Allow setting of default color values -- "accessibility feature"

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Another terminal emulator that I use (Securetty) has the ability to set
the RGB values of the 16 standard 'POSIX' colors -- which I __think__ are
the same colors that mintty supports.

I find the standard, 'non-bright' colors, difficult to see (often) --
especially the blues purples (my favorites too!).  So what it allowed me
me to do is set my own colors for all 16 values -- it brought up the
system color chooser and I, chose, instead of the bright or dark
'primaries' that is the default, I chose "less intense", brighter
versions.  I didn't use the same numbers for all colors, as it made some
appear too bright, some appear too dim, but for example, for dim   red,
green blue, I used: (212,48,64) (48,212,48) (64,64,212) and bright (RGB),
I use (255,116,144) (144,255,144), (128,128,255).

So I set the other colors to non-default values for 3 good reasons:

1) Increased Vibility: I made the hard to see colors brighter (this could
be even more important for people with color blindness), and 

2) Relative Color Balance:  I used unequal weightings for the RGB values,
reflecting their relative brightness as they appear to __my eyes__ on __my
monitor__ (i.e. it might be different values for other people on other
monitors.  

Most people find blue's harder to see at the same absolute values (it's a human
thing, our color vision is most sensitive in the green-yellow area near 5750K).

    and 

3) Reduced Eyestraing and Fatigue: I use the colors in TTY editors like
vim (when I'm not using the GUI), and the less contrast between the
primaries, the easier it is on ones eyes.  The worst is blue on red or red
on blue text.  Neither or which focus exactly on our retina.  One gets
focused slightly in front of the retina, the other slightly behind --
reducing the clarity of both.

I hope you'll find the need for being able to set default color values for
the builtin, 16-color pallette, as important and useful as I've found it
to be.

Thanks,
-linda

Original issue reported on code.google.com by min...@tlinx.org on 6 Nov 2009 at 6:50

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The 16 ANSI colours (and also the rest of the 256 supported colours) can be 
changed
using the relevant xterm control sequence. From the mintty manual:

   Changing the ANSI colours
       A number of settings can be controlled through terminal control
       sequences, including the colour values for the 16 ANSI colours.  Here
       is the xterm sequence for this, whereby num stands for the ANSI number
       and rrggbb stands for a hexadecimal RGB colour value.

              ^[]4;num;#rrggbb^G

       The -e option to the echo command is useful for emitting control
       sequences.  For example, to turn yellow (colour 3) up to its full
       brightness:

              echo -e "\e]4;3;#FFFF00\a"

Original comment by andy.koppe on 6 Nov 2009 at 7:11

[GoogleCodeExporter]

there is a perl script for that
conpalette

Original comment by leventd...@gmail.com on 7 Nov 2009 at 7:44

[GoogleCodeExporter]

URL?  CPAN?

thanks for the hint though...I can probably write a perl script, though setting
values through use of 'hex-only', doesn't quite provide the ease of visual 
feedback,
though it's probably superior for setting values once you know what they are.

Original comment by min...@tlinx.org on 8 Nov 2009 at 12:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Would you like to see support for comma-separated decimal values in the colour
setting sequence?

Original comment by andy.koppe on 8 Nov 2009 at 6:39

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'm using this script to switch tango theme.
http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-ConPalette/script/conpalette

Original comment by leventd...@gmail.com on 8 Nov 2009 at 1:16

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by andy.koppe on 10 Nov 2009 at 7:30

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Priority-Low

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Implemented decimal colour values in colour OSC sequences in r686 on 0.5 branch.
Example: echo $'\e]10;255,255,0\a' to set foreground colour to saturated yellow.

Original comment by andy.koppe on 26 Dec 2009 at 9:22

• Changed state: Fixed
• Added labels: Difficulty-Easy

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by andy.koppe on 28 Dec 2009 at 2:15

• Changed state: Verified
• Added labels: Milestone-0.5.6