XCOLORS(1) MachTen Programmer’s Manual XCOLORS(1)

NAME
xcolors - display all X11 color names and colors

SYNOPSIS
xcolors [ -start color ] [ -near color ] [ -distance how-
far ]

DESCRIPTION
xcolors reads the rgb.txt file that defines the color
names the X server knows and displays the colors found.

At the top of the window is a sample region containing
text. By clicking on the color names, the color of the
sample text can be changed. Mouse button 1 changes the
foreground; button 2 changes the background. The text can
also be edited.

Typing ‘‘q’’ exits the program.

OPTIONS
In addition the the usual X Toolkit options, xcolors
understands these command line options:

-start name
specify a color name to start with; colors before
this one in the rgb.txt file are skipped. This
option is useful if there are more colors than will
fit on your screen or in your colormap.

-rgbfile filename
specify an alternate color database file to read.

-near nearcolor
only show colors near this one in the RGB space.
All colors within a sphere in the RGB-space cen-
tered on nearcolor are displayed.

-distance howfar
defines how close colors have to be to nearcolor to
be displayed. This option sets the radius of the
sphere used by the -near option. The scale is such
that the RGB cube is 256 units on a side. The
default is 64.

ACTIONS
set-foreground([color])
Set the foreground color of the sample region. If
no color is provided, the color is taken from the
border color of the widget where the action
occurred.

set-background([color])
Same as set-foreground() but sets the background
color.

quit() Exit xcolors.

RESOURCES
Xcolors has a few top-level application resources that
allow customizations that are specific to xcolors.

startColor (classStartColor)
See the -start option.

rgbFile (classRgbFile)
See the -rgbfile option.

nearColor (classNearColor)
See the -near option.

nearDistance (classNearDistance)
See the -distance option.

WIDGET HIERARCHY
Knowing the name and position in the hierarchy of each
widget is useful when specifying resources for them. In
the chart below, the class and name of each widget is
given.

Xcolors xcolors
Paned panes
AsciiText sample
Viewport viewport
Box colors
Label colorname
Label colorname
.
.
.

FILES
/usr/X11/lib/X11/rgb.txt
X color names and values.

BUGS
Assumes that all names for the same color are consecutive
in the rgb.txt file.

Because xcolors cannot read the server’s color name
database, the color names it uses may not match those in
the server. This is most likely to happen if xcolors is
run from a remote host.

The program would be faster if it used gadgets instead of
widgets for the color spots.

AUTHOR
Stephen Gildea, X Consortium

X Version 11 6 June 1994 2