randomcolor

What is randomcolor?

The randomcolor npm package is a versatile tool for generating random colors. It allows users to create random colors with various options for hue, luminosity, and format.

What are randomcolor's main functionalities?

Generate a random color

This feature generates a completely random color in hexadecimal format.

const randomColor = require('randomcolor');
const color = randomColor();
console.log(color);

Generate a random color with specific hue

This feature generates a random color with a specified hue, in this case, blue.

const randomColor = require('randomcolor');
const color = randomColor({ hue: 'blue' });
console.log(color);

Generate a random color with specific luminosity

This feature generates a random color with a specified luminosity, in this case, light.

const randomColor = require('randomcolor');
const color = randomColor({ luminosity: 'light' });
console.log(color);

Generate a random color with specific format

This feature generates a random color in a specified format, in this case, RGB.

const randomColor = require('randomcolor');
const color = randomColor({ format: 'rgb' });
console.log(color);

Generate multiple random colors

This feature generates an array of multiple random colors, in this case, five colors.

const randomColor = require('randomcolor');
const colors = randomColor({ count: 5 });
console.log(colors);

Other packages similar to randomcolor

chroma-js

Chroma.js is a powerful library for color conversions and color scales. It provides more advanced color manipulation capabilities compared to randomcolor, including color blending, interpolation, and color scales.

color

The color package is a comprehensive library for color conversion and manipulation. It supports a wide range of color models and provides methods for color transformations, making it more feature-rich for color manipulation tasks compared to randomcolor.

tinycolor2

TinyColor is a small, fast library for color manipulation and conversion. It offers a balance between simplicity and functionality, providing more color manipulation options than randomcolor while maintaining a small footprint.

README

Random Color

A tiny script for generating attractive random colors. See the demo for an explanation and some samples. randomColor has been ported to C#, C++, Go, Haskell, Mathematica, PHP, Python, Swift, Perl6, Objective-C, Java, R, Reason and Rust.

To use randomColor in the browser, download the latest minified version of randomColor and include it on your page. Then call the script:

var color = randomColor(); // a hex code for an attractive color

To use randomColor on the server with node.js, install randomColor from npm then call the script:

npm install randomcolor

var randomColor = require('randomcolor'); // import the script
var color = randomColor(); // a hex code for an attractive color

Options

You can pass an options object to influence the type of color it produces. The options object accepts the following properties:

hue – Controls the hue of the generated color. You can pass a string representing a color name: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and monochrome are currently supported. If you pass a hexidecimal color string such as #00FFFF, randomColor will extract its hue value and use that to generate colors.

luminosity – Controls the luminosity of the generated color. You can specify a string containing bright, light or dark.

count – An integer which specifies the number of colors to generate.

seed - An integer or string which when passed will cause randomColor to return the same color each time.

format – A string which specifies the format of the generated color. Possible values are rgb, rgba, rgbArray, hsl, hsla, hslArray and hex (default).

alpha – A decimal between 0 and 1. Only relevant when using a format with an alpha channel (rgba and hsla). Defaults to a random value.

Examples

// Returns a hex code for an attractive color
randomColor(); 

// Returns an array of ten green colors
randomColor({
   count: 10,
   hue: 'green'
});

// Returns a hex code for a light blue
randomColor({
   luminosity: 'light',
   hue: 'blue'
});

// Returns a hex code for a 'truly random' color
randomColor({
   luminosity: 'random',
   hue: 'random'
});

// Returns a bright color in RGB
randomColor({
   luminosity: 'bright',
   format: 'rgb' // e.g. 'rgb(225,200,20)'
});

// Returns a dark RGB color with random alpha
randomColor({
   luminosity: 'dark',
   format: 'rgba' // e.g. 'rgba(9, 1, 107, 0.6482447960879654)'
});

// Returns a dark RGB color with specified alpha
randomColor({
   luminosity: 'dark',
   format: 'rgba',
   alpha: 0.5 // e.g. 'rgba(9, 1, 107, 0.5)',
});

// Returns a light HSL color with random alpha
randomColor({
   luminosity: 'light',
   format: 'hsla' // e.g. 'hsla(27, 88.99%, 81.83%, 0.6450211517512798)'
});

To do

More generally, it might be a good idea to consider using other color models.

• Use this on the demo http://jsfiddle.net/dpLp318f/ https://www.vis4.net/blog/posts/avoid-equidistant-hsv-colors/ https://www.vis4.net/blog/posts/mastering-multi-hued-color-scales/
• When returning an array of multiple colors, try to make each color as distinct as possible. Make sure each color is distinct to its neighbours.
• Improve attractive dark color generation, currently they're a touch murky.
• Improve the color dictionary

• definition of hue values and attractive luminosity bounds
• think about how to store hue aliases (e.g. fuschia) or subranges (e.g teal)
• think about making a little point and click tool for defining your own luminosity bounds and customizing the color dictionary

• Think about how to return seeds.
• Think about adding feature to return complementary & contrasting colors, as well as color triads, tetrads etc. Other libraries might already do this better though.
• Think about adding a scheme options which would return a dominant color, as well as secondary, tertiary color and primary and secondary text colors. This might be a bad idea.
• Add a nice visualization of the 'attractive color space' to the demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0-qoXOCOow
• Add a feature to return random colors close to a provided hex

In use

• The Daily Show used it to make an extension which converts Trump's tweets into a child's scribble.
• Initial.js used it to generate Gmail-style avatars.
• ng2-Logger used it to make logs a little more colorful.
• vue-randomcolor adds attractive random colors to Vue.js.

Did you use randomColor.js for something? Tell me about it.