d3-color

What is d3-color?

The d3-color npm package provides a robust framework for color manipulation and conversion. It allows users to parse color strings, manipulate colors in different color spaces, and format colors for display. It is part of the larger D3 (Data-Driven Documents) suite of tools, which are used for manipulating documents based on data.

What are d3-color's main functionalities?

Parsing and Formatting Colors

This feature allows users to parse CSS color strings and then format them back into a string. The example shows how to parse 'steelblue' into a color object and then output it as an RGB string.

"var color = d3.color('steelblue');\nconsole.log(color.toString()); // 'rgb(70, 130, 180)'"

Manipulating Color Channels

Users can directly manipulate the channels of a color, including its opacity. In the example, an RGB color is created and its opacity is set before converting it back to a string.

"var color = d3.rgb(70, 130, 180);\ncolor.opacity = 0.5;\nconsole.log(color.toString()); // 'rgba(70, 130, 180, 0.5)'"

Working with Different Color Spaces

d3-color supports various color spaces such as RGB, HSL, and LAB. This example demonstrates converting an HSL color to its equivalent RGB string.

"var color = d3.hsl(210, 0.44, 0.49);\nconsole.log(color.toString()); // 'rgb(70, 130, 180)'"

Other packages similar to d3-color

chroma-js

Chroma.js is a powerful library for all kinds of color conversions and color scales. It is similar to d3-color but offers more methods for color generation, scales, and interpolation.

color

The 'color' package is another tool for color conversion and manipulation. It supports a wide range of color models and provides a chainable API, but it is not as tightly integrated with data-driven document manipulation as d3-color.

tinycolor2

TinyColor is a small, fast library for color parsing and manipulation. It has many utility functions for different color formats and is easy to use, but it may not have as extensive support for color spaces as d3-color.

README

d3-color

Even though your browser understands a lot about colors, it doesn’t offer much help in manipulating colors through JavaScript. The d3-color module therefore provides representations for various color spaces, allowing specification, conversion and manipulation. (Also see d3-interpolate for color interpolation.)

For example, take the color named “steelblue”:

var c = d3.color("steelblue"); // {r: 70, g: 130, b: 180}

Let’s try converting it to HSL:

var c = d3.hsl("steelblue"); // {h: 207.27272727272728, s: 0.44, l: 0.4901960784313726}

Now rotate the hue by 90°, bump up the saturation, and format as hex:

c.h += 90;
c.s += 0.2;
c + ""; // #c62dcd

In addition to the ubiquitous and machine-friendly RGB and HSL color space, d3-color supports two color spaces that are designed for humans:

• Dave Green’s Cubehelix
• Lab (CIELAB) and HCL (CIELCH)

Cubehelix features monotonic lightness, while Lab and HCL are perceptually uniform. Note that HCL is the cylindrical form of Lab, similar to how HSL is the cylindrical form of RGB.

Installing

If you use NPM, npm install d3-color. Otherwise, download the latest release. The released bundle supports AMD, CommonJS, and vanilla environments. Create a custom build using Rollup or your preferred bundler. You can also load directly from d3js.org:

<script src="https://d3js.org/d3-color.v0.3.min.js"></script>

In a vanilla environment, a d3_color global is exported. Try d3-color in your browser.

API Reference

# d3.color(specifier)

Parses the specified CSS Color Module Level 3 specifier string, returning an RGB or HSL color. If the specifier was not valid, null is returned. Some examples:

• "rgb(255,255,255)"
• "hsl(120,50%,20%)"
• "#ffeeaa"
• "#fea"
• "steelblue"

The list of supported named colors is specified by CSS.

Note: this function may also be used with instanceof to test if an object is a color instance. The same is true of color subclasses, allowing you to test whether a color is in a particular color space.

# color.rgb()

Returns the RGB equivalent of this color. For RGB colors, that’s this.

# color.brighter([k])

Returns a brighter copy of this color. If k is specified, it controls how much brighter the returned color should be. If k is not specified, it defaults to 1. The behavior of this method is dependent on the implementing color space.

# color.darker([k])

Returns a darker copy of this color. If k is specified, it controls how much brighter the returned color should be. If k is not specified, it defaults to 1. The behavior of this method is dependent on the implementing color space.

# color.displayable()

Returns true if and only if the color is displayable on standard hardware. For example, this returns false for an RGB color if any channel value is less than zero or greater than 255.

# color.toString()

Returns the RGB hexadecimal string representing this color, such as "#f7eaba". If this color is not displayable, a suitable displayable color is returned instead. For example, RGB channel values greater than 255 are clamped to 255.

# d3.rgb(r, g, b)
# d3.rgb(specifier)
# d3.rgb(color)

Constructs a new RGB color. The channel values are exposed as r, g and b properties on the returned instance. Use the RGB color picker to explore this color space.

If r, g and b are specified, these represent the channel values of the returned color. If a CSS Color Module Level 3 specifier string is specified, it is parsed and then converted to the RGB color space. See color for examples. If a color instance is specified, it is converted to the RGB color space using color.rgb. Note that unlike color.rgb this method always returns a new instance, even if color is already an RGB color.

# d3.hsl(h, s, l)
# d3.hsl(specifier)
# d3.hsl(color)

Constructs a new HSL color. The channel values are exposed as h, s and l properties on the returned instance. Use the HSL color picker to explore this color space.

If h, s and l are specified, these represent the channel values of the returned color. If a CSS Color Module Level 3 specifier string is specified, it is parsed and then converted to the HSL color space. See color for examples. If a color instance is specified, it is converted to the RGB color space using color.rgb and then converted to HSL. (Colors already in the HSL color space skip the conversion to RGB.)

# d3.lab(l, a, b)
# d3.lab(specifier)
# d3.lab(color)

Constructs a new Lab color. The channel values are exposed as l, a and b properties on the returned instance. Use the Lab color picker to explore this color space.

If l, a and b are specified, these represent the channel values of the returned color. If a CSS Color Module Level 3 specifier string is specified, it is parsed and then converted to the Lab color space. See color for examples. If a color instance is specified, it is converted to the RGB color space using color.rgb and then converted to Lab. (Colors already in the Lab color space skip the conversion to RGB, and colors in the HCL color space are converted directly to Lab.)

# d3.hcl(h, c, l)
# d3.hcl(specifier)
# d3.hcl(color)

Constructs a new HCL color. The channel values are exposed as h, c and l properties on the returned instance. Use the HCL color picker to explore this color space.

If h, c and l are specified, these represent the channel values of the returned color. If a CSS Color Module Level 3 specifier string is specified, it is parsed and then converted to the HCL color space. See color for examples. If a color instance is specified, it is converted to the RGB color space using color.rgb and then converted to HCL. (Colors already in the HCL color space skip the conversion to RGB, and colors in the Lab color space are converted directly to HCL.)

# d3.cubehelix(h, s, l)
# d3.cubehelix(specifier)
# d3.cubehelix(color)

Constructs a new Cubehelix color. The channel values are exposed as h, s and l properties on the returned instance. Use the Cubehelix color picker to explore this color space.

If h, s and l are specified, these represent the channel values of the returned color. If a CSS Color Module Level 3 specifier string is specified, it is parsed and then converted to the Cubehelix color space. See color for examples. If a color instance is specified, it is converted to the RGB color space using color.rgb and then converted to Cubehelix. (Colors already in the Cubehelix color space skip the conversion to RGB.)