Choosing colors and pallettes

[Ai]

HSV = 3,600,000 values
(photoshop) Lab = 6,553,600 values
RGB = 16,777,216 values
CYMK = 100,000,000 values
Hex = 2,176,782,336 values
32bit colour = 4,294,967,296 values (?)
its the truth. however CYMK on photoshop is limited to the number of colours possible with the RGB values.
if we wanted all the colours possible on a 32bit screen we'd have to have RGB values from 0 to 1624 i think.

anyway the point of all this is that Hex = 'smoothest' in terms of number of possible values. however its hard to colour with just hex values to go on. so do whatever you find easiest i say. and HSV looks smooth enough. the human eye can't really tell the difference better 254,254,254 and 255,255,255 can it?

erg just realised lots of these numbers aren't correct. some you won't get any values if one of the numbers is 0 so i think only RGB and Hex are accurate. all others show less colours then stated.

CMYK = < 65536 colors (it's a print-oriented colorspace, after all. And ya'd be lucky to get 16 different sizes of ink blob supported by the printer.. probably it's closer to <4096. (8^4)

Hex = Infinite .Hex isn't a colorspace. while photoshop etc display these hex values like RRGGBBAA, their actual range and number of bits depends on display hardware. for a 32bit hex number, there are 4,294,967,296 values; for the more common 24bit hex value, 16,777,216; for the 48bit format used by X11, 281,474,976,710,656 colors (normally not used for display, only for high-precision manipulation). For 16bit displays, there are of course 65536 colors, or 32768 for 15bit (I favor 15bit).

HSV is also fractionally adjustable, as is RGB, depending on your paint program. That finally means it provides (more than) all the possible displayable colors. On modern machines, this may have up to 80bits of precision (GIMP is a known example), which amounts to  604,462,909,807,314,587,353,088 unique values. (79 ^2; 80 - (1 bit to store the sign))

The human eye (at least my human eye) can tell the difference between 254,254,254 and 255,255,255 if they are the only two colors onscreen.

This is all beside the point though -- 64k colors should be enough for anyone!

[Akira]

  Nitpicker
I suppose I should have said hex triplets (sudden i realise how my calculations are screwed again).
And I still reckon my CYMK calculations are fine if you don't intend on printing all values . except i screwed up pretty bad which throws the number off by alot.

And if I substituted 255,255,255 with 254,254,254 on an image you wouldn't be able to visually tell. don't say you would. cause you wouldn't 

But yes, 64k is enough for anyone

Thanks for the superior knowledge, it's FUN to LEARN 

[Panda]

And if I substituted 255,255,255 with 254,254,254 on an image you wouldn't be able to visually tell. don't say you would. cause you wouldn't 

Ai never said you would notice if replacing them. More like you would notice if they were the only colors on screen.

Edit:

There is FFFFF and FEFEFE.
Personally I see no diference at all, (except slightly within the palette window), but who knows, maybe some have better eyes or it's a matter of having a different monitor or something.

[AlexHW]

when i said smoother, i meant that in the way that it flows as a color picker. not the technical amount of numbers..

[fil_razorback]

Ai never said you would notice if replacing them. More like you would notice if they were the only colors on screen.
Edit:

There is FFFFF and FEFEFE.
Personally I see no diference at all, (except slightly within the palette window), but who knows, maybe some have better eyes or it's a matter of having a different monitor or something.

er...I can see the border. I'd never have found it without you telling there was one of course, but I found it =)

[Ai]

Ai never said you would notice if replacing them. More like you would notice if they were the only colors on screen.

Edit:

There is FFFFF and FEFEFE.
Personally I see no diference at all, (except slightly within the palette window), but who knows, maybe some have better eyes or it's a matter of having a different monitor or something.

I spotted the border immediately when the image was zoomed large enough (which still wasn't all the screen; just 400% zoom on the image you provided so that it spanned the browser window.)

I recall a conversation about eye color corresponding to color perception -- I came to the conclusion that a persons preferred colors counteract the colors of their eyes. For example, brown eyed people preferring more saturated colors because their eye color naturally tints what they see somewhat brown/murky .. dark-eyed people liking light/vibrant colors, light-eyed people liking the reverse (oily color blends? Personally I like the way colors mix in oil paintings, and I think it is something like this.. an overall low-saturation theme (personally a lot of stuff looks too bright to me. Whenever I'm going somewhere, there are these excessively shiny things, mostly cars, that repulse my gaze.). Obviously, I'm a light-eyed person (blue, specifically) and I think that there is a good argument for light-eyed people being overly sensitive to light (might be interesting to research someplace where blue eyes are very common, see if it's less damn shiny.)

I think you should have just reiterated 'it makes the most sense (and hence is the easiest to use)'

On modern machines, this may have up to 80bits of precision (GIMP is a known example), which amounts to  604,462,909,807,314,587,353,088 unique values. (79 ^2; 80 - (1 bit to store the sign))

Mistake: that is the amount of precision you could get per component.
For HSV, the total number would be something like ((2 ^ 79) ^ 3) (i also swapped the exponent for the base, before.)
Which is a number beginning "2208558830".. that is 72 digits long.

[Akira]

when i said smoother, i meant that in the way that it flows as a color picker. not the technical amount of numbers..

Haha, i thought it might be something like that. I enjoyed the learning experience though

yeah i see no difference between the two and i'm also blue eyed. but i will concede that my eyesight isn't the best

[ptoing]

Hey, Ai, I think that theory of the dark and bright eyed perception is pretty much nonsense. I have hazel/brown eyes and I like my stuff quite desaturated as well.
It is proven that the level of how sensnsitive people are to light varies, and i am quite sensitive to light as well, see quite well at night after a short time of adjusting, whereas some people are more or less nightblind but are less likely to get blinded by lights. I highly doubt that the colour of the iris changes perception of colour at all.

[Lawrence]

I should add that females can distinguish more colours in the red/orange range compared to males. Apparently women gathered flowers/fruits/leaves etc. while the men hunted animals which were less colourful, whilst we were evolving. 

[Ego]

LAB confuses me Oh well, whatever.
I have a problem picking a nice pallette for skin(of a white person, no rasicm).
I also can't get yellow to shadow right.