The Colorpedia card, annotated: the color swatch and its name with the honest nearest-neighbor distance, the computed formats you can tap to copy, the read in words, the history when the color has one, and the tappable harmonies that re-read the card without closing it.

--- title: "Colorpedia" description: "The book about one color: exact hex, RGB, HSL, HSV, CMYK, LAB and LCH, the color's name and history, its harmonies, and a search that reads names, hex and numbers alike." category: "app" keywords: ["colorpedia", "color", "color", "hex", "rgb", "cmyk", "hsl", "lab", "lch", "colorway", "palette", "harmony", "contrast", "pigment", "color names"] last_updated: "2026-08-01" --- # Colorpedia ◉ Every Project on PD carries a **colorway** — the one color it paints the app in. Colorpedia is what sits behind it: tap the ◉ Colorway tile on a Project's Attributes and the whole book on that color opens. **How:** Tap the ◉ Colorway tile on a Project's Attributes to open the book on that color. - **①︎ The name** — from the fixed dictionary, with the honest distance when the match isn't exact. - **②︎ The formats** — computed exactly; tap any one to copy it. - **③︎ The read** — the same maths, in words. - **④︎ The harmonies** — tap a swatch and the whole card re-reads for that color without closing. ## What it tells you **The numbers are computed, exactly, from the color itself.** No lookup is involved, so they hold for any color at all — a Project's colorway, or a hex pulled off an Output of art: - **HEX** · **RGB** · **HSL** · **HSV** — the four everyday ways of writing a color. - **CMYK** — the uncalibrated screen conversion, the same one a design tool shows next to a hex. A press profile will differ, and the card says so rather than pretending otherwise. - **LAB** and **LCH** — the perceptual coordinates, where distance between two colors means what your eye means by it. Tap any one of them to copy it. **The read** puts words to the same maths: the color's family, how light it sits, how pure the hue is, whether it runs warm or cool, its luminance, and its contrast against black and white — the number that decides whether text will actually be legible on it. ## The name, and the honesty about it Color names come from a fixed dictionary of real, documented colors baked into the app — hundreds of them, from the CSS keywords through the pigments, dyes, and heritage colors. **Nothing is generated while you are looking at it**, so nothing can be invented on the spot. A color that isn't in the book **snaps to its nearest neighbor** by perceptual distance, and the card tells you which one and how far away it landed — *nearest named color · very close · ΔE 3.1*. When the match isn't exact and a history is shown, the card says plainly that it is the neighbor's history, not that hex's own. A color with no story attached shows none; an empty line beats an invented one. ## The history Around a third of the dictionary carries the color's actual story — why Tyrian purple was a capital offense to wear, what Prussian blue was made from by accident, why the CSS keyword `green` is only half-strength, which color was added to the web as a memorial. It's there when the color has one and absent when it doesn't. ## Harmonies Underneath, the color's relatives, computed on the wheel: **complement**, **triad**, **analogous**, **split**, and a **shades** ladder. Every swatch is tappable — tap it and the whole card re-reads for that color without closing. The same goes for the **neighbors** list: the named colors sitting closest to this one, with the distance to each. ## The search One field at the top of the card, and it reads whichever way you think about color: - a **name** — `cinnabar`, `tyrian purple`, `cosmic latte` - a **hex** — `#e8ff47`, `e8ff47`, `#f00` - **RGB** — `255, 0, 0` or `rgb(255,0,0)` - **CMYK** — `cmyk(0,100,100,0)` or four bare numbers - **HSL** — `hsl(0,100%,50%)` or `0deg 100% 50%` Type numbers and the card shows you the color it understood, tappable to open. Type a word and it lists the matching names. Searching never closes the card — nothing you do inside it does. It closes on the ×, a tap outside, or Esc. ## From the Command Stone The same book answers in [the Command Stone](/docs/command-stone): `color cinnabar`, `color tyrian purple`, a bare hex, or a tagged `rgb(…)` / `cmyk(…)` / `hsl(…)`. The stone's card adds two things the modal can't: **which Projects wear that color**, and **the real minted Outputs across every Project that read as it** — both tappable straight through to the work. (The stone's separate `stonecolor:` command is a different thing entirely: that repaints the stone itself.) ## Further reading - [Projects & Minting](/docs/app/projects-and-minting) — where the Colorway tile lives - [The Fingerprint](/docs/fingerprint) — what PD reads off the art's own colors - [Command Stone](/docs/command-stone)