Welcome to Clarospectra

Welcome to ClaroSpectra

ClaroSpectra is an assistive solution for users who have difficulty determining the difference between colours on their screen. Simply point at a colour and it will be named.

The ClaroSpectra Window

The ClaroSpectra window gives you access to the main functions of ClaroSpectra and provides information about the colour of the pixel the point of your mouse cursor is currently over. On the left hand side there is a sample of the current colour under the mouse. To the right of the colour sample the name of the current colour is given as well as the colour code (in RGB, HSL or Hexadecimal). The layout of this window can be changed in the Settings Panel.

The Grab button allows you to change the name of a specific colour.

The Load button allows you to load a different colour profile that identifies colour differently.

The Settings button allows you to customize ClaroSpectra.

The Grab Button

You can change the name of a specific colour using the Grab button. Click the grab button and you will notice that your mouse pointer changes to a cross-hair with a sample of the selected colour next to it.

To exit the colour selection mode press the Escape key.

If you need to select a colour under the red selection window simply click it and it will disappear.

When the colour you want to change is in the sample box click the mouse. The colour rename panel will be shown. Type in the new name you want to give the colour then press enter or click OK. To cancel click the Cancel button or press the escape key.

When you move over the colour now with the mouse its new name will be shown in the ClaroSpectra window.

The Load Button

ClaroSpectra lets you load different colour profiles that will identify colours differently. There are two profiles included: Advanced and Simple. The advanced profile contains more descriptive colour names such as Firebrick Red whereas the simple profile contains much broader definitions such as Red.

To load a profile simply click the Load button and select a Colour Profile (*.cpf) then click Open. The colour profile you select will be remembered next time you run ClaroSpectra .

The Settings Panel

Visibility

Always visible: Check this box if you want the ClaroSpectra window to always appear on top of other windows.

Show Colour Panel: Un-check this box to hide the colour sample on the ClaroSpectra window. Check it to show the sample again.

Opacity: When the Enabled box is ticked you can drag the slider up and down to make the ClaroSpectra window partially transparent.

Font

Font Size: Use the up and down arrows to change the size of the colour name on the ClaroSpectra window.

Bold: Make the colour name bold on the ClaroSpectra window.

Start-up Location

This setting determines where the ClaroSpectra window will appear when you run it. If you set this to 'Remember' then ClaroSpectra will remember where it is positioned when you close it and re-open in the same place when it next loads.

Colour Code Mode

RGB Values: Gives the individual Red Green and Blue values for the selected colour.

HSL Values: Gives the individual Hue, Saturation and Luminosity values for the selected colour.

Hex Values: Gives the hexadecimal colour code for the selected colour.

None: No colour code is shown.

Restore Settings

The Restore Defaults button will restore all program settings to their initial installation state and load the default (Simple) colour profile. This means that you will lose all changes you made to ClaroSpectra since it was installed with the exception of any colours you have renamed, for instance if you rename 'Red' to 'Warning Red' in the Simple profile then click Restore Settings 'Red' will still be identified as 'Warning Red'. If you modify a profile other than Simple then you will need to load it again by clicking the Load button.

Creating a Colour Profile

This topic is for advanced users who wish to create a colour profile that they can distribute to other users of ClaroSpectra. There are two ways to achieve this.

Grab & Copy

If you need to modify a couple of colour names then it is easiest to use the built in Grab function to rename them

Load a colour profile that most closely matches the colour definitions you want then use the Grab button to select and rename the colours you want.
When you are happy close down ClaroSpectra and navigate to the folder containing the colour definition file you just modified.
Right click the file and select copy then right click again on a black spot in the folder and click paste.
Right click the copy you just created and click 'Rename' then enter a suitable name. Be careful not to change the extension from '.cpf'.
Use the Load Button to load the new colour profile in as normal.

Manual Edit

If you need to set-up more specific colours then you will need to create a new colour definition file.

ClaroSpectra works by matching the colour under your mouse pointer to one of 141 colours defined by the .NET Framework – for this reason it is required that all 141 colours be defined in the definition file.

The .NET colour names are given inside square brackets and the alias is given underneath like so...

[Firebrick]
colour = red

So in order to create a new definition file you will need to provide an alias for all 141 colours using the above format. In the Resources folder under the installation folder there is a file called "profile_template.txt" into which the system colours have been entered for you. Open this file in a text editor, replace the XX entries with colour aliases for all 141 colours (leaving a line blank i.e. "colour=" will cause no name to be shown when the colour is hovered over) and save the file with a .cpf extension.

You must ensure that the first line of the colour profile is "ClaroSpectra Profile" or ClaroSpectra will not load it. The following example will load...

ClaroSpectra Profile
[Transparent]
Colour=White
[AliceBlue]
Colour=Alice Blue
...

And this one will not...

[Transparent]
Colour=White
[AliceBlue]
Colour=Alice Blue
...

We would like to thank you for using ClaroSpectra.

You can see more Claro Software products at

If you have any queries, please visit our help pages at or contact us at

Claro Software Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1772 977 888
US Toll Free: 1-866-800-5151