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What color space does MSPaint use? (I believe all MSPaints are same for last several versions, but it just to make sure, I am Windows 7).

It would appear that it is HSL, however, the Lum goes from 0 to 240, but from what I read, on HSL Lum should go 0-100.

judeclarke
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  • This doesn't make sense ... why was this downvoted? Could someone please comment to this? The downvote seems completely unnecessary – judeclarke Nov 22 '11 at 07:40

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I assume you mean the model used in the Color dialog box in Paint. It's indeed the HSL color model, see:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms646375%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

As I recall, this particular dialog box was used since about Windows 3.1. (Saturation and luminosity are actually on a scale from 0 to 1, here it's stretched from 0 to 240. Hue is actually on a scale from 0 to 360 degrees, here it's compressed from 0 to 240.)

Peter O.
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  • Hmm, that is interesting. If it is HSL, how come the Lum can go from 0 to 240 when HSL Lum goes from 0 to 100? – judeclarke Nov 22 '11 at 07:19
  • I've just added that. The Color dialog box just uses a different scale from what you're normally used to. For example, 240 on that dialog box means 100 on your usual scale, and 120 means 50. The scale can be arbitrary, thus it's possible for Lum, for example, to range from 0 to 1, from 0 to 240, or even from 0 to 1000. – Peter O. Nov 22 '11 at 07:23
  • Hmm ok, that is interesting that they would do it like that. Thanks for the help. – judeclarke Nov 22 '11 at 07:42
  • I think it's not HSL, but rather HSV. But instead of Value, MS used the word Lumiosity. Compare 2D graph of HSL and HSV from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hsl-hsv_models.svg with that in MS Paint https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms646375(v=vs.85).aspx – rofrol Aug 31 '15 at 08:48