Is there any way to get Firefox to use the native color picker?

Moxvallix@sopuli.xyz to Firefox@lemmy.ml – 169 points –

I use KDE Plasma, and much prefer the KDE color picker over the GTK one that Firefox uses, with input type=color.

I know that I can set GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 to make Firefox use the native file picker, is there a way to make it use the native color picker as well?

I know there probably isn't a way, but I figured it's worth a shot asking.

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Entire Comment Section discussing the weird comment of @over_clox instead of OPs Question lmao.

😒

I solved the issue of Firefox not following my theme on KDE by abandoning Firefox and using Waterfox.

Functionally identical in every way except Waterfox follows qt instead of gtk.

It’s a stretch, I’ve never used waterfox’s color picker. But it may also use qt instead of gtk.

Just tried it. Same colour picker as Firefox unfortunately.

I'm even more intrigued by their idea for a "good" color picker. From the way they describe it it just sounds like a UX nightmare

I did try to find something last night but couldn't find anything unfortunately :(

Excuse me for not answering the question but are you using the color picker in Firefox really that frequently?

I would just choose a nice color with the picker of my choice and paste the hex-code / type the RGB in the custom panel of the default FF color picker and that's it.

Not really. I just like tinkering, and customising things, and I wanted to see if I could.

Ah, I see! In that case I can completely understand your intention.

Edit:

I feel like the guy on Stack Overflow who says something like "That's bad practice, why would you do that?" and then the thread is closed.

And people who google how to solve a certain problem and get to the SO page never get to know the answer that would be relevant.

I'm not a dev, but I'm wondering if the 'Plasma Browser Integration' package has any influence on the picker? Or maybe there are GTK app settings in play.
Just a thought.
It really annoys me that Firefox is not more integrated in KDE than it is.

I have the plasma browser integration. It adds an item to β€œShare” in the context menu (for use with KDEconnect etc) and integrates Firefox with the media player.

Media integration should be done via mpris which ff does natively now, so that's no longer done by the plasma addon

In about:config see if setting widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal to true does anything for you.

Hmm, it appears it already is set to true. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work.

If I recall correctly that enables the kde file picker at least

I didn't even know there was a color picker in Firefox !? What it is used for?

The color type form input. It’s a HTML standard, all modern browsers have it.

Oh ok that makes sense I guess I don't usually use anything like that... Plus I was thinking of the browser itself using it for something...

Yo kde color picker exists? How do I use this?

It pops up whenever a KDE application offers colour selection. Easiest way is probably to open settings to Appearance > Colors and click the Custom button.

Falkon also uses it with input type=color which is why the screenshot says Falkon in it.

It's a bit of a PITA. If you're after a proper dark mode, there's an addon called 'Dark Reader' which works very well.

Are you kidding me? You mean the KDE Color Picker is basically an exact rip of the Windows Color Picker?

πŸ˜‚πŸ€£

Edit: Look up the screenshots, I'm not in the least bit joking. That's an exact clone color picker to Win9X.

KDE couldn't be even marginally original?

And..? So what, if a design works, a design works. This is a colour picker.

IMHO a better design would be a mix between the two.

The left one has much better color palettes. Bigger, with a much nicer color selection than just "neon colors" on the right one. But without a color selector/slider it's unusable for advanced users. Should have an expandable panel with the hue sliders. And a color picker if I want to take it from somewhere else in the screen

I can't check at the moment but Firefox one has the custom field, so probably you need to add a custom colour to access those inputs

Isn't the purpose of Linux to actually step away from Windows, not copy it practically verbatim from 1993?

The purpose of Linux is to be a free and open source OS kernel on top of which free and open source software can provide whatever user experience they want to provide and users are free to pick one.

But they're not free to literally copy an existing interface from a big $$$ corporation...

Again, I use text based input as the main interface. Not RGB. Not HSL. I literally name my colors with text.

Want human flesh, type "human flesh", not some unintuitive #RRGGBB crap.

I've read a lot of youre comments trying to understand youre meaning here, but are you trying to say you want to represent all 16 million colors of a 24 bit color?

And also somehow in a way that not extremely subjective to the user?

Ngl I'd love to see this as a product, and definitely keep me updated if this software ever has a usable demo

You are the first person to actually try to understand what I'm getting at and what my project is. Strangely, you described it fairly well..

As much as I'd like to share my prototype software with you, I'm not sure this is the thread I should share it on.

Windows 11 Desktop is partly a copy from Linux, so why should companies be allowed but free projects not?

They even introduced ssh into Windows preinstalled.

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No. The purpose of Linux is to provide a free and open source operating system, that can be customised by yourself and the community to your liking.

I like KDE's colour picker. It seems I would like the Windows one as well. It's a good design. Linux doesn't exist to be contrary, it exists to be a customisable, open experience.

Do you actually use Linux? The purpose of FOSS is to make it whatever you want it to be. It can be a step away, a step towards, a step multiple by the square root of negative one to MS Windows. The entire point is that you get to dictate the path you want to take.

Yes, I've been running Linux Mint since 2016, thank you for asking.

Only for people who joined Linux because they're spiteful of Windows?

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I know. I wrote Color Painter, which also comes with its own very unique color picker.

My design works. My design is also extremely unique. I didn't rip off an existing design.

Ok? My point is that it really doesn’t matter. A colour picker doesn’t have to be unique.

Unless they wanna avoid potential copyright violations...

My Color Painter and Color Picker software are protected by basic copyright laws, and have nothing similar to common existing interfaces.

That KDE color picker, I'm literally looking at exactly the same interface in Windows 3.11 right now. Huge ripoff, nothing original.

Huge ripoff, nothing special

Okay then don't use it. The entire point of KDE is to provide a traditional desktop metaphor that windows users find friendly.

And if you're especially irked, KDE like most FOSS is somewhat community driven, so be the change you desire if that's your kind of thing. Or don't do anything but complain. You're completely free to do whatever.

But that said, you may perhaps be making a mountain out of a molehill, especially UI elements that if MS wanted to cite copyright, they would have done it long time ago. This has been the default color picker for KDE since the 2.x days.

This has also been the default color picker since Win311/Win95 days. Does this mean people want to backtrack on technology?

If that's what they want who am I to tell them no? The point of open software is to be what the user wants. Why is any particular opinion more correct than another within a group that prides itself on giving users choice.

If KColorPicker isn't someone's cup of tea, there is nothing stopping anyone from changing that default out. The color picker that appears is a user setting.

Its literally technology from 1993. Are their actually no new ideas since 1993 that they just keep copying the same GUI?

Pitiful, absolutely pitiful. Hell, even AI can do better than ancient copycat

Okay so you're here to troll, alright.

Nope, I've just decided that I'm not stupid enough to share my code when everyone gives me shit for designing a unique user interface.

They're giving you shit about complaining about a nice and working color picker for no reason except that somebody made something similar quite a while ago. Nobody cares about your color picker, you are the only one bringing it up.

If it's such a problem for you, and you are obviously a colour picker expert, why don't you make KDE a new colour picker. I'm sure the community would appreciate a new and innovative colour picker, if it's genuinely better than the Windows style one.

I also don't use KDE, I use Gnome. At least they have a little unique style rather than ripping off M$

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Okay so...which of the things in the picture or discussion is color painter?

Is it in any way related to KDE Color Picker?

I feel like of all the things you've said so far, all of which have only tried to discourage the OP to get an answer, and not actually answer their question.

I'm calling out KDE for ripping off the Windows Color Picker. Not mad at OP directly, but still, might as well go back to Windows if that's your preferred color picker.

But why would I go to Windows, if KDE has the same colour picker? Literally an argument for me staying is that the colour picker is identical, so not worth switching for the colour picker (which I really don't care about when it comes to choosing a desktop).

All I wanted was to see if anyone knew of a way to allow Firefox to use my desktop environment's colour picker. I don't care if the design is "stolen" from Windows, and I doubt Microsoft cares either. You really have picked a very obscure, and rather stupid hill to die on.

Sorry for being harsh, I'm just frustrated that the discussion here is about KDE's colour picker design, and not about customising Firefox, which is what I asked about.

I apologize for being harsh as well, but that old Win311 style color picker came from the 16 bit days. You wanna rewrite it in 64 bit?

Hang on... you don't think they are literally the same program right?

The KDE colour picker is a different program that just looks like the Windows one. KDE's colour picker isn't "16 bit".

No shit, M$ literally used the same color picker for 24 bit truecolor as well. It's literally the same GUI.

No... I am starting to understand why you have been saying the things you have. You are actually thinking they are the same program.

They very much are not. KDE wrote their own. Just happens to look the same. KDE's uses QT, Microsoft would use Window's native toolkit.

They are not the same colour picker.

They have the same interface. No originality, no creativity, just copy the big $$ crappy interface..

Can you imagine that someone can like some aspects of an operating system without liking the whole of it?

KDE isn't an operating system, it's a desktop environment on top of an operating system. Can't they avoid copycat Windows?

@over_clox @xigoi I would argue what M$ is ripping off KDE as much as they can

https://www.webpronews.com/microsoft-windows-ripping-off-kde-plasma-again/

Oh, that's right. I forgot that people kept using Windows after 7..

You're probably not wrong, M$ dips their dirty paws into GitHub, which they now own apparently...

That just sounds extremely petty....

It's also the truth. Brutal truth no less, they ripped off the color picker from the Win311/95 era, with no concept on an updated GUI, they just carbon copied M$..

Feel free to submit a change if it bothers you that much..
Wait.. yes? You dont want to? You just want to complain?
Ok then.

I'm not going back to that year 2009 crap, "source code or it didn't happen".

Allz I know is I see with my own eyes that KDE done literally copied Win311 color picker.

It's also something nobody asked, if we're talking brutal truths

Considering the History of Windwows stealing KDE Features/ Designs i bet the KDE Color Picker was there first 😜

What is Color Painter?

It's an experimental graphics editor I wrote from the ground up, to search and process colors by name instead of looking at a bunch of RGB/HSL numbers that make almost no sense to natural artists.

Searching colors by name? Uh no thanks!

search and process colors by name instead of looking at a bunch of RGB/HSL numbers that make almost no sense to natural artists.

unless you tell them which company's color codes you used to match the names to rgb values this will be more useless to artists than rgb colors without a color preview. Text based colors are purely subjective and you'll be hard pressed to find two companies using the same name for the exact same color mix (you will find companies selling paint under the same name but it sure as hell won't look the same). The closest you'll get are the css default colors but that's a pretty limited selection of colors so with your genius text input method you'd still need a couple of sliders to get the entire color spectrum.

Your idea has merit but not for artists. Casual people would benefit a lot more from it, because they won't have to struggle finding the correct color for what they want most of the time. But even just hobby digital artists will spend more time wrangling with your text input than they would just hand picking the rgb values, never mind professional digital artists who probably don't even think in named colors anymore and just think of the rgb ranges they want instead.

Do you have a link to the Github page? I can't find it and think you're full of shit

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Heaven forbid someone put hue on x axis and saturation on y axis and have a separate slider for value and allow you to manually input and allows you to save your favourites in a color picker they made.

Please read my other comments. I put a literal text axis on my color picker. You know, like you want red, you type "red"...

Don't none of the rest of them do that.

Prove me wrong.

Which red? The word β€œred” represents a big range of colors.

Yes, there are descriptive words as well, like fire red, flesh red, plant red..

You think I wouldn't put some thought into some common sense words?

How do you plan to deal with translations? Cause not every descriptive word is translatable, some languages have words to refer to two shades, while another has only one word and both shades are culturally perceived as a single shade.

Honestly I don't know exactly how I would deal with that in the long run. I really appreciate you for asking though.

I've done research into this very topic, and have learned that some languages do not include a word for 'pink', but rather a descriptive form for 'light red'. I'm sure there are numerous other examples of translation issues.

Unfortunately I am not a multilingual programmer, so honestly I would need some help trying to make it work ideally with other languages.

I do thank you for asking this very question, as it indeed is a complication I would need help with.. ☹️

You are being rather ambiguous with how your program works, which I understand. But if the primary way of selecting colors is through words then that is big issue that I feel can't be made to work outside of English.

If the selection is more "traditional", like a color wheel or whatnot, and the text is just a description (I think coolors does this) then it might be translatable.

Like, the issue with "pink" being "light red" is that you can't actually select pink and a lighter shade of red if the selection is through text. If the selection isn't text based then you can just have two colors being "light red" cause it is true anyway

Text works to select or mix a color (I have a totally different definition of 'color' in my system). One 'color' is an entire measured gradient of colors.

I use terms like 'solid color' and 'faded color'. Every other system uses solid color technology, but I use faded color technology in combination with solid colors.

Look underneath you, look at the shadow on your floor/carpet. Does that shadow change the color, or does that shadow change the illumination of the same color?

What is a color?

Isn't that just a semitransparent layer on top?

My original inspiration for my color processing system was to fix images with a 'color cast', if you will. Like, if an image has an extreme blue hue because of a camera flash, or something similar.

The more I researched into it and experimented for myself, the more I realized that chromatic offset isn't much different than the C in Y=MX+C. Find the offset and subtract it from the image..

To me it was basically like a fog, that needed a mathematical solution.

Nope, existing color systems can't account for color flare, which is nonlinear.

I really do appreciate your questions and comments, and it boggles my mind to try to explain it in a sensible way..

The color wheel may as well only be useful for scientists, who are trying to measure the spectrum of light coming in. Awesome! πŸ‘

But that's not intuitive for artists and painters and the like. The rainbow color wheel, as scientific as it may be, does not represent how artists actually see the world.

Sure we see the world with colors, but we primarily see the world with brightness levels. If you see a face, you're not gonna see much of a change in hue, you're gonna see variations in brightness of the same hue.

TL;DR - Color is more than what Crayola created, it's not a solid, it's a faded fluid. And there's a math to it...

I'm not exactly sure if I follow. Like, isn't brightness already slider when using HSV? Meaning you can just change the brightness without changing Hue or Saturation.

Edit: HSL, not HSV

You have asked all the proper questions for me to have full respect for you and offer a link of my prototype..

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ibb3GnYb_LFqfk-HxlMtfyT8j5Fi2Hjq

Please take note that my software may have glitches, which should be outlined in the readme. I admit it's incomplete, but it's not easy designing a whole new GUI concept on your own..

Sadly I am away from a computer for quite a while so I can't truly test it, but the first picture shows a nice concept of Brightness X Hue between two colors.

I can't say I'm an artist, but I did design the current icon of a semi famous Android app, and I was actually using numbers to pick the correct values, as I wished the colors had a somewhat understandable mathematical relationship between each other

That was their goal yes, but it doesn't work correctly. Of course that depends on display technology, in some cases it might work perfectly.

Still, those technologies work with numbers. Tell me of one Picasso out there that can actually paint with some calculated numbers? Not a damn one, they paint by using their eyes and hands.

So how do you mingle the analog technology of the human eye with the digital technology of a computer? Answer is, you don't, unless you can design an intuitive interface for humans that they can just look at and communicate with, rather than look a bunch of stupid numbers which almost make no sense.

HSL vs HSV?

Part of my prototype was gonna be called HSG, (Hue, Saturation, Greyscale), until I fully realized true artists don't work with numbers at all, they work with their eyes and hands.

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