Terminal Color emulation problems (emacs)

I'm trying to use emacs for a C course I'm taking in college, and my goal is to configure it like a fully functional IDE. So far I'm at color problems.
I've installed the color-themes package along with cc-mode, and some text/background combinations aren't being emulated correctly. For example, certain bold things have the same foreground and background colors, such as file names and other stuff. I've been having more problems with other color emulation too, like servers that use color emulation for ls to show different types of files.
Also, I can't seem to use control+meta at the same time, it just uses meta.
My terminal is set to xterm-color
Here are some images demonstrating the problem:
http://users.wpi.edu/~zm/emacs-colors1.jpg
http://users.wpi.edu/~zm/emacs-colors2.jpg
Here is my .emacs file :
(custom-set-variables
;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom -- don't edit or cut/paste it!
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
'(case-fold-search t)
'(current-language-environment "English"))
(custom-set-faces
;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom -- don't edit or cut/paste it!
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; add ~/emacs-libs to load path
(setq load-path (cons "~/emacs-libs" load-path))
(progn (cd "~/emacs-libs") (normal-top-level-add-subdirs-to-load-path))
(progn (cd "~/"))
;; load color-theme library and start color-theme-andreas
(global-font-lock-mode t 1)
(font-lock-mode)
(load-library "color-theme")
(color-theme-initialize)
(color-theme-andreas)
;; load line number mode
(require 'linum)
;; Create my personal style.
(defconst my-c-style
'((c-cleanup-list . (brace-else-brace
brace-elsif-brace
brace-catch-brace
empty-defun-braces
defun-close-semi
list-close-comma))
"My C Programming Style")
(c-add-style "PERSONAL" my-c-style)
;; Customizations for all modes in CC Mode.
(defun my-c-mode-common-hook ()
;; set my personal style for the current buffer
(c-set-style "PERSONAL"))
;; Customizations for all modes in CC Mode.
(add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook 'my-c-mode-common-hook)

Are you using the emacs that Apple provides in Terminal? The one in /usr/bin?
If so, perhaps you would be happier with an emacs that understands the idea of having its own windows?
Two ways to do that...
1) Use X windows, and install an emacs that understands X windows
2) Find one of the versions of emacs that has been taught to understand Aqua, i.e., that works within the Finder/Desktop environment.
Of the latter, I think there are couple out there on the web, Aquamacs Emacs and Carbon Emacs (but I don't keep carefull track, so I'm not sure).
For the former, it's a bit more work to find and install such an emacs. One possibility is the "fink" package management system.

Similar Messages

RGB values of current terminal color settings?

The colors displayed for different ANSI escape codes are configurable via .Xdefaults or directly on the command line via other ANSI escapes.
Is there any way to dump the current values from a terminal? For example, given the ANSI escape code "\033[31m", I would like to know the current RGB values used to display it.
Obviously this will depend on the terminal (e.g. urxvt can have different settings from xterm), but I'm hoping that there is some obscure tool to do this.

Coincidentally, I recently wrote a script to do exactly this: query all the color values from a terminal emulator and show them in a nice table. I was planning to make a thread for this, but this thread is perfect. In my opinion, the strategy of querying colors from the terminal itself is superior (when it is supported by the terminal) to mucking around with .Xresources, .Xdefaults, or "xrdb --query", which only work in pretty limited situations. The drawbacks of my approach are: (1) it can be challenging to make the same code work on different terminal emulators, and (2) you have to use it from the terminal you want to query, and not from within a screen or tmux session. (I think there may be partial workarounds for (2), but I haven't implemented them.) I've tested my code on a number of terminals, and the upshot is that xterm and urxvt are supported flawlessly, and VTE-based terminals like gnome-terminal and XFCE's "Terminal" are almost fully supported. (I wasn't able to query the default foreground and background colors, but everything else seems to work.) Most other X terminals don't seem to support this method of querying color values.
Here's an example of what the script produces:
Obviously, that's a heavily formatted table, but I think the code has enough comments that you can take what you need from it. It works under python 3 or python 2.7.
Edit: This version is superseded by the one in post #27, which is structured better. I'm leaving this here since some of the future replies refer to it.
#!/usr/bin/python
This is a Python script to show off your terminal ANSI colors (or more
colors, if your terminal has them). It works on both Python 2.7 and
Python 3.
This script must be run from the terminal whose colors you want to
showcase. Not all terminal types are supported (see below). At the
very minimum, 16-color support is required.
Fully supported terminals:
xterm
urxvt
For these terminals, this script can show a color table with correct RGB
values for each color. It queries the RGB values from the terminal
itself, so it works even if you change the colors after starting the
terminal.
Mostly supported terminals: pretty much all VTE-based terminals. This
includes:
vte
Terminal (XFCE)
gnome-terminal
terminator
tilda
and many more. These are on "mostly" status because I don't know how to
query their foreground and background colors. Everything else works,
though, albeit with noticeable slowness (which may be beyond this
script's control).
Somewhat supported terminals: pretty much all other X-client terminals
I've tried. These include:
konsole (KDE)
terminology (Enlightenment)
Eterm (Enlightenment)
(etc.)
For these terminals, the script can output a color table just fine, but
without RGB values.
Unsupported terminals:
ajaxterm
Linux virtual console (i.e., basic TTY without X-windows)
Warning: do not run this script on the Linux virtual console unless you
want a garbled TTY! That said, you can still type `tput reset<Enter>'
afterward to get back to a usable console. :-) The situation with
ajaxterm is similar, but not as bad.
If a terminal isn't mentioned here, I probably haven't tried it. Attempt
at your own risk!
Note regarding screen/tmux: this script can theoretically be run from a
screen or tmux session, but you will not get any RGB values in the
output (indeed, a screen session can be opened on multiple terminals
simultaneously, so there typically isn't a well defined color value for
a given index). However, it's interesting to observe that screen and
tmux emulate a 256 color terminal independently of the terminal(s)
to which they are attached, which is very apparent if you run the script
with 256-color output on a screen session attached to a terminal with 8-
or 16-color terminfo (or with $TERM set to such).
This code is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
and with absolutely no warranty. All use is strictly at your own risk.
from sys import stdin, stdout, stderr
import re
import select
import termios
from collections import defaultdict
from argparse import (ArgumentParser, ArgumentError)
# Operating system command
osc = "\033]"
# String terminator
# ("\033\\" is another option, but "\007" seems to be understood by
# more terminals. Terminology, for example, doesn't seem to like
# "\033\\".)
st = "\007"
# Control sequence introducer
csi = "\033["
# ANSI SGR0
reset = csi + 'm'
# Errors that may be raised by rgb_query
num_errors = 0
class InvalidResponseError(Exception):
The terminal's response couldn't be parsed.
def __init__(self, q, r):
global num_errors
num_errors += 1
Exception.__init__(self, "Couldn't parse response " + repr(r) +
" to query " + repr(q))
class NoResponseError(Exception):
The terminal didn't respond, or we were too impatient.
def __init__(self, q):
global num_errors
num_errors += 1
Exception.__init__(self, "Timeout on query " + repr(q))
# Wrappers for xterm & urxvt operating system controls.
# These codes are all common to xterm and urxvt. Their responses aren't
# always in the same format (xterm generally being more consistent), but
# the regular expression used to parse the responses is general enough
# to work for both.
# Note: none of these functions is remotely thread-safe.
def get_fg(timeout):
Get the terminal's foreground (text) color as a 6-digit
hexadecimal string.
return rgb_query([10], timeout)
def get_bg(timeout):
Get the terminal's background color as a 6-digit hexadecimal
string.
return rgb_query([11], timeout)
def get_color(a, timeout):
Get color a as a 6-digit hexadecimal string.
return rgb_query([4, a], timeout)
def test_fg(timeout):
Return True if the terminal responds to the "get foreground" query
within the time limit and False otherwise.
return test_rgb_query([10], timeout)
def test_bg(timeout):
Return True if the terminal responds to the "get background" query
within the time limit and False otherwise.
return test_rgb_query([11], timeout)
def test_color(timeout):
Return True if the terminal responds to the "get color 0" query
within the time limit and False otherwise.
return test_rgb_query([4, 0], timeout)
def test_rgb_query(q, timeout):
Determine if the terminal supports query q.
Arguments: `q' and `timeout' have the same interpretation as in
rgb_query().
Return: True if the terminal gives a valid response within the
time limit and False otherwise.
This function will not raise InvalidResponseError or
NoResponseError, but any other errors raised by rgb_query will
be propagated.
try:
rgb_query(q, timeout)
return True
except (InvalidResponseError, NoResponseError):
return False
# String to use for color values that couldn't be determined
rgb_placeholder = '??????'
# This is what we expect the terminal's response to a query for a color
# to look like. If we didn't care about urxvt, we could get away with a
# simpler implementation here, since xterm and vte seem to give pretty
# consistent and systematic responses. But I actually use urxvt most of
# the time, so....
ndec = "[0-9]+"
nhex = "[0-9a-fA-F]+"
crgb = ("\033\\]({ndec};)+rgba?:" +
"({nhex})/({nhex})/({nhex})(/({nhex}))?").format(**vars())
re_response = re.compile(crgb)
# The problem I'm attempting to work around with this complicated
# implementation is that if you supply a terminal with a query that it
# does not recognize or does not have a good response to, it will simply
# not respond *at all* rather than signaling the error in any way.
# Moreover, there is a large variation in how long terminals take to
# respond to valid queries, so it's difficult to know whether the
# terminal has decided not to respond at all or it needs more time.
# This is why rgb_query has a user-settable timeout.
P = select.poll()
P.register(stdin.fileno(), select.POLLIN)
def flush_input():
Discard any input that can be read at this moment.
repeat = True
while repeat:
evs = P.poll(0)
if len(evs) > 0:
stdin.read()
repeat = True
else:
repeat = False
def rgb_query(q, timeout=-1):
Query a color-valued terminal parameter.
Arguments:
q: The query code as a sequence of nonnegative integers, i.e.,
[q0, q1, ...] if the escape sequence in pseudo-Python is
"\033]{q0};{q1};...;?\007"
timeout: how long to wait for a response. (negative means
wait indefinitely if necessary)
Return: the color value as a 6-digit hexadecimal string.
Errors:
NoResponseError will be raised if the query times out.
InvalidResponseError will be raised if the terminal's
response can't be parsed.
See
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html
("Operating System Controls") to see the various queries
supported by xterm. Urxvt supports some, but not all, of them,
and has a number of its own (see man -s7 urxvt).
Warning: before calling this function, make sure the terminal is
in noncanonical, non-blocking mode.
query = osc + ';'.join([str(k) for k in q]) + ';?' + st
flush_input()
stdout.write(query)
stdout.flush()
# This is addmittedly flawed, since it assumes the entire response
# will appear in one shot. It seems to work in practice, though.
evs = P.poll(timeout)
if len(evs) == 0:
raise NoResponseError(query)
r = stdin.read()
m = re_response.search(r)
if not m:
raise InvalidResponseError(query, r)
# (possibly overkill, since I've never seen anything but 4-digit RGB
# components in responses from terminals, in which case `nd' is 4
# and `u' is 0xffff, and the following can be simplified as well
# (and parse_component can be eliminated))
nd = len(m.group(2))
u = int('f'*nd, 16)
# An "rgba"-type reply (for urxvt) is apparently actually
# rgba:{alpha}/{alpha * red}/{alpha * green}/{alpha * blue}
# I opt to extract the actual RGB values by eliminating alpha. (In
# other words, the alpha value is discarded completely in the
# reported color value, which is a compromise I make in order to get
# an intuitive and compact output.)
if m.group(5):
# There is an alpha component
alpha = float(int(m.group(2), 16))/u
idx = [3, 4, 6]
else:
# There is no alpha component
alpha = 1.0
idx = [2, 3, 4]
c_fmt = '%0' + ('%d' % nd) + 'x'
components = [int(m.group(i), 16) for i in idx]
t = tuple(parse_component(c_fmt % (c/alpha)) for c in components)
return "%02X%02X%02X" % t
def parse_component(s):
Take a string representation of a hexadecimal integer and transorm
the two most significant digits into an actual integer (or double
the string if it has only one character).
n = len(s)
if n == 1:
s += s
elif n > 2:
s = s[:2]
return int(s, 16)
def test_num_colors(timeout):
Attempt to determine the number of colors we are able to query from
the terminal. timeout is measured in milliseconds and has the same
interpretation as in rgb_query. A larger timeout is safer but will
cause this function to take proportionally more time.
if not test_color(timeout):
return 0
a = 0
b = 1
while test_rgb_query([4, b], timeout):
a = b
b += b
while b - a > 1:
c = (a + b)>>1
if test_rgb_query([4, c], timeout):
a = c
else:
b = c
return b
class ColorDisplay(object):
Class for producing a colored display of terminal RGB values.
def __init__(self, timeout=100, color_level=3, do_query=True):
timeout: same interpretation as in rgb_query. A larger timeout
will be used a small number of times to test the
capabilities of the terminal.
color_level: how much color should be in the output. Use 0 to
suppress all color and 3 or greater for maximum coloredness.
do_query: whether to attempt to query RGB values from the
terminal or just use placeholders everywhere
self.timeout=timeout
self.color_level=color_level
# try getting the rgb value for color 0 to decide whether to
# bother trying to query any more colors.
self.do_query = do_query and test_color(self.timeout*5)
def none_factory():
return None
# colors for highlighting
self.hi = defaultdict(none_factory)
self.hi['['] = 10
self.hi[']'] = 10
self.hi['+'] = 9
self.hi['/'] = 9
for c in '0123456789ABCDEF':
self.hi[c] = 12
def show_ansi(self):
Show the 16 ANSI colors (colors 0-15).
color_order = [0, 1, 3, 2, 6, 4, 5, 7]
names = [' Black ', ' Red ', ' Green ', ' Yellow ',
' Blue ', ' Magenta', ' Cyan ', ' White ']
stdout.write(self.fgcolor('15', 3))
for k in range(8):
a = color_order[k]
stdout.write(names[a])
stdout.write('\n')
stdout.write(self.fgcolor(None, 3))
c = None
for k in range(8):
a = color_order[k]
c = self.hiprint(' [%X/%X] ' % (a, 8 + a), c)
stdout.write('\n')
self.show_color_table([0,8], color_order)
def show_color_cube(self, n):
Show the "RGB cube" (xterm colors 16-231 (256-color) or 16-79
(88-color)). The cube has sides of length 6 or 4 (for 256-color
or 88-color, respectively).
base = {256:6, 88:4}[n]
c = None
c = self.hiprint('[ + ] ', c)
for w in range(base):
c = self.hiprint('[%X] ' % w, c)
stdout.write('\n\n' + self.fgcolor(None, 3))
for u in range(base):
for v in range(base):
stdout.write(' '*v)
x = (u*base + v)*base
self.hiprint(' [%02X] ' % (16 + x))
for w in range(base):
self.show_color(x + w + 16)
stdout.write('\n')
stdout.write('\n\n')
def show_grayscale_ramp(self, end):
Show the "grayscale ramp" (xterm colors 232-255 (256-color) or
80-87 (88-color)).
start = {256:232, 88:80}[end]
n = end - start
vals = [self.get_color(a) for a in range(start, end)]
#stdout.write(reset)
c = None
c = self.hiprint('[ ', c)
for v in range(n):
c = self.hiprint('%02X ' % (start + v), c)
c = self.hiprint(']\n', c)
stdout.write('\n ' + self.fgcolor(None, 3))
for v in range(n):
stdout.write(' ' + self.block(start + v, 2))
stdout.write('\n ')
for u in range(3):
for v in range(n):
stdout.write(' ')
stdout.write(self.fgcolor(start + v, 2))
stdout.write(vals[v][2*u : 2*(u + 1)])
stdout.write(self.fgcolor(None, 2))
stdout.write('\n ')
stdout.write('\n')
def show_colors(self, n):
Make a table showing colors 0 through n-1.
self.show_color_table(range(0,n,8), range(8), n, True)
def show_color_table(self, rows, cols, stop=-1, label=False):
Make a color table with all possible color indices of the form
rows[k] + cols[j] that are less than `stop' (if `stop' is not
negative). If label is True, then print row and column labels.
if label:
self.hiprint('[ + ]')
stdout.write(self.fgcolor(None, 3))
for a in cols:
stdout.write(' ' + self.octal(a) + ' ')
stdout.write('\n')
if label:
stdout.write(' ')
stdout.write('\n')
for b in rows:
if label:
stdout.write(self.octal(b) + ' ')
for a in cols:
c = a + b
if stop < 0 or c < stop:
self.show_color(b + a)
else:
stdout.write(' ')
stdout.write('\n')
stdout.write('\n')
def show_color(self, a):
Make a pretty display of color number `a', showing a block of
that color followed by the 6-character hexadecimal code for the
color.
stdout.write(' ' + self.block(a) + ' ')
stdout.write(self.fgcolor(a, 2) + (self.get_color(a)))
stdout.write(self.fgcolor(None, 2))
def hiprint(self, s, last_color=-1):
Print s to stdout, highlighting digits, brackets, etc. if the
color level allows it.
Arguments:
s: the string to print.
last_color: the current terminal foreground color. This
should be `None' if no color is set, or the current
color index, or something else (like a negative integer)
if the color isn't known. (The last option is always
safe and will force this function to do the right
thing.)
Return: the current foreground color, which can be passed as
last_color to the next call if the color isn't changed in
between.
for c in s:
if c == ' ':
color = last_color
else:
color = self.hi[c]
if color != last_color:
stdout.write(self.fgcolor(color, 3))
stdout.write(c)
last_color = color
return last_color
def octal(self, x):
Return a base-8 string for the integer x, highlighted if the
color level allows it.
return self.fgcolor(self.hi['+'], 3) + '0' + \
self.fgcolor(self.hi['0'], 3) + ('%03o' % x)
def block(self, c, n=1):
Return a string that prints as a block of color `c' and size `n'.
return self.bgcolor(c, 1) + ' '*n + self.bgcolor(None, 1)
# Changing the foreground and background colors.
# While the 38;5 and 48;5 SGR codes are less portable than the usual
# 30-37 and 40-47, these codes seem to be fairly widely implemented (on
# X-windows terminals, screen, and tmux) and support the whole color
# range, as opposed to just colors 0-8. They also make it very easy to
# set the background to a given color without needing to mess around
# with bold or reverse video (which are hardly portable themselves).
# This is useful even for the 16 ANSI colors.
def fgcolor(self, a=None, level=-1):
Return a string designed to set the foreground color to `a' when
printed to the terminal. None means default.
if self.color_level >= level:
if a is None:
return csi + '39m'
else:
return csi + '38;5;' + str(a) + 'm'
else:
return ''
def bgcolor(self, a=None, level=-1):
Return a string designed to set the background color to `a' when
printed to the terminal. None means default.
if self.color_level >= level:
if a is None:
return csi + '49m'
else:
return csi + '48;5;' + str(a) + 'm'
else:
return ''
def get_color(self, a):
if self.do_query:
try:
return get_color(a, timeout=self.timeout)
except (InvalidResponseError, NoResponseError):
return rgb_placeholder
else:
return rgb_placeholder
# Command-line arguments
timeout_dft = 200
parser = ArgumentParser(
description="Python script to show off terminal colors.",
epilog="Run this script from the terminal whose colors " +
"you want to showcase. " +
"For a brief synopsis of which terminal types are " +
"supported, see the top of the source code.")
mode_group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
p_choices = [16, 88, 256]
arg_p = mode_group.add_argument(
'-p', '--pretty',
action='store_true', default=False,
help="show colors 0 through N-1 in a pretty format. " +
("N must belong to %r. " % p_choices) +
"If N > 16, it should be the actual number of colors " +
"supported by the terminal, or the output will almost " +
"certainly not be pretty.")
mode_group.add_argument(
'-f', '--flat',
action='store_true', default=False,
help="show a simple table with colors 0 through N-1. ")
parser.add_argument(
'n', nargs='?', metavar='N',
type=int, default=16,
help="number of colors to show. " +
"Unless you explicitly supply -p/--pretty or -f/--flat, " +
"--pretty is used if possible and --flat is used " +
"otherwise. " +
"N defaults to 16, showing the ANSI colors 0-15. " +
"If N is 0, the script will attempt to determine the " +
"maximum number of colors automatically " +
"(which may be slow).")
parser.add_argument(
'--no-fgbg',
action='store_false', dest='fgbg', default=True,
help="suppress display of foreground/background colors.")
parser.add_argument(
'--no-query',
action='store_false', dest='do_query', default=True,
help="don't try to query any RGB values from the terminal " +
"and just use placeholders.")
parser.add_argument(
'-t', '--timeout', metavar='T',
type=int, default=timeout_dft,
help="how long to wait for the terminal to "
"respond to a query, in milliseconds " +
"[default: {0}]. ".format(timeout_dft) +
"If your output has '?' characters " +
"instead of RGB values " +
"or junk printed after the script runs, " +
"increasing this value may or may not " +
"help, depending on the terminal. " +
"A negative T will behave like infinity.")
parser.add_argument(
'-l', '--level', metavar='L',
type=int, default=3,
help="choose how much color to use in the output. " +
"(0 = no color; 3 = most color [default])")
if __name__ == '__main__':
args = parser.parse_args()
assert not (args.pretty and args.flat)
if args.pretty:
if args.n not in p_choices:
raise ArgumentError(
arg_p,
"N must belong to %r" % p_choices)
tc_save = None
try:
tc_save = termios.tcgetattr(stdout.fileno())
tc = termios.tcgetattr(stdout.fileno())
# Don't echo the terminal's responses
tc[3] &= ~termios.ECHO
# Noncanonical mode (i.e., disable buffering on the terminal
# level)
tc[3] &= ~termios.ICANON
# Make input non-blocking
tc[6][termios.VMIN] = 0
tc[6][termios.VTIME] = 0
termios.tcsetattr(stdout.fileno(), termios.TCSANOW, tc)
if args.n == 0:
args.n = test_num_colors(args.timeout)
# We are guaranteed to have failed some queries now, but
# that isn't meaningful.
num_errors = 0
if not (args.pretty or args.flat):
if args.n in p_choices:
args.pretty = True
else:
args.flat = True
if args.level >= 1:
stdout.write(reset)
if args.fgbg:
if args.do_query:
try:
bg = get_bg(timeout=args.timeout)
except (InvalidResponseError, NoResponseError):
bg = rgb_placeholder
try:
fg = get_fg(timeout=args.timeout)
except (InvalidResponseError, NoResponseError):
fg = rgb_placeholder
else:
bg = rgb_placeholder
fg = rgb_placeholder
stdout.write("\n Background: %s\n" % bg)
stdout.write(" Foreground: %s\n\n" % fg)
C = ColorDisplay(args.timeout, args.level, args.do_query)
if args.pretty:
assert args.n in p_choices
stdout.write('\n ANSI colors:\n\n')
C.show_ansi()
if args.n > 16:
stdout.write('\n RGB cube:\n\n')
C.show_color_cube(args.n)
stdout.write(' Grayscale ramp:\n\n')
C.show_grayscale_ramp(args.n)
else:
C.show_colors(args.n)
if num_errors > 0:
stderr.write("Warning: not all queries succeeded\n" +
"Warning: (output contains " +
"placeholders and may be inaccurate)\n")
finally:
if args.level >= 1:
stdout.write(reset)
flush_input()
if tc_save != None:
termios.tcsetattr(stdout.fileno(),
termios.TCSANOW, tc_save)
Run it as
python showcolors.py -h
to get an overview of the functionality.
TL;DR: you can echo a string like "\033]4;13;?\007" to an xterm, and it will output the RGB value of color #13 to itself in the form "\033]4;13;rgb:rrrr/gggg/bbbb\007", which you can then read and parse. To try it out:
$ echo -en "\033]4;13;?\007"
There are some subtleties if you want this to work on other terminals like urxvt; for that you can experiment yourself or read the code.
Further reading: http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html (heading "Operating System Controls").
Xyne, regarding determining the number of colors: I don't know how to do that completely reliably. You can try simply
tput colors
but this relies on the value of $TERM and its terminfo and thus may be unreliable. A kludgy but workable way to do this using the "rgb_query" function in my script is to query color values using binary search to find the highest color value the terminal will allow you to query. The main problem with this is that if you query an invalid color index, then the terminal just won't respond at all, and if you query a valid index, it will respond but after a somewhat unpredictable delay, so it's hard to know for sure which one is the case. Like I said, it's kludgy but workable.
Edit: I went ahead and added that functionality to my script. Try running it as
python showcolors.py 0
or look at the function "test_num_colors".
Last edited by Lux Perpetua (2012-10-22 11:18:21)

PLEASE HELP - COLOR SHIFTING PROBLEM on output NTSC monitors

http://www.smmlv.com/testproject/
Above is a link to a layered photoshop file that has a USA map and over a dozen network overlays used in a section of our video. I animate each layer on sepeartely in the video and have noticed a major problem recently, the color of the art does not hold true to placement. I created the art originally in Illustrator and then converted the file to Photoshop at 640x480, 72dpi. This has always worked perfectly in the past to display and animated artwork in FCP.
Right now, in FCP I am using the NTSC DV 3:2 frame size, and the compressor of DV/DVCPRO - NTSC. I have a JVC Profressional DV deck that hooks up through firewire and sends S-Video to my monitors. This setup has always given me a great picture even though it is not completely upcompressed. Using these settings and this art, the color lines on this map in red, light blue, yellow and purple all have a "color shift" to the left about 5 pixels. It makes it appear that the line is where it is in the file, but the color overlaying the line is offset to the left 5 pixels and transperant to about 50%. This occurs only when viewed on some TV's and NTSC monitors and projectors. The strange thing is, some monitors display the color aligned almost perfectly on these maps and other monitors and projectors show this "digital halo" of color shifting really bad. If I take the layered network overlays in these colors and color tint them to black or grey, white, light green, or even light orange, they no longer have the color shifting and the detail is perfect.
Is there any way to fix this problem? I have tried duplicating the sequence and setting the compressor to 8bit Uncompressed, and while my captured footage is not this compression, in theory the art should render at this higher resolution setting. This did nothing to solve the problem.
I also have tried using different Broadcast safe and Y/C corrector filters with different results. The Y/C filter allowed me to reposition the color problem and thus removing most of the problem, but also removing most of the color. Nothing else has allowed me to seemingly move the color into the proper possition.
What is causing this color shift on the displayed NTSC image?
In FCP 4.5 I can see my rendered video in the program viewer screen and besides the pixel compression appearing on the lines, overall the video looks great paused or even better when playing. Then you view it through my deck onto my Pro Sony NTSC 19" color monitor and it also appears great, with a slight color halo to the left of these colors, but the color in the lines are there. If you are a few feet from the screen and know what you are looking for you might see it, but doubtful. Then you view it using the same signal on a 17" Samsung TV and the color shifting makes the map and other art, like the clients blue logo, look horrible, with each color line appearing twice and offset left from each other as if you had double vision. Normally I would think it is the TV causing this, but then we tested this same movie on 2 differnt projectors. The $700 Epson projector displayed everything beautifully, again with only the slightest color halo to the left, but then the Panasonic $4000 projector made everthing in these colors look double vision again. What is going on???
One more thing to keep in mind, my color bars also show this problem with these colors as well as shot footage of these facilities. There are tall red poles in the shots and everything displays fine except for the red pole color looks like it's glowing off the pole to the left.
PLEASE tell me there is a solution to this.

I have tried Degaussing, using filters, changing cables, and testing other monitors and systems on these monitors, everthing I can think of to solve the issue. Is it FCPo or is it the monitors?... or is it a signal strength thing. Can monitors and projectors shift color when the signal is read from a DVD or Mini DV Deck? Is there a fequency difference (Ie: 75mgz or 80 mgz) that might be causing the shift in some monitors and not so badly in others. But if this was true, how would some DVD's (like Baby Einstein DVDs that use really bright colors) display red and blue perfect using these same player and monitor, while my projects is shifting color? Doesn't that rule out the signal from the DVD player if other DVD's do not have this issue?
I have uploaded the original art used, an exported .jpg file from the FCP timeline and sample photos of 2 different monitors to show to show this problem as best I can. http://www.smmlv.com/testproject/
Someone out there must have had this problem before. There's no way a color shift problem like this with Mini DV has gone on this long without someone seeing it.
One last thing about what I have tried... I do understand that with editing in Mini DV instead of uncompressed or HD video I lose a bit of resolution (4:2:2) and I see this compression occuring in some of the areas in the video where these problems persist. But, I did remake the art and rerender this project in an 8bit uncompressed settings and then displayed that up on the screen and I get the same color shift. I keep going in circles trying to find the culprit that is causing the delema.
PLEASE HELP! There are large tours going through our facilities daily and the large screen projector is displaying this problem as well. Let's just hope they don't notice and that their TV's at home or office does not display it on our final DVD's made.

Some terminal color functions, including directory-based prompt colors

All of this code is taken from my ~/.bashrc. Note that some variables are outside of functions. It should be easy to adapt everything below to your own preferences.
This is my PS1 prompt. Note how the color variables are used.
COLOR_1="\[\e[1;37m\]"
COLOR_2="\[\e[0;37m\]"
COLOR_3="\[\e[1;34m\]"
COLOR_4="\[\e[1;30m\]"
function set_ps1()
PS1="\n${COLOR_3}┌─[${COLOR_2}\u${COLOR_3}@${COLOR_4}\h ${COLOR_2}\w${COLOR_3}]\n${COLOR_3}└─> ${COLOR_2}"
set_ps1
A while ago I wrote this function to change the color of "decorations" in the prompt. It works by changing one of the color variables. If invoked with a number it will set the corresponding color, otherwise it will choose a random color from the available palette.
_palette=$(tput colors)
function color()
NUMBER=$1
if [ -z "$NUMBER" ]; then
NUMBER=$[ ( $RANDOM % $_palette ) + 1 ]
echo "number $NUMBER"
fi
COLOR_3="\[\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m\]"
set_ps1
Recently, when I was playing with colors, I also wrote this function to display the 256-color palette so I could easily choose a color to pass to the function above. If you pass it an argument, it will display the palette in a wide format.
function colors()
for NUMBER in $(seq 0 15); do
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
done
echo ""
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
for _I in $(seq 0 5); do
for _J in $(seq 0 5); do
for _K in $(seq 0 5); do
NUMBER=$((16 + $_I + 6 * $_J + 36 * $_K ))
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
done
echo -n " "
for _K in $(seq 0 5); do
NUMBER=$((16 + 36 * $_I + $_J + 6 * $_K))
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
done
echo -n " "
for _K in $(seq 0 5); do
NUMBER=$((16 + 6 * $_I + 36 * $_J + $_K))
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
done
echo ""
done
echo ""
done
else
for _I in $(seq 0 5); do
for _J in $(seq 0 5); do
for _K in $(seq 0 5); do
NUMBER=$((16 + 6 * $_I + $_J + 36 * $_K))
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
#echo -n " $_I$_J$_K"
done
echo -n " "
done
echo ""
done
echo ""
for _I in $(seq 0 5); do
for _J in $(seq 0 5); do
for _K in $(seq 0 5); do
NUMBER=$((16 + $_I + 36 * $_J + 6 * $_K))
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
#echo -n " $_I$_J$_K"
done
echo -n " "
done
echo ""
done
echo ""
for _I in $(seq 0 5); do
for _J in $(seq 0 5); do
for _K in $(seq 0 5); do
NUMBER=$((16 + 36 * $_I + 6 * $_J + $_K))
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
#echo -n " $_I$_J$_K"
done
echo -n " "
done
echo ""
done
echo ""
fi
for NUMBER in $(seq 232 255); do
printf "\e[0;38;5;${NUMBER}m%4d" $NUMBER
done
Even more recently, I've been using certain colors to provide visual cues about directory location that let me quickly scan open terminals to find the one I want, so I've written this function, which will change the PS1 prompt based on directory. Just add in cases as you need them and change the colors as you like (the colors below are just an example). You can use it synonymously with "cd".
function ccd()
cd $@
_dir=$(pwd)/
case $_dir in
~/projects/*)
color 202
/tmp/*)
color 49
/usr/*)
color 190
color 12
esac
Use this thread to post your own terminal color functions or variations of others that you've found here, along with feedback, discussion, etc.

I expect this to become something of a bargain bin for terminal color functions. A bit of rummaging might turn up a few gems, but most of it will be worthless crap to most.

Color saturation problem in Acrobat Reader 7.0.9 under Linux

Hi,
I'm working with a guy who is producing PDFs of my work with Indesign.
Using acrobat reader under Linux (version 7.0.1 and also 7.0.9), the colours in these PDFs always appear very saturated. This is a big problem for me because I cannot see with the reference viewer the results of PDFs to be sent to print.
I tried the same pdf file under OS X & Windows, it appears OK with Acrobat reader. Other free pdf readers under Linux also show the right colours (but not always the transparency ;-).
Does anybody has an idea to help me?
@Adobe people: in case you want to test, I drop a copy of my PDF file at: http://cardot.net/files/pdfcolours.pdf (2.24 MB)
Thanks in advance
Jean-Christophe Cardot

We are able to reproduce color saturation problem at our end. We have noted down and will work on this.
Thanks.

Color Separations Problem in Acrobat 8/9 Pro

We recently discovered a color separation problem in Acrobat 8 Pro and 9 Pro. In version 7 Pro we could select and thus include 'empty' color sep pages. Now when we select seps of the all the available colors, seps are produced only for those colors actually used in the job. This is true of pre-separated and in-rip seps. Can anyone shine some light on this 'change'? Thanks!

We are able to reproduce color saturation problem at our end. We have noted down and will work on this.
Thanks.

Pavilion dv7-4060us Color Printing Problems...

I just bought a new Pavilion dv7-4060us Notebook and am having problems printing in color. I have a Xerox Phaser 8550DP PS Printer that I'm trying to connect to through a wireless network connection. I can find the printer on the network and install the "Xerox Phaser 8550DP PS" driver online just fine. But, after all that, when I try to print, it will only print in Black and White. For some reason it just will not print in color. I've looked through all my "printer properties" and it doesn't even show color options! It's like my computer just doesn't even recognize that the printer can print colors. Like maybe that printer's driver is for some reason not recognizing it as that actual printer?!
I tried deleting the printer and the driver off my computer and installing it using the printer's original CD, but it says it's not compatible with Windows 7 OS. But installing the driver via online and using the CD should basically be the same thing shouldn't it? So that can't be the problem. The "HP printer help website" doesn't really help at all because it's a Xerox printer and not an HP. After reading through some forum posts I figured maybe it was a firewall problem, but wouldn't the firewall stop me from printing all together...not just prevent me from printing color?
Has anyone seen this happen before or heard of anything like this happening? Right when I got the computer I kind of went through and deleted a few things I thought were Crapware, so the only thing I can think of right now is that maybe I accidentally deleted some kind of software program that lets me print color?! Which doesn't really make any sense, so I don't think that's it.
Also, I know it's not a Windows 7 OS problem or my wireless connection because my brother's computer uses Windows 7 and connects through wireless as well, but his can print color just fine. He set his computer up like a year ago so he can't remember how he set it all up or what he did, so he's kind of useless.
As of right now the only thing I can think of to do is try posting on this HP help forum and post on the Xerox Printer help forum and see if anyone has any advice for me. If you have any ideas I'm up for trying anything because I pretty much NEED to be able to print from this computer!! Any information can help out a lot so just let me know. Thanks!

I have exactly the same problem with my dv7-4171us, my husband has the same printer and it print fine on my Xerox but mine only prints in black and white, its very frustrating. I called HP and after 2 hours on the phone they couldnt fix it either.
I'm thinking of doing a full "f11" factory restore. If anyone knows how to fix the color printing problem please let me know.

Lightroom (ACR 4) color management problems

Lightroom (or ACR 4) has some color management problems. When I develop a DNG into Photoshop (sRGB) everything looks great. Then I proof colors for the web (monitor RGB) the reds become oversaturated. I don't see this problem when I develop the same DNG using Bridge (ACR 3).
Any picture that I develop using LR that looks great in Photoshop, becomes way too red when published on the web.
Whats going on here?

I have confirmed this finding using Photoshop CS3 beta - same problem in converting to the web - too red!

Color Scheme Problems in Ultiboard

Hi, I've been having trouble with the color scheme problems in Ultiboard ever since I upgraded form 10.0 to 10.1. The color schemes will not save in Ultiboard 10.1, even with the new patch 10.1.0.1, this problem is persistant.
Here's the problem in detail:
In global Preferences, I click on "Colors", and then New Scheme, give it a name, and I define my colors. However, when I open a new file, the colors are reverted to the default. When I check the preferences again, the name that I have given to my color scheme is labeled as "User settings", and they are the same as the default colors.
This is really annoying as every time I open a file, I have to change the color schemes. It seems like these settings are not being saved in the user-configuration file for some reason or another.
I have tried deleting my user-config file in the user directories, and started new user-config files, but to no avail, the problem is persistent. The color just will not stay.
How do I get around this problem?
-J

Hello,
Thanks for reporting this. I was able to reproduce the issue and created a defect report, ID: 112869.
Fernando D.
National Instruments

I have a color management problem. I have OS X v 10.5, Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, and an Epson Stylus Photo R800. I want to print images I have scanned on a Epson Perfection 1660 Photo and corrected in Photoshop and get the colors accurate.

i have a color management problem. I have OS X v 10.5, Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, and an Epson Stylus Photo R800. I want to print images I have scanned on a Epson Perfection 1660 Photo and corrected in Photoshop and get the colors accurate.

I used the ColorSync utility to verify, and it came back with this report:
/Library/Printers/EPSON/InkjetPrinter/PrintingModule/SPR800_Core.plugin/Contents /Resources/ICCProfiles/SPR800 Standard.icc
   Tag 'dmnd': Tag size is not correct.
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended/CoatedFOGRA27.icc
   Tag 'desc': Tag size is not correct.
/Library/Printers/EPSON/InkjetPrinter/ICCProfiles/Standard.profiles/Contents/Res ources/Epson IJ Printer.icc
   Tag 'dmnd': Tag size is not correct.
/Library/Printers/EPSON/InkjetPrinter/PrintingModule/SPR800_Core.plugin/Contents /Resources/
I did not know what to do next. At the bottom of the window it said to go to www.apple.com/colorsync to find a tutorial. I got a message saying that link does not work. Tried to find the tutorial by searching at apple.com, but could not seem to locate it. Does anyone know what the report above means and what I should do about it?
Also, how to find that tutorial?
Re Using RGB all the way through, When I print from Photoshop Elements, I select Adobe RGB, Photoshop Manages under "Color Handling", Relative Colometric under "Intent" and "ColorSync" i the Epson printer box. Do you mean to do something different in this sequence?

Color profile problem after installing CS4

OK.
First, let me post these side-by-side comparisons:
As you can see in Image 1 (the "before," left-side photo in each comparison), the colors and overall appearance are distorted. I've read things about gamma but it's all confusing to me. This is surely a color profile problem, right? The transition among pixels that involve colors of yellow and gray is rocky, grainy, and the flat out color is just wrong. Now this color problem affects pictures when opened in both Photoshop 7.0 and the standard Windows Photo Viewer. Meaning, whenever I open pictures in both PS 7.0 and Windows Photo Viewer (my default viewer), this color problem totally messes up certain photos and really damages my ability to edit. I'm an avid photo editor and it's imperative I have proper color display so that I can accurately edit. Keep in mind that certain pictures do not take on this error. When a photo is generally brighter, the distortion is basically invisible. It's photos that are dark or have dark portions in them that display the distortion.
*Note: I took these before-and-after pictures with my camera, because screencapping would not work, since you all don't have the same color profile issue on your computer. That's the only way I can show you!
HOWEVER, when I open photos in another standard Windows application, "Microsoft Office Picture Manager," the color problem is magically erradicated altogether. It shows photos as I've been seeing them all along, until I installed CS4 about two weeks ago. Before installing CS4, everything was fine and I had been using Photoshop 7 for years and have never had a problem. I'm guessing CS4 messed something up. It had to have. Just FYI, I uninstalled CS4, hoping it would reverse the problem. But still, the color issue persists in PS 7 and in my regular Windows Photo Viewer.
Since images display their true form in Windows Office Picture Manager, I don't think I need to calibrate my screen. Or do I? I've read things about it, and to some people, it's not necessary. Right? Okay. I really hope someone can give some advice! Thank you!
P.S. Here's the original photo. On my screen, it looks distorted when opened in photoshop or opened w/the viewer. However, here on Firefox, it's fine.

You should try to familiarize yourself with the concepts of color management.
It's kind of too in-depth a subject to walk you through from a cold start here... There are a lot of good resources out there to help you get started. For example, in just a few seconds Google turned up this:
http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1315593
The one thing to remember is this: There is NO quick solution, easy set of defaults, or direct answer to making your setup do what you want without your having to understand color management.
People may tell you to calibrate your monitors, or use a particular color profile as a default, or whatever, and they may have good, solid reasons for telling you those things, but if you don't attempt to get your mind around color management it will always seem as though something isn't working right, or is simply magic, which will be frustrating to you.
Here are some basic questions to ponder:
What image color profile is your image carrying?
Is your monitor a wide-gamut display and do you have a color profile set up for it? What kind of monitor is it?
What version of Windows are you running?
Do you know the difference between a color-managed app and one that is not color-managed?
Which of the apps you're using/showing above are color-managed?
What are your settings in Edit - Color Settings?
Take some time and do some research, get your head around the concepts, and it will all make more sense I promise you.
-Noel

How to solve the Embed Color Profile problem...

Hi Everyone,
This vijay from Chennai. I have one doubt for rectify the Embed color Profile problem, that's is how can i judges whether the file had Embed Color Profile or not. anyone solve this problem.
Thanks in Advance.
-yajiv

I used another profiles name, because I dont have the old one installed anymore, Youll have to be exact about the letters though.
And from a prepress-standpoint Id like to point out that removing the profile as opposed to »Convert to Profile« seems a peculiar practice, though of course Your reasons for doing so may be valid indeed.
You could try:
var myDocument = app.activeDocument;
if (myDocument.colorProfileName == "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2") {
// =======================================================
var idassignProfile = stringIDToTypeID( "assignProfile" );
var desc2 = new ActionDescriptor();
var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" );
var ref1 = new ActionReference();
var idDcmn = charIDToTypeID( "Dcmn" );
var idOrdn = charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" );
var idTrgt = charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" );
ref1.putEnumerated( idDcmn, idOrdn, idTrgt );
desc2.putReference( idnull, ref1 );
var idmanage = stringIDToTypeID( "manage" );
desc2.putBoolean( idmanage, false );
executeAction( idassignProfile, desc2, DialogModes.NO );
else {

Print Color Management Problem ?

I have a print color management problem I cannot solve. It reminds me of the print color management problem I had over a year ago when the compatibility conflict between LR and MAC Leopard produced horrible prints. I have Snow Leopard now and been out of the country for some months and yesterday when I tried to make some prints the same problem reemerged. So I downloaded current drivers (and ICCsfor Premium Luster) from Epson and LR 2.6 and spent a good part of the day with Martin Evening's book. I followed (I think) his instructions to make the basic print step by step but the prints still were terrible. My problem is with the color management pop up in the print settings dialog -- it says "color matching" not color management and I cannot check either "no color management " if I want LR to control the process (Kelby) or check "color sync" if I want my Epson R800 take over. I have no idea where the "color management" pop up went. I'm clueless as usual and probably omitting a step because of frustration or brain numbness. Any help would be appreciated. WJS

The settings in Lightroom are simple. and contain in the Print Job panel in the Print module. You either select manage in printer (and then select the profile in the printer drivers) or select the profile here and then turn of all colour management in the printer drivers. The second option will usually produce the best results. What you don't want is to have the profile selected in both LR and the printer drivers, so if the driver doesn't have an option to turn of colour management then you may be forced down the first route. However it would be an unusual decision for a printer manufacturer to make drivers that can't turn off colour management, so you may wish to ask how to do it to your printer manufacturer or check the printers handbook.

Terminal colors vs Vim colors [SOLVED]

Hey guys!
I've been using vim since the very first day I started learning programming, and am now using it on my brand new arch system. Everything works really well so far, but I'm having a bit of trouble customizing colors. I wouldn't normally make a big deal out of it, but since I'm going to spend an enormous amount of hours using it for school and personnal projects, I'd really like to get all my colors right. I'm using an urxvt terminal, under awesome wm.
Here are my 16 terminal colors:
http://tinypic.com/r/2yper6b/5
Here is what my vim loks like:
http://tinypic.com/r/s1547k/5
As you can see, vim uses a crap-looking, brownish-red color for line numbers and html tags. This color is not in any of the 16 I specified in .Xresources. I don't know where it comes from, but I would like for vim to use only these 16 colors. Is that possible? I assume it is, because most of my vim colors are changed whenever I edit them in .Xresources.
If not, I'd like to know how I can edit the colors vim uses myself. Thank you for reading!
Last edited by PolyBender (2013-05-12 00:35:41)

You select a colorscheme (:help colorscheme) in your vimrc. The themes can use 256 colors, which I find nice once I customized the theme/scheme. But if you want to limit it to 16, just `set t_Co=16` in your vimrc.

Awesome desktop environment & terminator terminal-emulator problem.

awsome version v3.5
terminator version 0.97
When you want to change the size of the window, it usually goes volatile without control (the size of the window changes every now and then, bigger or smaller).
Is there anyone have the same problem like me ?
I emailed the author of terminator and be told that this kind of bug has been fix in version 0.97

zezhyrule3 wrote:
Don't use terminator
Is there really any reason to if you have a tiling window manager?
well, I've used to this terminal already ...
and other terminal emulators are neither too big nor support CJK fonts well ...

Terminal Color emulation problems (emacs)

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