserted in an input area among our text, could even destroy or interrupt the functioning of the program!
VT is our site, it belongs to us, just as a city belongs to its habitants. It is a city growing bigger and bigger! We have to preserve its healthy functioning!
Tips given here will try to explain some DOs and DON'Ts
(to be continued)
Closed premises, London.
Iggy Pop
The houseboats.
St Peters Barge Church
