NAME

tcol - interactive color picker for the terminal

SYNOPSIS

tcol [--oc --no-color-output]
tcol file

DESCRIPTION

tcol allows you to pick a color in the ANSI 256 colors range. You can load a file containing colors and dynamically modify the colors; upon exit the modified colors are displayed in the terminal.

LAYOUT

tcol will display a pane with an optional colored file display and a color picker.

Color picker

The picker consists of:

• current colors swatch, changed when you move the color cursor
• 4 colors registries which you can set if you want to modify colors
• the main color swatch
  • default system colors
  • grey scales
  • solarized colors
  • rest of available colors
• greyed out line with color code

MODES

tcol had three modes of operation:

binding	modes
n	normal mode
p	pick mode
mm	modification mode

Normal mode

Move the cursor in the color swatch, the current color and color code are updated.

When you quite tcol the selected color code is displayed, you can also copy the code to the clipboard.

ForeGround / Backgroud

• press 'b' to selct a background color
• press 'f' to selct a foreground color

Pick mode

If you pass a file to tcol, the file will be displayed in the left pane.

pick color

You can select a color from the left pane and put in one of the color registries.

• press 'p' to get in the pick mode
• use the movement keys to place the cursor on the color you want to change
  • the current color swatch will reflect the color you're on
• put the color in one of the modification registries with 'm[1-5]

fzf

You can also chose the color to put in the color registries with the help of fzf

• press 'mf' to set current registry, 'mF' to set all registries
• select colors with 'tab'
• press 'enter'

You can also batch load user defined modification colors. tcol runs command ansi_user_colors which should return predefine colors.

• press 'mu' to load a color in the current registry
• press 'mU' to load a color in all the registries

Note that ansi_user_colors is a command so you can chose a color to return in an interactive picker like FZF.

The same can be done with command ansi_user_colors_by_name with the following bindings

• press 'mn' to load a color in the current registry
• press 'mN' to load a color in all the registries

Modification mode

You can change the colors in the color registry, the left pane will reflect the changes. Note that your text is not changed only the preview.

• press 'mm'
• use the movement keys to select a new color
  • the color registry displays the original color and the new color

Use "'[1-5]" (quote + figure) to select a different registry to modify

Flip preview between modified and unmodified colors

You can go back to normal mode with 'n' and back to modify mode with 'mm'.

OUTPUT

Bindings

binding	movements
j	scroll down
DOWN	scroll down
UP	scroll up
k	scroll up
RIGHT	move right
l	move right
LEFT	move left
h	move left
J	scroll pane 0 down
K	scroll pane 0 up

binding	tcol
yy	copy to clipboard
yq	copy to clipboard and quit
Q	quit without displaying color data
q	quit
QUESTION_MARK	show bindings
h	display help

binding	colors
b	pick background
f	pick foreground
cb	use black color
cw	use white color
cr	reverse
r1	restore #1
r2	restore #2
r3	restore #3
r4	restore #4

binding	modes
n	normal mode
p	pick mode
mm	modification mode
a	alternate normal/modification

binding	modification mode
'1	select #1
'2	select #2
'3	select #3
'4	select #4
m1	save #1
m2	save #2
m3	save #3
m4	save #4
m5	save #5
mc	set change color
mf	set modification color
mF	set all modification colors
mu	chose from user colors
mU	chose all from user colors
mn	chose from named colors

DEPENDENCIES

• Bash
• Perl
• AWK
• Paneless https://github.com/nkh/paneless

INSTALL

Clone the repository and add it to your PATH; or link/copy the files to somewhere in your PATH.

Generate Documentation

utils/gen_man_page can be used to generate a man page, it needs pandoc.

The documentation is this README, you will get:

• a man page
• tcol -h will display the man page
• command 'h' will display the man page

AUTHOR

Khemir Nadim ibn Hamouda
https://github.com/nkh
CPAN ID: NKH

LICENCE

© Nadim Khemir 2023, Artistic licence 2.0