Find similar colors

Source: R/color_fun_2.R

simcol finds and shows colors from a palette of color candidates col_candidates that are similar to some target color col_target.

simcol(
  col_target,
  col_candidates = colors(),
  tol = c(25, 50, 75),
  distinct = TRUE,
  plot = TRUE
)

Arguments

col_target

A (required) target color.

col_candidates

A palette of color candidates to be considered. Default: col_candidates = colors().

tol

Numeric tolerance value(s) (either 1 or 3 numeric values, in the RGB range from 0 to 255). Values are considered in the order of the RGB value rank in col_target. Default: tol = c(25, 50, 75).

distinct

Boolean: Return only visually distinct colors? Default: distinct = TRUE (i.e., remove visual duplicates).

plot

Boolean: Plot the output (using seecol)? Default: plot = TRUE.

Value

A named vector of colors or color values.

Details

simcol returns a vector of the (named) colors or color values in col_candidates (set to colors() of grDevices per default) that are similar to the specified target color col_target.

If plot = TRUE, simcol also visualizes the detected colors (by passing its result to seecol, as a side-effect).

Color similarity is defined in terms of the distance between colors' RGB values, which must be within the numeric tolerance threshold(s) specified by tol (with 0 <= tol <= 255). Higher tol values correspond to more permissive similarity judgments.

If tol is a scalar, the values of all three RGB dimensions of col_candidates must be within the corresponding values of col_target to be judged as 'similar'. If tol contains three values, the three RGB dimension are compared in order of the dimensions' rank in col_target (i.e., the primary dimension must be within tol[1], etc.). Thus, providing three tol values allows for more fine-grained similarity matching.

See also

seecol for plotting/seeing color palettes; usecol for using color palettes; newpal for defining new color palettes; grepal for finding named colors; shades_of to defining shades of a given color; ac for adjusting color transparency.

Other color functions: ac(), demopal(), grepal(), newpal(), seecol(), shades_of(), usecol()

Examples

# Basic uses:
simcol(col_target = "red")

#>          red   firebrick1   firebrick2    orangered   orangered2         red2 
#>        "red" "firebrick1" "firebrick2"  "orangered" "orangered2"       "red2" 
simcol("tan", tol = 15)

#>            tan      burlywood     burlywood3   navajowhite3     peachpuff3 
#>          "tan"    "burlywood"   "burlywood3" "navajowhite3"   "peachpuff3" 
#>         wheat3 
#>       "wheat3" 
simcol(Seeblau, tol = c(20, 30, 40))

#>      Seeblau     skyblue2   steelblue1   steelblue2 
#>    "#59C7EB"   "skyblue2" "steelblue1" "steelblue2" 
simcol("blue", col_candidates = pal_unikn_pref, tol = 120)

#>        blue Karpfenblau      Petrol 
#>      "blue"   "#3E5496"   "#077187" 

# Fine-tuning the range of color matching:
simcol(Seeblau, tol = 30)  # = simcol(Seeblau, tol = c(30, 30, 30))

#>      Seeblau   steelblue1   steelblue2    turquoise 
#>    "#59C7EB" "steelblue1" "steelblue2"  "turquoise" 
simcol(Seeblau, tol = c(20, 20, 80))

#>         Seeblau    lightskyblue   lightskyblue2         skyblue        skyblue1 
#>       "#59C7EB"  "lightskyblue" "lightskyblue2"       "skyblue"      "skyblue1" 
#>        skyblue2      steelblue1 
#>      "skyblue2"    "steelblue1" 

# Increasing tolerance widens range:
simcol("grey", c("white", "grey", "black"), tol = 255, distinct = FALSE, plot = FALSE)
#>    gray   white    gray   black 
#>  "grey" "white"  "grey" "black"