README

Find a human-friendly color name for a hex or RGB color value.

This package is useful when your app stores colors as technical values, but you want to show readable names to users.

Practical Use Cases

1. Show a readable color name in a UI

use wwaz\Colorname\ColornameService;

$colors = new ColornameService();

echo $colors->fromHex('#f00'); // Red

You can use this in design tools, admin panels, product editors, theme builders, or any place where users pick colors.

2. Match a color against your own catalog

use wwaz\Colorname\ColornameService;

$colors = new ColornameService('/path/to/your/colornames.json');

echo $colors->fromHex('#f00'); // Brand Red

This is helpful when you need localized color names or a product-specific list of approved color names.

Installation

Install the package with Composer:

composer require wwaz/colorname-php

The package requires PHP 8.2 or newer.

Basic Usage

Use ColornameService for the common case:

use wwaz\Colorname\ColornameService;

$colors = new ColornameService();

$name = $colors->fromHex('#f0f8ff');

echo $name; // Alice Blue

The service accepts short and long hex values, with or without #:

$colors->fromHex('f00');
$colors->fromHex('#f00');
$colors->fromHex('ff0000');
$colors->fromHex('#ff0000');

Custom Catalogs

Create a catalog from an array:

use wwaz\Colorname\ColornameService;

$catalog = [
    ['name' => 'Brand Red', 'hex' => '#ff0000'],
    ['name' => 'Brand Blue', 'rgb' => [0, 0, 255]],
];

$colors = new ColornameService($catalog);

echo $colors->fromHex('#f00'); // Brand Red

Or load a catalog from a JSON file:

use wwaz\Colorname\ColornameService;

$colors = new ColornameService('/path/to/your/colornames.json');

Custom catalog file paths should be absolute.

The JSON file should contain a list of entries:

[
  {
    "name": "Brand Red",
    "hex": "#ff0000"
  },
  {
    "name": "Brand Blue",
    "rgb": [0, 0, 255]
  }
]

Each entry needs a name and either hex or rgb. If both are present, hex is used.

RGB Matching

The service also accepts RGB values:

use wwaz\Colorname\ColornameService;

$colors = new ColornameService();

echo $colors->fromRgb('255,0,0'); // Red
echo $colors->fromRgb([255, 0, 0]); // Red

fromRgb() accepts:

An RGB string like 255,0,0
An RGB array like [255, 0, 0]
An object with a toArray() method that returns RGB values

How Matching Works

The package compares the input color with every color in the selected catalog.

It returns the color name with the smallest RGB distance. This means exact matches work, and near matches return the closest available name.

Development

Install dependencies:

composer install

Run the test suite:

composer test

License

MIT

wwaz / colorname-php

Maintainers

Package info

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