Christopher Alexander North-Keys                     <erlkonig@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
Mon Jun  6 17:04:01 MET DST 1994
52 32' 00'' N -- 13 25' 00'' E

/* Copyright (c) 1994, Christopher Alexander North-Keys
 * 
 * The X Consortium, and any party obtaining a copy of these files from
 * the X Consortium, directly or indirectly, is granted, free of charge, a
 * full and unrestricted irrevocable, world-wide, paid up, royalty-free,
 * nonexclusive right and license to deal in this software and
 * documentation files (the "Software"), including without limitation the
 * rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons who receive
 * copies from any such party to do so.  This license includes without
 * limitation a license to do the foregoing actions under any patents of
 * the party supplying this software to the X Consortium.
 */

Talisman Color Database, for use as server default or through XCMSDB

Color Formats:  supports all Xcms formats, including:

    RGB, RGBi, CIEXYZ, CIExyY, CIEuvY, CIELab, CIELuv, TekHVC

Contents:

    10762 colors, generated from the following source files

    chrom.xcms     chromatics (colors)
    greys.xcms     gr[ae]yscale
    monochr.xcms   monochrome (black and white)
    netrek.xcms    netrek (team colors)
    sundry.xcms    miscellany
    syms.xcms      symbolically-named colors
    Others/*       earlier .rgb databases, with grey??'s removed

    and two programs:

    col2rgb (properly generates RGB's from all color formats)
    rgb     (generates dbm format database, if needed)

    and a gamma correction etc. file:

    talisman.dcc

	and several utility scripts.

Build Warning:
	Most of the distributed files were built using the GNUmakefile and GNU make
	version 3.70.  The Imakefile is only capable of building the final database
	layer, and doing the installs.  The Imakefile is *not* capable of building
	new gamma-corrected databases---you must go to gmake to do that.

Extensions:

    .xcms      a program or script to generate Xcms colorname/colorspec pairs.
    .col       the output from the corresponding .xcms script/exec.
    .rgb       rgb.txt-format files: "%d %d %d\t\t%s", r, g, b, name
    .xcmsdb    Xcms-pairs, in a form readable by X11R6/xc/lib/X11/cmsColNm.c
               I don't recommend editting .xcmsdb files directly...
	.txt       same as .rgb

Generation of files:

    foo.xcms -> foo.col

    *.col -> rgb.xcmsdb

 ...set XCMSDB to color.xcmsdb and DISPLAY to an accessible one for col2rgb
    then setup decent gamma by running:

    xcmsdb talisman.dcc
  
    foo.col -> foo.rgb 

    *.rgb -> rgb.txt -(if_used)-> rgb.pag & rgb.dir

Problems solved:

    Paucity of in-between named color shades.
    Greyscales too dark, subjectively uneven distribution.
    Unable to display colorspace slices in xcolors(1).
    Unable to predicably grep(1) for color subsets.
    No tools provided for building RGB files from broader colorspaces.

Interesting new ideas made possible:

    Use of the XCMSDB environment variable could allow any user to
    selectively override symbolically-named default colors, such
    as a default color for warnings, errors, comments, strings, etc.
    This is, of course, how the TCD was developed.

Color model for chrom.xcms:

    I had originally intended to use the TekHVC color space.  This
    didn't quite work.  Oh well.

    Two cones, base to base.  One point is white, the other black.  All
    shades of grey lie between.  The perimeter of the central circle
    is fully saturated color, varying continuously in hue throughout the
    spectrum as the circle is circumnavigated.

    Twenty-four roughly equidistant points were chosen, and named with
    debatably obvious colornames.  Each arch is then trisected by two
    additional names.  Assuming A and B as the two major hues, the names
    for the four points along the arc A--B are A, AB, BA, B, the leading
    name in the intermediate hues showing towards which of the major
    hues the minor is baised.  Total named hues: seventy-two.

    For each named hue H of the 72, the triangle in space described by
    the points { White, Black, H }  has further subpoints chosen, based
    upon the two subcomponents of the color within the given hue H,
    1)  the offset towards White (Black is -1, Grey 0, White +1), and
    2)  the offset parallel to the central disk, from the Grey in (1)
    to the surface of the cone.

    One odd side effect of this approach is a denser distribution of colors
    near White and Black, and a sparser distribution towards the edge of
    the central disk.

Huenames:  of course, the color naming standard was not available, but:

                                    R     G     B
I         
    red                             1     0     0  
    green                           0     1     0  
    blue                            0     0     1  
                                                   
II                                                 
    yellow                          1     1     0  
    cyan                            0     1     1  
    magenta                         1     0     1
                                                   
III                                                
    orange                          1     .50   0  
    spring                          .50   1     0  
    sea                             0     1     .50
    torquoise                       0     .50   1  
    purple                          .50   0     1       ?
    fuchsia                         1     0     .50     ?
                                                   
IV                                                 
    tangerine                       1     .25   0  
    goldenrod                       1     .75   0  
    chartreuse                      .75   1     0       ??
    lime                            .25   1     0  
    bluegrass                       0     1     .25
    aquamarine                      0     1     .75
    sky                             0     .75   1  
    azure                           0     .25   1  
    thistle                         .25   0     1  
    plum                            .75   0     1  
    mulberry                        1     0     .75
    maroon                          1     0     .25

V
    The aforementioned intermediates...


Dominance:  Those names overposed by ": . ." have comparative and
            superlative forms (eg:  soft, softer, softest).

                      0     :     :     :     :    1    
    Grey Dominance:   pure  dull  mute  mist  grey
    
                      0     : . . : . . : . . +1
    White Dominance:  full  soft  light weak
    
                      0     : . . : . . : . . : . . -1
    Black Dominance:  full  deep  dark  dim  grim

Greys:  Basenames of both "grey" and "gray", immediately followed by
        number "0" to "100".  "grey" is an alternative to "grey50"
        (and likewise "gray" to gray50").


Symbolics:  Three levels of each default symbolic colorname are provided
            for a color intended for <notices>:

    notices             # normal bright color, suitable for dark backgrounds
    notices/dark        # a dark version, suitable for light backgrounds
    notices/light       # a light (less obnoxious) version, for dark backgrds

    Given:

    admin       comment     constant    converter   dynamic     error
    extension   function    interlink   intrinsic   macro       notice
    privileged  static      superlayer  variable    warning


Netrek:  For the addicted.  Provided are:

    orion       klingon     federation  romulan

Sundry:  Heraldry and miscellaneous.

___________________________________________________________________________
Christopher Alex. North-Keys                           Unix Systems Analyst
erlkonig@gnu.ai.mit.edu                                      Group Talisman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
