Customize Display with Color Kit

00c Color Wheel Mixer.mq4
From foot of first post. This is a full upgrade to the mq4 discussed above and a replacement.

Newton's classroom is still in there and a must for a first visit.
I realize it can be an imposition to run through code instead of a doc, but everything is in-house and immediately significant.
If you love/hate the format of the last mq4s, please give a thumb here so I can get a fix.

Below is an attached text file of the interesting parts, so one can follow more closely on-screen:
Because after the color sums, it's either a matter of dragging triangles around, or watching stuff happen.
School, movie after. That's not far off. If you give yourself time to fool around, you'll be fairly started on fundamentals.
At least that's what happened to me a bit. Good luck there.
A ticker will be useful. A dependable one can be found here for free: fx1.net Registration required though.

The interesting elements are not the color coded objects, including the tertiaries, the program draws on-screen.
Those will not be modified in nature by any changes in background. Their visual impression may change completely, but blue is blue
whether on white or black. It will be useful to keep an eye on them though, while following the changes in the areas where they overlap.

On pure Black starting respectively with RGB as the primaries, or on White with CMY, the exact same tertiaries will form.
They do a musical chair thing though, and wind up in different spots. All this can be tried out to hearts content.
After putting the right pieces together once or twice, one should be more comfortable. Best start with RGB on Black, under additive conditions.

Only on Black and White will the pure tertiaries form. When measured with the picker, the exact color code is returned.
On any other achromatic background - all the grays - this will not be the case.
Separate R, G and B components will be affected and the results seem endlessly varied.
Measuring from one "gray" tick to the next, it is easy to find relatively small changes. But, once looping through the grays, well, movie time.

Below is a picture of the core, folded open. This shows all half colors lined up with their respective primaries and secondaries:

Half colors? You didn't do your sums? Newton is known for springing surprise interrogations. Git ;-)

More Color Wheel.

In the core, the half colors have been forced to overlap.
This brings out the tertiaries, according to the color sums from practice.

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Attached Image (click to enlarge)

Colors swap places, because they "line up" with their primaries; RGB on Black and CMY on White.
The half colors themselves, being coded, don't change.

More Color Wheel.

Option Colors Lineup, sets an area where one can Ctrl+Drag elements around to freely arrange.
The rulers should help there.
All 18 relevant colors get set out. Primaries and secondaries on top:

The half colors go in between and line up with the same, but full strength, color above.
Now the tertiaries below do line up each with one correct "parent", but not with their other one.
No rule, they could be arranged otherwise.

To get a feeling one should reason through the combinations.
There are only 3 for black and 3 for white.
All follow the same pattern.

red + lime = yellow:

Olive, half color of yellow, serves for the mix:

Next, maroon - half red and green - half lime are mixed in:

That's it. In this case the two resulting tertiaries are Orange and Chartreuse.
Adding these colors below, as a memory. They won't change with background, but all overlaid areas will:

On White with the now primaries cyan and magenta:

They beget secondary blue. So navy is the half stand-in.
teal - half cyan and purple - half magenta, complete the lineup.

Oops, same tertiary colors. Potluck:


Let's see this family on holidays:

Sorry folks, wrong neighborhood. Nice try with the azure and violet but we got plenty of those.

If you weren't confused before, I sure hope you are now ;-) Join the club.

There was a template ready to go along with the wheel. Sadly, it is no longer with us.
That means you are in luck, and get to make one yourself:



Looping the old gray scale next. I suppose you couldn't wait and tried that first of all.
Gotta love that stuff.

Grid and Cross Hairs.
The two first mq4s from the Coloring Series have been upgraded, and can be downloaded from first post.
The grid has become a bit more inviting, with a much needed pair of cross hairs added.
A thanks to those who have checked things out before. This should do away with a lot of hassle.

A V Line and an H Line are constantly selected and ready to be dragged around.
A double click anytime will un-select a line and send it back to its "parking" spot.
This spot is set in the call, but the default as above should do in most cases.

The point coordinates of the current cursor position (t,p) are provided in several ways:
1. In the Comment line, if that option (default) is set from Input Box.
2. Always at the cursor's parking spot, where they will remain fixed:

Above some details of the default display. Cursor position is 383, 383. Relative positions are also available.
Along both, top and left border, two numbers can be found in fixed locations.
Along the top here, they are 128 and -128.
This indicates that the V line is 128 away from the 511 left border, and -128 from the 255 grid center.
The numbers that correspond to the H line are the same, in respect to the top border and center.
This is because the position chosen is right in the middle of the quadrant.

3. From a label, where the same numbers can also be viewed in a more explanatory layout:

It can be placed anywhere with x,y coordinates, but on the left seems best.
These views are exclusive, because redundant and distracting.
The choice is from the input box:

Here again, ticks or a ticker are needed for it all to work. That, or a long weekend ;-)

The Core and More.
A lot of things are clicking, and then what have you got? See if I know.
Well I don't, so back to class; Core class.
Remember we are looking at real colors resulting from overlaying/mixing on various gray - achromatic - backgrounds.

Above, our "stand-in" half colors. Think of having two pots of paint, one Blue, one Cyan. A painter could throw it all in one big pot and fill it with Azure.
But our "digital RGB" pot is the same size as the 2 others. To get us a pot of Azure, we can only take half of the content of each, Blue and Cyan.
As luck has it, that does the trick and the mix is on as seen before. One on one, resulting colors can be followed/predicted, but with the 6 half colors overlapping it gets harder:

Above, all 6 have been squished in a little bit and the tertiary colors come out.
With some more squishing the core displays as seen previously:


Showing the above shots again to call attention to the other little star, forming in the center.
A little color wheel all it's own with a gray hexagon. The colors are the same on both Black and White background.
And, these colors switch places, just like the tertiary colors.

Get a color picker, please. Not because it is sound advice in this context, but because one can follow right here in the thread!
And that is a big break from setting up. Also, what follows are spoilers. Loop the gray scale first, for a thrill.

Core and more.

A Dwarf Star then. Fractal? It could be folded in again.

On both, Black and White chart background, three of the colors on the points are:
color witch_haze= C'255,255,128'; // Witch Haze*
color magenta_pink= C'255,128,255'; // Magenta Pink (=Fuchsia Pink*)
color electric_blue= C'128,255,255'; // Electric Blue*

These colors are found in the MT4 Custom Color Box and named in the spread-sheet from Post #19
Color names, if not systematized can be anything, but the code, RGB or other, is the real color.

The three other colors are familiar; Maroon, Olive, and Teal. But here they result from mixing, not coded as half color.
To be precise; The colors of these six triangles result from the overlay of four originating half colors.

As for the Gray Levels of the Hexagons, these result from the overlay of all six.
On Black the value is regular clrGray; RGB(128,128,128), on White it is RGB(127,127,127).
I will be writing various gray values as gray_127, gray_128 etc.

Core and more.
When in doubt take it apart. Something one doesn't have to tell kids:

After some fiddling one finds the two triangles that don't cover the area in question.
In this case the Magenta Pink one, RGB(255,128,255). A larger area now takes on this color after removal.

Only 4 remaining half colors. Can we sum or code that?
green+maroon+purple+navy = magenta_pink

That works and is too weird to be laughable. LMAO

Attribution.

I would like to acknowledge the work of the wiki author, who created the color wheel model we benefited from.



Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RBG_color_wheel.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel

Thank you very much Author I shall try to do that personally also.
If not, thanks for the ride and the keys will be in the mail ;-)
apipshort

Core on Gray.
Until now the only mixing results posted have been on Black and White.
Only there pure tertiary colors form. We saw that on Black additive rules apply and on White substractive rules.

In between, Gray. That was pretty much my take in the first posts.
Even a follow up post didn't get me squared away on the fact that additive "territory" runs from Black to Gray_127.
And that substrarctive conditions apply between White and Gray_128. Strictly.

This makes the situation at those particular gray levels very interesting.

But what happens before, when background gray values run up from 0 to 127, and down from 255 to 128, is pretty mysterious.
Near gray_64 and gray_192, the six tertiary colors seem to blend into three. Colors formed here are often referred to as 1/4 and 3/4 colors in HTML presentations. The codes adopted involve combinations of 64 and 192 for RGB values and are easily remembered.


Looks pretty restful. The tertiary colors are actually running "through" each other, and each "branch" has it's own close, but unique RGB codes.
No named colors or any from the custom box seem involved, except clrSilver.

In the center is the little star. Three of it's points actually do take on values as mentioned above, but that happens through mixing.
The hexagons there take on the "opposing" gray value. RGB(192,192,192) on gray_64, and RGB(64,64,64) on gray_192.

This switch over prevails at all gray levels, and the result is the inclusion of a little substractive area in an additive environment, and vice versa.
This holds also on Black and White, where Grays 128 and 127 end up respectively.
These levels will be given more attention in a follow-up.

Core on Gray Levels 127 and 128.
Please note a correction in Post #29 to the phrase; "The three other colors are familiar; Maroon, Olive, and Teal."
The correct colors are Maroon, Green and Navy.

At Gray levels 127 and 128, the morphing of the original tertiary colors comes to a stop.

The final additive level is Gray_127, pictured below:
There appear to be only 3 final colors involved; Purple, Teal and Olive.
But, here also numbers are staggered and "Teals" for example, are found as RGB(0,128,127) and RGB(0,127,128), but not RGB(0,127,127)
So, still 6 colors. Almost made it to 3.


The final substractive level is Gray_128, above:
Here again apparently 3 colors not seen before, but final results are not identical. So, also still 6 colors.

The final target colors would be:
color light_green = C'128,255,128'; // Light Green*
color light_slateblue = C'128,128,255'; // Light Slate Blue*
color light_coral = C'255,128,128'; // Light Coral*
These colors are also found in the MT4 Custom Color Box and named in the spread-sheet from Post #19

Dwarf Star on Gray Levels 127 and 128.
This little guy has taken on a life all it's own, and is now straddling a divide.
Actually straddling, in a nicely paradoxical way. It is acting as a weather vane, or rather color vane.

On Gray_127:
Six triangles, but not the same colors. Three twins, say:
Light Green RGB(128,255,128) and RGB(127,255,127)
Light Slate Blue RGB(128,128,255) and RGB(127,127,255)
Light Coral RGB(255,128,128) and RGB(255,127,127)

These are the target colors, described in the prior post.
And, they very cutely point out the final "tertiary" colors that will appear on Gray_128.


On Gray_128, the same setting on the 6 points:
Olive RGB(127,127,0) and RGB(128,128,0)
Purple RGB(127,0,127) and RGB(128,0,128)
Teal RGB(0,127,127) and RGB(0,128,128)

The same holds here, with pure color forms pointing out the situation back on Gray_127.
As a general rule, internally balanced colors turn up on the Dwarf Stars (made so by additional mixing).
Two out of the three R, G, and B terms, will always be the same.

The central hexagons are finally pure White and Black. The first and only time these two are produced by the mix.
They where there as only backgrounds in the beginning, but now appear as final elements of the foreground.
On the other side of the fence. And lucky us, now ready to to be mixed with any other color for a bit of tinting and shading.
Just kidding.

00c Color Wheel Mixer.mq4
A usability upgrade to the Mixer. Download is from foot of First Post
Same name, just overwrite any existing versions.
Please note that a "Last Edit" date appears at the top of the mq4s. When in doubt go with that.

Descriptions and images start from Post # 21 and up.
It should be possible to replicate all that now in short order, and follow through as wanted.

If new to the thread; It is required to Zoom Out to second last level for viewing!
If you have no coding experience; To activate a code line, delete the // sign in front, and press F7 in the Editor.
This will re-compile the mq4 and show results on screen. If you mess just load a fresh copy.

The Input Box has been cleaned up. Each display option has a number. Selection is by choice of one number.
That choice will remain the Default until changed.
Option #1 is the old classroom. Pick up on Newton's rules, and work the "trick" used to bring out Tertiary colors on the Terminal.

Important are options #4 and #5:
#4 shows the Core Only, and is the best setting to see the effects of different Gray Levels.
#5 sets up a dedicated Working Area for some 101.
Both these settings have been previously mentioned and pictured in the thread.

The narrative in the Comments has been stream lined:
It is now a straight walk through in the start() section, beginning with the Color Sums.
A text file with code was provided for the prior version. Not much good that.
If you don't code and are here for the colors only, best open the mq4 in a decent text editor such as Notepad++, and read along.
To work and experiment no coding is required, and you should be alright.

After all, one can reproduce the mixes shown, by manually putting up and overlaying six properly "half-color" coded triangles.
And, by manually changing the Gray Levels. So, things are already skating on their own.

To take the bother out of all that, two options are available from the Input Box.
The first one is: Gray Levels Only, else Colored BGs


The Option "Gray Levels Only", set to true by Default, allows for the manual setting of Gray Levels from the Edit Box.
Set this Option to false, in order to normally use Colored Chart Backgrounds from the Input Box.
Also, the Label with Chart RGB information can be moved anywhere on screen, or deleted.

The second option is: Chart Loops the Gray Scale. All combinations possible will show up in order.
Ticks required for both options. At least one to read the Edit Box after hitting [Enter].
And more for every gray-tick of the chart background.

check this....color codes