Event Color Codes in Cubase

I was just wondering… when I open Defaults.xml and look at the Color Menu section it looks something like:






To what color code system does the number “4293277495” refers to? Clearly it’s not hex or decimal so how do I know how to name a color from a, say, Google Color Palette where green has a #259b24 code? Or RGB or CMYK?

Thanks,

Marko

Hi,

Why do you want to edit it in the Default.xml file? Why don’t you use the Preferences window, where you can insert the RGB code?

As Martin says, I’d just use the UI to change them in a more friendly manner…

…but to answer your question, it’s basically the decimal representation of a 32-bit value but with the most significant 8 bits set to 1 (for reasons I don’t know… unused alpha value? Non-zero padding?)

So in hex, 4293277495 is 0xFFE63737 - Throwing away the FF at the top, it’s the 3 bytes of RGB, so R=0xE6 G=0x37 B=0x37 or 230/55/55 in decimal. (if you want to see the RGB values, click one of the colors in Cubase to change it and then right-click in the color picker and hit ‘Show Color Values’)

Man, oh ManChicken. I have always wondered about that. Thanks.

I know there is an easier way but this thing’s been bugging me for quite some time… like, why not use just plain hex language in Default.xml file? What are these freakin numbers :slight_smile:

ManChicken you’re no chicken - U R the Man! :smiley: Thanks a lot!

It would be nice if the xml files used standard CSS values.

Disagree. Since the files are not meant to be user editable, they should use whatever method the devs like. Developers should be able to change them if necessary without worrying about breaking things for end-users.

It’s called graceful degradation, nothing breaks it just does not work or at least part of it does. I think it’s about choice, if a user understands, they should be able to create their own configuration files with a simple text editor; this is what XML is for and why SB chose this format instead of .ini and it would mean greater portability between systems.

Couldn’t agree more. For those of us who do web design, it would be MUCH easier (and more consistent) to be able to go through the file and set up our colour palette to taste. I find the whole color option gizmo super annoying. I’d much rather go through the XML and just do my own.

Speaking more broadly, I -do- recognise the ‘risk’ (and also the aggravation for the devs at having to put in ‘guardrails’ in the code to prevent against invalid possibilities) and I do NOT want Cubase to head down some 'slippery slope towards the dreaded ‘open source’ BUT I gotta say… making those XML files user-editable would solve LOTS of problems for me… like with key commands, user-settings, macros, etc. And ultimately, it would save the Devs a lot of time coming up with yet another cockamamie ‘user-interface’ because if you think about it there are so many UIs for all these XML files. How much cleaner it would be if we could ‘cut out the middle man’.

Best.

I guess what I meant was that if they granted a feature request like a user-friendly xml data format, it would also create the expectation that it remain unchanged, or if changed, documented. I figured a low chance that those extra tasks would ever be done, all things considered.

But, if you’re wanting to do all prefs by editing manually in xml files, what’s the big deal about a little number conversion? The decimal color values might get committed to memory after a while, no? :wink:

CSS color values:

Also, RGBA CSS Colors