Color picker - Lab format: use roundoff optional

[drms]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Love ability to use Lab color mode. I even discovered ability to zoom...very handy too.

But, suggest you give users ability/option to have NO decimal point accuracy. Instead have option to see rounded-off whole numbers... for example: 75, -19, 16 instead of 75.37, -19.4, 15.7

Why? Because decimal accuracy rarely needed (but if desired, set option to see decimals) and when displayed as whole numbers it is far easier and faster to understand the colors. Decimals make our brains think/convert/interpret when it is not needed and adds confusion.

Thanks, Doug

Scenario when this would be used?

I use color sampling of on screen images (not already in Photoshop or other image program) to check colors and see if correct or if desired for future uses....very often every day, And I use Lab as I know instantly the brightness and color (which you cannot do using RGB or other color spaces...because Lab separates colors from luminosity) Accuracy to whole numbers is quite sufficient and much faster to "read" by the numbers.

Supporting information

Ask anyone who regularly uses Lab. Dan Margulis is the Lab master; see his books.

[wbalbo]

Hi, I want to try to make this feature, please assign this to me.

Thanks.

[franky920920]

@wbalbo Thanks. you are now assigned. Do you have an estimated finish time on this? BTW, please raise a draft PR (pull request) once this is a WIP.

Thank you for your contribution!

[wbalbo]

@wbalbo Thanks. you are now assigned. Do you have an estimated finish time on this? BTW, please raise a draft PR (pull request) once this is a WIP.

Thank you for your contribution!

Thanks, I don't have an estimated finish time, but I will try to do it this weekend and next week, hopefully will not be too long to finish.

[wbalbo]

I'm sorry, I got busy these last weeks and didn't have time to see this issue properly.

Maybe is better to assign to other people, sorry.

[peerpalo]

Hey everyone, I can do it.

Some questions.

Should we round to 0 by default without giving any options both for CIELAB and CIEXYZ? Or maybe it's better to make that as an option? Option should be only for that two formats, single or shared?

Or maybe even for all formats? Like this?

[franky920920]

Hey everyone, I can do it.

Some questions.

Should we round to 0 by default without giving any options both for CIELAB and CIEXYZ? Or maybe it's better to make that as an option? Option should be only for that two formats, single or shared?

Or maybe even for all formats? Like this?

cc: @crutkas

[drms]

Optional rounding for all seems like best to me…like shown below and set as default.

Tho most other colors numbers usually don’t have decimal places; perhaps only applies to CIE Lab and XYZ

Thanks

Doug

From: Pierpaolo @.> Sent: Saturday, November 6, 2021 8:41 AM To: microsoft/PowerToys @.> Cc: drms @.>; Author @.> Subject: Re: [microsoft/PowerToys] Color picker - Lab format: use roundoff optional (#13603)

Hey everyone, I can do it.

Some questions.

Should we round to 0 by default without giving any options both for CIELAB and CIEXYZ? Or maybe it's better to make that as an option? Option should be only for that two formats, single or shared?

Or maybe even for all formats? Like this?

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6475341/140609854-82d00ecd-a3cb-4472-a151-b92eb79c1b58.png

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[crutkas]

What other thing uses a floating number? Limit only to this

[peerpalo]

What other thing uses a floating number? Limit only to this

Ok, in that case I need some UX guidance. It's better put a checkbox in menu flyout only for those two formats? What do you think? Of course setting in that case will be different for each format

[yellowtailfan]

Another issue this would address is the way the CIELab hover display bounces around as you move the mouse over different colours. This is especially distracting when hovering over a photo as minor changes in colour produce big changes in the placement of the numbers and in the total width of the hover. This makes it hard to read and compare Lab values as you move the mouse because the numbers are jumping around horizontally all the time.

The reason seems to be that the number of decimal places changes, and sometimes Lab values are positive or negative. I recommend:

1. Making the default display have fixed precision with a single decimal place for all three Lab values
2. Align the numbers so that they don't bounce around with changes in value or sign
3. Adding an option to adjust the precision or round to integers (optional)

It would also be nice to abbreviate "CIELab" to "Lab" in the hover window to save space.

Getting live LAB readouts from the display is fantastic, fixing up this issue would be the icing on the cake. 🎂

[yellowtailfan]

This issue seems to be related to: #14863

[drms]

Agree with yellowtailfan comments. Perhaps an option to choose 1 pixel sample or avg of 3 or 5 or 9 etc. (like Photoshop and most all other graphics programs) would resolve fast value changes with mouse motion and avoid single sample errors. But don't remove the very useful zoom to selection of mouse pointer.

[yellowtailfan]

A sample average feature would be a great thing to have, I agree! 👍