3 ms·

> Unlike rgb() or hex (#ca0000), OKLCH is human readable. You can quickly and easily know which color an OKLCH value represents simply by looking at the numbers

> Unlike rgb() or hex (#ca0000), OKLCH is human readable. You can quickly and easily know which color an OKLCH value represents simply by looking at the numbers. OKLCH works like HSL, but it encodes lightness better than HSL. I don't know about you, but I am much better at decoding separate RGB values (as in, including hex) than I am at decoding a single chroma value. What am I supposed to do with a chroma value, try to imagine a chart to place it on? Memorize the values of each color on the spectrum? I'm not saying it's unreasonable to expect somebody to be able to learn this, but in my opinion it's not very fair to say LCH is somehow automatically more readable than RGB.

infamia 2y ago
> I don't know about you, but I am much better at decoding separate RGB values (as in, including hex) than I am at decoding a single chroma value. I can do it, but RGB and HEX are awful for me. A lot of mental work must be done to get to decimal/hex colors: 1. Memorize what happens when you mix combinations of RGB. 2. Learn/internalize hex 3. Mentally map how each color might roughly look in both decimal and hex. All of that can be learned of course, but that's a lot of work compared to memorizing four numeric waypoints for hues (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green) to start. The rest was super easy for me once I knew that Chroma is how much color you're putting in (0=gray). By the way, you mentioned Chroma earlier. Did you mean Hue instead? The beauty of OKLCH is that you don't absolutely have to know Hue cold to work with colors and create variations. You can pick your primary, secondary, etc. colors. Then set the Chroma (which probably remains the same throughout your palette) and Hue to CSS variables. Then forget about their real values and just use the variables. To get a color palette, adjust with the brightness to develop as many levels of a color as needed. Then, take that color and copy/paste for however many colors you have in your palette, replacing the hue with a different variable for each color. All the colors will have the same perceived brightness at a given level of lightness, which is a huge win that isn't easily achieved in other color systems like RGB.
- LoganDark 2y ago
  > By the way, you mentioned Chroma earlier. Did you mean Hue instead? oops yes I meant hue sorry. I was probably thinking of the chrominance video signal lmao
jacobolus 2y ago
Obviously you need to get some practice to learn what the numbers mean, but because they are related to human visual perception rather than to the physical details of the display device, they are much easier to learn than RGB coordinates. You should give it a shot; you should be able to get the basic idea with just a few minutes of effort, and if you try working with these seriously for a few days you'll be set.
H1Supreme 2y ago
Yeah, that's a bit of a hot take from the author. I'd say it's equally as readable as RGB. They're both arbitrary values that you need to spend time with to get a feel for.

infamia 2y ago

> I don't know about you, but I am much better at decoding separate RGB values (as in, including hex) than I am at decoding a single chroma value. I can do it, but RGB and HEX are awful for me. A lot of mental work must be done to get to decimal/hex colors: 1. Memorize what happens when you mix combinations of RGB. 2. Learn/internalize hex 3. Mentally map how each color might roughly look in both decimal and hex. All of that can be learned of course, but that's a lot of work compared to memorizing four numeric waypoints for hues (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green) to start. The rest was super easy for me once I knew that Chroma is how much color you're putting in (0=gray). By the way, you mentioned Chroma earlier. Did you mean Hue instead? The beauty of OKLCH is that you don't absolutely have to know Hue cold to work with colors and create variations. You can pick your primary, secondary, etc. colors. Then set the Chroma (which probably remains the same throughout your palette) and Hue to CSS variables. Then forget about their real values and just use the variables. To get a color palette, adjust with the brightness to develop as many levels of a color as needed. Then, take that color and copy/paste for however many colors you have in your palette, replacing the hue with a different variable for each color. All the colors will have the same perceived brightness at a given level of lightness, which is a huge win that isn't easily achieved in other color systems like RGB.

LoganDark 2y ago
> By the way, you mentioned Chroma earlier. Did you mean Hue instead? oops yes I meant hue sorry. I was probably thinking of the chrominance video signal lmao

jacobolus 2y ago

Obviously you need to get some practice to learn what the numbers mean, but because they are related to human visual perception rather than to the physical details of the display device, they are much easier to learn than RGB coordinates. You should give it a shot; you should be able to get the basic idea with just a few minutes of effort, and if you try working with these seriously for a few days you'll be set.

H1Supreme 2y ago

Yeah, that's a bit of a hot take from the author. I'd say it's equally as readable as RGB. They're both arbitrary values that you need to spend time with to get a feel for.