README.contrast

== Background ==

This is a simple, small library to do color palette optimization.  This is done
by defining colors as volumetric regions within the CIE L*a*b* color space, and
then selecting the point within those regions which provides for maximum
readability.  Contrast is determined via a simple linear distance metric in the
Lab color space, and the vector is "pushed" a bit further out in the case when
the two colors are very close together.

There's certainly room for improvement here, but this has worked very well so
far for theme-based colors in XChat-GNOME (http://xchat-gnome.navi.cx).


Some deeper explanation, fancy-pants pictures, and a little bit of history in
the development of this approach can be found in these two blog entries:
    http://david.navi.cx/blog/?p=94
    http://david.navi.cx/blog/?p=99


== Usage ==

Feel free to pull these files into your source tree and edit the Makefile as
needed.  If you have ideas about how to make this svn:externals friendly, please
let me know!


== License ==

This is distributed under the MIT/X11 license.  I'd love to hear how you're
using this, but you're under no obligations to tell me.


Copyright (c) 2006-2007  David Trowbridge <trowbrds@gmail.com>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.