If you execute this:

ColorSetter[Dynamic[x]]

then the value of x will be the color displayed by the ColorSetter. If you click on the ColorSetter and change the color it displays, then x will contain the value of the new color. In other words, the answer to your question, "How do I get the vales of the selected color into a variable?" is that you already have the value in a variable--it's the variable wrapped in Dynamic and passed to the ColorSetter.

Maybe a little more flavor would help. The documentation used the expression

{ColorSetter[Dynamic[x]], Dynamic[x]}

to demonstrate how you can dynamically update a variable with a ColorSetter. That expression isn't itself the "color setter". You could just as easily use an expression like this:

NonsenseHead[Dynamic[x], ColorSetter[Dynamic[y]], Dynamic[y], 
 ColorSetter[Dynamic[x]]]

If you evaluate that and play with the output, you can see that one ColorSetter is linked to one dynamic variable and the other to the other.

Now, just after posting my reply, all of a sudden the content of the two 'empty' posts have become visible to me. Bizarre. Sorry for that.

I will read and respond after my dinner. So ignore my previous post for the moment :-)

I get it so far. I would never have come up with //FullForm. This WL really does things different from what I am used to. very surprising.

Now the next step, which I thought I would be able to manage, but I don't :-(

If I select a color, take the //InputForm and convert to HSB I get e.g. the following :

Hue[0.14196606106828644, 0.6012019781875348, 0.9318074311436637]

As this is not a List, I do not know how to extract the parameters separately into the variables 'h', 's' and 'b'. See my clumsy attempts in the attached Nb :-)

Apologies, I forgot to mention...

(* THIS DOES NOT WORK *) h=v[[1]]//InputForm

You had assigned the value to v1, not v. So, v1[[1]] will give you the first part of the expression.

Thanks Eric, your guidance is really helpful. It’s very much appreciated.

I understand what you are explaining to me. I will look into Apply later, but that seems interesting.

Your code :

Dynamic[{x, FullForm[x], ColorConvert[x, "HSB"], 
  FullForm[ColorConvert[x, "HSB"]], List @@ ColorConvert[x, "HSB"], 
  ColorConvert[x, "HSB"][[1]]}]

Works well and I understand all of it. So basically, I have now what I want to start with : The selected color in RGB numbers , as well as in HSB numbers.

Also the List thing works and is understandable.

From here I can continue.

I managed to make use of Apply, I think an important function. I used it to get the HSB values, which I transformed, again into a ‘color’ format.

hueComp1 stands for a complementary color

colComp1 = Apply[Hue, {hueComp1, orgColorHSBsat, orgColrHSBbrit}]

To show the colors in the form of rectangles I have the following code - with a question :-)

I don’t understand that not one of the first two lines does work, but only the third way : RGBColor[x] I have already : orgColorRGB = x // FullForm So why is it not working as orgColorRGB has the same values as x?

THIS DOES NOT WORK

colorResult1 = Graphics[{RGBColor[orgColorRGB], Rectangle[]}] ;       (*  The ORIGINAL COLOR  *)
colorResult1 = Graphics[{orgColorRGB, Rectangle[]}] ;       (*  The ORIGINAL COLOR  *)

BUT THIS DOES WORK

colorResult1 = Graphics[{RGBColor[x], Rectangle[]}] ;     (*  The ORIGINAL COLOR  *)

I attach the Nb I am working on for reference. The purpose of it is to select a color, and make two complementary colors, with an adjustable speed from the exact complementary color. I plan to use this to create nice 3 color palettes for my design work.

Thanks again Eric, really helpful.

Best, Beat

Attachments:

Color-2 color co...nb

The problem is here

orgColorRGB = x // FullForm

In general, form wrappers are not computable expressions, they should be used for display purposes only. Change to

(orgColorRGB = x) // FullForm

Then this will work

colorResult1 = Graphics[{orgColorRGB, Rectangle[]}]

Eric, I am gratefull for your patience :-) This all is very new for me.

I had come across the error messages and sometimes they helped me and sometimes it is like Chinese. I always go to the documentation, but many examples go on about the same aspect of a function or option and do not always make it clear for me.

I understand your explanation about FullForm and it makes sense (of course :-) I just wonder, like in this case, if I want to get a new color in the process, by hitting the ColorSetter again, but without losing my original (first) color. That is why I assigned the values of x to a new variable. Hitting the ColorSetter again, would put new values into x.

So to do that, I guess, is to extract the RGB numbers from x and put them into a new variable and stick a new Head on with Apply. I see the potential of how WL is doing things, but boy, what a different way of thinking with what I am accustomed to :-)

Comment 2 : I am actually doing that. Maybe not in different cells, but leaving out the semicolons, so I can track the intermediate results and see where I go off the tracks.

Comment 3 : yes, reusable functions are ghreat, but the suit does not fit me too well yet. I am trying to use them where I can. I am most curious about your way of coding a thing like this.

B.t.w. I made the spread for the two complementary colors with a Dynamic Slider and that works. Somehow I have chosen to use Dynamic in stead of Manipulate (which I used before), because I have read about some more freedom and possibilities with Dynamic. Unfortunately I can't remember what exactly it was. Dynamic is harder to get right, unfortunately. But I guess, that eventually I will come up to speed.

best, Beat

Lists : isn't that what is meant with "Listable"

Yes, exactly. I thought I'd explain it in plain terms rather than force you down another learning trail about attributes.

So this is what overloading means - restricting the input variable to a certain type (Hue).

Overloading basically means having multiple "functions" with the same name. In Java you can overload if your input lists differ in their types. Some languages don't allow overloading at all. In Mathematica, you can overload with pattern matching.

I am probably still thinking Old School [regarding using the color square as input]

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I don't know that I would actually ever do that for real. I was just taking the opportunity to make a point about about representations.

RGB, HSB and Lab triplets above each color. But I suppose I would have to get the numbers the same way as I did in my primitive try, and convert to the different colorSpaces.

Not at all. This bit here,

Flatten[{hue = ColorConvert[rgb, "HSB"], HueSplit[HueComplement[hue], spread]}]

evaluates to a List of Hues. You can apply ToString to them to see them as Hue[0.5, 0.5, 0.5] (or whatever). Before you do the ColorConvert, you'll have RGBColors, and you can apply ToString to those to see RGBColor[0., 0., 0.] (or whatever). I don't know what Lab is, so you might have to come up with your own display representation for that. Or, if you really do want them as just triplets (list of three elements), then do the List@@ thing.

I tried with a different start color for the ColorSetter (not Black), but nothing seemed to work

In the Manipulate, you can change the bit that specifies the controller for rgb to look like this: {{rgb, RGBColor[0.5, 0.22, 0.5]}, ColorSetter}

I am so much used to 'stay' in the numbers and variables, until all the calculations are done and only then do the 'Translation' to the graphics on screen

Right. I pretty much agree with you. That's kind of what I'm trying to explain when I go on about representations. But I think we've reached the limits of being able to communicate this idea within this context, so I won't belabor the point anymore.