VarColor

Turns any variable into a color - vars will yield the same color every time!

Can be used for styling items based on their name, perhaps to avoid hardcoding colors or to give user interfaces some variety without having to develop color options for end users.

Supports "theming" — multiple colors can be generated with the same lightness and/or saturation so they don't look clash with your design. For example, perhaps you need pastels or dark, saturated colors.

See demo.php for usage examples.

Basic Usage

VarColor has two main functions:

• hex generates a quick hex from a variable
• color generates a color with preset saturation and lightness

Hex function

Simply pass a variable and a hex color is returned:

require('VarColor.php');
$vc = new VarColor;
echo $vc->hex('Hello, World!');
// 65A8E2

Color function

Change $vc->saturation and $vc->lightness to "theme" your colors. They default to 50 and must be 0–100. Example usage:

require('VarColor.php');

$vc = new VarColor;
$vc->saturation = 75;
$vc->lightness = 25;
$hex = $vc->color('Simples');

echo '<h1 style="background: #'.$hex.';">'.$hex.'</h1>';

Change $vc->format to choose the return type:

• $vc->format = $vc::HEX (default) for hex string
• $vc->format = $vc::RGB for array of r, g & b
• $vc->format = $vc::HSL for aray of h, s & l

For example:

$vc->format = $vc::HSL;
$vc->color('Hello, World!');
// Returns: ['h' => 143, 's' => 50, 'l' => 50]

Contrast function

The contrast() function determines whether black or white has the most contrast with a given hex color and is useful for determining the color for overlayed text. For example:

$color = $vc->color('Hello, World');
echo $text = $vc->contrast($color);
// white