Fashion color software
I looked around me and I wondered ... are fashion colors really so boring nowadays or am I imagining it? To check my intuitive impression I wrote two simple Processing sketches:
- Color picker - you point your mouse at the clothes of people. The colors are stored as a list of RGB values.
- Color plotter - you combine the RGB lists from several photographs into one long list. Then this program plots the color values. One row is the original sequence. One row is a sorted sequence.
Results
In 2011 there are not many outspoken fashion colors at all.
Summer colors are brighter and more outspoken than winter colors.
Colors in the Netherlands are different from colors in Germany. There are more browns in Germany no tasteless pun intended). There are more blacks and blues in The Netherlands.
Critique
There is no color correction. Light color should be calibrated before using the program. It is possible that the camera makes the colors more bluish and less outspoken. This is something for future development.
Rotterdam July 2011
Amsterdam October 2011
Rotterdam August 2011
Monchengladbach December 2011
Rotterdam December 2011
Processing code - Color picker
This code is based on the following program:
Color Picker by Andres Sanchez, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 and GNU GPL license. Work: http://openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=5092
PImage myImage;
PFont myFont;
color mouseColorS;
String colorPick;
String[] colorList = new String[0];
color blackCorr = color(0,0,0);
color whiteCorr = color(255,255,255);
void setup() {
myImage = loadImage("r8.JPG");
size(min(1000, myImage.width),min(700, myImage.height));
background(180);
smooth();
myFont = createFont ("Helvetica",24);
};
void draw() {
float rS;
float gS;
float bS;
float rC;
float gC;
float bC;
background(180);
// drawthe image to the stage
image(myImage, 100, 100, min(900, myImage.width), min(600, myImage.height));
// find the color under the mouse
color mouseColor0 = get(mouseX-1, mouseY-1);
color mouseColor1 = get(mouseX, mouseY);
color mouseColor2 = get(mouseX+1, mouseY+1);
color mouseColor3 = get(mouseX+1, mouseY-1);
color mouseColor4 = get(mouseX-1, mouseY+1);
rS = red(mouseColor0)/5 + red(mouseColor1)/5 + red(mouseColor2)/5 + red(mouseColor3)/5 + red(mouseColor4)/5;
gS = green(mouseColor0)/5 + green(mouseColor1)/5 + green(mouseColor2)/5 + green(mouseColor3)/5 + green(mouseColor4)/5;
bS = blue(mouseColor0)/5 + blue(mouseColor1)/5 + blue(mouseColor2)/5 + blue(mouseColor3)/5 + blue(mouseColor4)/5;
mouseColorS = color(rS,gS,bS);
//draw a rectangle filled with that color;
fill(mouseColorS);
noStroke();
rect(0,0,100,100);
// ad3d the text labels
//red
fill(255,0,0);
textFont(myFont);
textSize(16);
//red
text(round(red(mouseColorS)), 100,15);
//green
fill(0,255,0);
text(round(green(mouseColorS)), 100, 35);
//blue
fill(0,0,255);
text(round(blue(mouseColorS)), 100, 55);
//hex value
fill(255);
text(hex(mouseColorS), 100, 75);
colorPick = Integer.toString(round(red(mouseColorS))) + " " + Integer.toString(round(green(mouseColorS))) + " " + Integer.toString(round(blue(mouseColorS)));
};
void mousePressed() {
if (mouseButton == LEFT) {
fill(255,255,255);
noStroke();
rect(0,0,100,100);
fill(255,255,255);
text(colorPick, 100, 95);
colorList = append (colorList, colorPick);
}
else if (mouseButton == RIGHT) {
fill(0,0,255);
noStroke();
rect(0,0,100,100);
saveStrings("colorList.txt", colorList);
}
else {
}
}
Processing code - Color plotter
String[] textLines;
int nr;
void setup() {
int i;
textLines = loadStrings("colorList.txt");
nr = round(900/textLines.length);
size(textLines.length*nr, 600);
for (i = 0; i < textLines.length; i = i+1) {
fill(color((i%2)*155+50,(i%2)*155+50,(i%2)*155+50));
rect(i*nr, 0, (i+1)*nr, 600);
}
}
void draw() {
String[] pieces;
color[] colArray = new color[textLines.length];
color pick;
int i;
int j;
colorMode(RGB);
background(255);
noStroke();
smooth();
for (i = 0; i < textLines.length; i = i+1) {
pieces = split(textLines[i], ' ');
pick = color(int(pieces[0]), int(pieces[1]), int(pieces[2]));
colArray[i] = pick;
fill(pick);
rect(i*nr, 0, (i+1)*nr, 300);
}
colArray = sort(colArray);
for (i = 0; i < colArray.length; i = i+1) {
fill(colArray[i]);
rect(i*nr, 300, (i+1)*nr, 600);
}
save("color_plotter.jpg");
}
