I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in the
PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?

Ron

On 16-Aug-00, Ron Goertz wrote:

>I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in the
>PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?

If you just need the information, it's available in the Object/
Line & Fill requester, in values for HSV, CMYK, RGB and a handful of
other systems. However, if you want to reach in and redefine the default
values in the .colors file -- you're on your own!!

To read the data for the default colors, start PageStream4 fresh, open
a new document and draw a small rectangle on screen. Select the
image with the Object tool and open the Object/Line & Fill requester.
The default colors will be available in the color selector. Click on
the >> button to open the Define Color requester, then select the
color you want to investigate, and click on the Edit button to show
its composition (the Edit Button is ghosted for Black and White --
you can't change them) in any of a dozen color systems.

After you have loaded some graphics, the color list will change to
reflect the colors used in the document, so to look at the default set,
you need to be working with a fresh system.

--Geoff

--
ggass@teleport.com Geoffrey A. Gass Foulecourt Press

On 16-Aug-00, Geoffrey Gass wrote:
> On 16-Aug-00, Ron Goertz wrote:
>
>> I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in
>> the PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?

Well the format is very simple. The colors files are just text files
listing the RGB or CMYK content of each color. I made myself a few extra
ones.

For instance, here's the beginning of the "Crayons" file.

SOFT-LOGIK PUBLISHING COLOR LIBRARY v1.0
NAME "Crayons"
LIBID "CRAY"
COPYRIGHT1 "© Santa's Elves"
COPYRIGHT2 "1995."
NAMEPREFIX ""
NAMESUFFIX ""
COLORSEP PROCESS
COLORTYPE RGB
COLORRANGE 100
COLORCOUNT 62
PAGESIZE 7
BEGIN
Apricot,100,85,70
Aquamarine,0,90,90
Bittersweet,85,30,0
Blue,29,30,79
Blue Gray,50,62,72

etc.

As you can see, COLORTYPE is RGB, CMYK, etc. COLORRANGE tells us that in
this library the numbers go up to 100 (255 or 16 would be likely
alternatives). COLORCOUNT is the number of colors.

Then on each line is the name of the color followed by the amount of
red, green and blue in it.

It should be easy to extract these values with a program in ARexx or any
other language, or you might only need a text editor.

You can tell a good programmer by the formats he uses for data files
like this. A fool would have used an undocumented binary format. Here we
have self-explanatory ASCII.

Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@enterprise.net

On 16-Aug-00, Don Cox wrote:

>>> I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in
>>> the PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?

>Well the format is very simple. The colors files are just text files
>listing the RGB or CMYK content of each color. I made myself a few
>extra ones.

This is true of the Crayon and Pantone library files in the PageStream/
SoftLogik/Colors directory. However, Ron was asking about the
PageStream/PageStream4.colors file, which is in binary.

--Geoff

--
ggass@teleport.com Geoffrey A. Gass Foulecourt Press

>I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in the
>PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?

Well, you can parse the file if that is what you want to do. Of course, the
information is probably in CMYK in the definitions.

What is it that you are trying to do. Maybe I can suggest another method?

>Ron

Deron Kazmaier - support@softlogik.com
Grasshopper Publishing LLC -http://www.softlogik.com
listhelp@softlogik.com for mailing list directions
PageStream DTP for Amiga, Macintosh, and Windows

On 16-Aug-00, SoftLogik Support wrote:
>
>> I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in
>> the PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?
>
> Well, you can parse the file if that is what you want to do. Of
> course, the information is probably in CMYK in the definitions.

It seems I spoke too soon in my comments at the end of the other post.

Why on Earth have you decided to use a binary format? The ASCII one was
fine.

An XML format would make sense - easy to read and easy to parse.

Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@enterprise.net

On 16-Aug-00, Don Cox wrote:

> It seems I spoke too soon in my comments at the end of the other post.
>
> Why on Earth have you decided to use a binary format? The ASCII one
> was fine.
>
> An XML format would make sense - easy to read and easy to parse.

Sorry, I withdraw those remarks. This is a completely different file
from the .colors files I was thinking of.

(Although I still think that in principle all settings files should be
in ASCII or XML.)

Regards
--
Don Cox
doncox@enterprise.net

> >> I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in
> >> the PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?
> >
> > Well, you can parse the file if that is what you want to do. Of
> > course, the information is probably in CMYK in the definitions.
>
>It seems I spoke too soon in my comments at the end of the other post.
>
>Why on Earth have you decided to use a binary format? The ASCII one was
>fine.
>
>An XML format would make sense - easy to read and easy to parse.
>
>Regards
>--
>Don Cox
>doncox@enterprise.net

My of my you run hot and cold quick!

Actually, the file in question is a subset of the IFF DOC file format. It
is in IFF format. Another very good standard, and one which was out and
commonly available when PageStream3.0 was written.

Nothing wrong with ASCII file formats, but they get to be a bit verbose for
documents. And creating yet another file format (YAFF?) for the default
styles seemed (and still does seem) silly.

Considering this is the first request in 7 years, I would guess it is not a
common file to mess with either.

Still, the question remains, what is the original user trying to do?

Deron Kazmaier - support@softlogik.com
Grasshopper Publishing LLC -http://www.softlogik.com
listhelp@softlogik.com for mailing list directions
PageStream DTP for Amiga, Macintosh, and Windows

Hey there, Don Cox

The .library files are ASCII, but .colors files are binary. Ron wants
to read the PageStream4.colors file. It's binary. He'll have to bring
up the palette on PageStream for edit and look at each color with the
RGB setting.

On 16-Aug-00, Don Cox wrote:
> On 16-Aug-00, Geoffrey Gass wrote:
>> On 16-Aug-00, Ron Goertz wrote:
>>
>>> I need to extract RGB information for each of the colors defined in
>>> the PageStream4.colors file. How can I do this?
>
> Well the format is very simple. The colors files are just text files
> listing the RGB or CMYK content of each color. I made myself a few
extra
> ones.
>
> For instance, here's the beginning of the "Crayons" file.
>
> SOFT-LOGIK PUBLISHING COLOR LIBRARY v1.0
> NAME "Crayons"
> LIBID "CRAY"
> COPYRIGHT1 "© Santa's Elves"
> COPYRIGHT2 "1995."
> NAMEPREFIX ""
> NAMESUFFIX ""
> COLORSEP PROCESS
> COLORTYPE RGB
> COLORRANGE 100
> COLORCOUNT 62
> PAGESIZE 7
> BEGIN
> Apricot,100,85,70
> Aquamarine,0,90,90
> Bittersweet,85,30,0
> Blue,29,30,79
> Blue Gray,50,62,72
>
> etc.
>
>
>
> As you can see, COLORTYPE is RGB, CMYK, etc. COLORRANGE tells us that
in
> this library the numbers go up to 100 (255 or 16 would be likely
> alternatives). COLORCOUNT is the number of colors.
>
> Then on each line is the name of the color followed by the amount of
> red, green and blue in it.
>
> It should be easy to extract these values with a program in ARexx or
any
> other language, or you might only need a text editor.
>
> You can tell a good programmer by the formats he uses for data files
> like this. A fool would have used an undocumented binary format. Here
we
> have self-explanatory ASCII.
>
> Regards
Regards
--
DAVID L. STEVENS - dstevens@cityscape.net - Springfield, IL USA
TEAM AMIGA - Jay Miner Society - SPUG Computer Club
http://www.motion.net/dstevens/index.htm

***"Women like silent men. They think they're listening."
-- M. Archaud
***