colorPicker For Linux

colorPicker is an AIR application inspired by a web application project that was able to pick the color of certain headings. One of the features I liked in Dreamweaver (which used to be my primary coding IDE) was that whenever you tried to set a color attribute, it would pop up a tool to help you chose a color rather than having to guess the hex color code you wanted. So I decided to see if the tool I built for my client could be translated into an AIR application.

The Standard view allows you to pick a color from the color grid (which is a replica of the color grid Dreamweaver displays) by clicking on the color square. The grid presents all of the standard "web-safe" colors. The color you pick is displayed in the sample box at the top along with its hex code. If you want to use that color in your HTML code, click on the Save to Clipboard button, switch to your IDE of choice, and simply paste the hex code.

The Custom view lets you design your own color using the sliders to adjust the red, green, and blue values of the color sample at the top. You can either click anywhere on the slide line to jump the slider to that position, or you can click and drag the slider (be sure to let up on the mouse button to release it). You can jump-start your design by clicking a color close to what you want in the Standard view, then switching to the Custom view to use that color as a starting point for your design (the Standard and Custom views share the same color sample box). You can also manually enter values in the "Red," "Green," and "Blue" text boxes.

The Recent view displays a list of all of the colors you've copied to the clipboard since you opened the application. This allows you to keep a running history of colors in case you need to use the same hex color code in different parts of your HTML code. You can also use it compare different colors. Once you close the application, all of those colors are lost.

This application is open-sourced and is licensed under GPL because of its inclusion of the jQuery JavaScript library. Feel free to modify it for your needs. You can even run it as a local web application by running the colorPicker.html file in the directory where you install this (just keep in mind that the "Save to Clipboard" functionality will not work as that is strictly a function provided by the AIR API).

Adobe AIR runtime allows Adobe AIR applications to be deployed on computers and devices running the Linux operating system. Adobe Flex Builder for Linux can be used to build rich internet applications that deploy to the desktop and run across operating systems using proven web technologies.