Setting CustomColors in a ColorDialog

Question

Custom color set in the color dialog are supposed to be set to {Blue, Blue} using the following code:

colorDialog1.CustomColors = new int[] { System.Drawing.Color.Blue.ToArgb(), 0xFF0000 };
colorDialog1.ShowDialog();

But, I am getting a different set {Black, Blue}:

enter image description here

Any idea What I am doing wrong here? Thanks.

@FrédéricHamidi: http://www.nthelp.com/colorcodes.htm (BRG) — Arash, Jul 18 '12 at 17:55
@Arash, the `COLORREF` values used by the dialog actually use `BGR` instead of `RGB`, thus the difference. — Frédéric Hamidi, Jul 18 '12 at 17:58

George Johnston · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-18T17:58:06.580

You need to use OLE colors. The simplist way to achieve this is using the built in ColorTranslator object, e.g.

colorDialog1.CustomColors = new int[] { 
                                        ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Blue), 
                                        ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Red)
                                      };
colorDialog1.ShowDialog();

If you need to convert from HTML colors, you can also use the ColorTranslator.FromHtml method, e.g.

colorDialog1.CustomColors = new int[]
                                {
                                    ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.Blue), 
                                    ColorTranslator.ToOle(ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#FF0000"))
                                };

Interesting that this worked for you Afshin. For me, ColorTranslator.ToOle() did not work - I had to use ColorTranslator.ToWin32(). In any case, this post pointed me in the right direction to solve things...so thx to both you and George. — David Carr, Oct 26 '16 at 23:11

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 30 '19 at 20:25

If you have an array of colors, you can translate them using Linq:

colorDialog1.CustomColors = ThemeColors.Select(x => ColorTranslator.ToOle(x)).ToArray()

The ThemeColors array would be something like this:

public static Color[] ThemeColors
{
   get => new[]
   {
      Color.FromArgb(255, 185, 0),
      Color.FromArgb(231, 72, 86),
      Color.FromArgb(0, 120, 215),
      Color.FromArgb(0, 153, 188),
      Color.DarkOrange
   }
}

Note: Don't forget to add:

using System.Linq;

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 09 '15 at 19:25

If you use ColorTranslator FromArgb, you can keep RGB colors in their proper order. For example, ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 0)), is red. You can also use this to set colors that don't have a name, for example, the bright red ColorTranslator.ToOle(Color.FromArgb(255, 31, 33)),.

Setting CustomColors in a ColorDialog

3 Answers3

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