In PHP, what is the most straightforward way to convert a RGB triplet to HSV values?
5 Answers
Here is a simple, straightforward method that returns HSV values as degrees and percentages, which is what Photoshop's color picker uses.
Note that the return values are not rounded, you can do that yourself if required. Keep in mind that H(360) == H(0)
, so H
values of 359.5
and greater should round to 0
Heavily documented for learning purposes.
/**
* Licensed under the terms of the BSD License.
* (Basically, this means you can do whatever you like with it,
* but if you just copy and paste my code into your app, you
* should give me a shout-out/credit :)
*/
<?php
function RGBtoHSV($R, $G, $B) // RGB values: 0-255, 0-255, 0-255
{ // HSV values: 0-360, 0-100, 0-100
// Convert the RGB byte-values to percentages
$R = ($R / 255);
$G = ($G / 255);
$B = ($B / 255);
// Calculate a few basic values, the maximum value of R,G,B, the
// minimum value, and the difference of the two (chroma).
$maxRGB = max($R, $G, $B);
$minRGB = min($R, $G, $B);
$chroma = $maxRGB - $minRGB;
// Value (also called Brightness) is the easiest component to calculate,
// and is simply the highest value among the R,G,B components.
// We multiply by 100 to turn the decimal into a readable percent value.
$computedV = 100 * $maxRGB;
// Special case if hueless (equal parts RGB make black, white, or grays)
// Note that Hue is technically undefined when chroma is zero, as
// attempting to calculate it would cause division by zero (see
// below), so most applications simply substitute a Hue of zero.
// Saturation will always be zero in this case, see below for details.
if ($chroma == 0)
return array(0, 0, $computedV);
// Saturation is also simple to compute, and is simply the chroma
// over the Value (or Brightness)
// Again, multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.
$computedS = 100 * ($chroma / $maxRGB);
// Calculate Hue component
// Hue is calculated on the "chromacity plane", which is represented
// as a 2D hexagon, divided into six 60-degree sectors. We calculate
// the bisecting angle as a value 0 <= x < 6, that represents which
// portion of which sector the line falls on.
if ($R == $minRGB)
$h = 3 - (($G - $B) / $chroma);
elseif ($B == $minRGB)
$h = 1 - (($R - $G) / $chroma);
else // $G == $minRGB
$h = 5 - (($B - $R) / $chroma);
// After we have the sector position, we multiply it by the size of
// each sector's arc (60 degrees) to obtain the angle in degrees.
$computedH = 60 * $h;
return array($computedH, $computedS, $computedV);
}
?>

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Awesome answer. Was just what I needed to learn how to calculate the value part of HSV. Ty. – Deanie Sep 28 '17 at 02:00
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@JacobTheDev Of course. [This question](https://stackoverflow.com/q/3018313/629493) has examples. – Unsigned Feb 13 '18 at 18:40
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Why the commented-out `$G == $minRGB`? is it significant? an error? – ashleedawg May 04 '19 at 03:14
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@ashleedawg There are only three possibilities. Given the set of [R, B, G], it's not necessary to explicitly check G, if R and B have been ruled out. Comment is just informative. – Unsigned May 04 '19 at 15:21
<?php
function RGB_TO_HSV ($R, $G, $B) // RGB Values:Number 0-255
{ // HSV Results:Number 0-1
$HSL = array();
$var_R = ($R / 255);
$var_G = ($G / 255);
$var_B = ($B / 255);
$var_Min = min($var_R, $var_G, $var_B);
$var_Max = max($var_R, $var_G, $var_B);
$del_Max = $var_Max - $var_Min;
$V = $var_Max;
if ($del_Max == 0)
{
$H = 0;
$S = 0;
}
else
{
$S = $del_Max / $var_Max;
$del_R = ( ( ( $var_Max - $var_R ) / 6 ) + ( $del_Max / 2 ) ) / $del_Max;
$del_G = ( ( ( $var_Max - $var_G ) / 6 ) + ( $del_Max / 2 ) ) / $del_Max;
$del_B = ( ( ( $var_Max - $var_B ) / 6 ) + ( $del_Max / 2 ) ) / $del_Max;
if ($var_R == $var_Max) $H = $del_B - $del_G;
else if ($var_G == $var_Max) $H = ( 1 / 3 ) + $del_R - $del_B;
else if ($var_B == $var_Max) $H = ( 2 / 3 ) + $del_G - $del_R;
if ($H<0) $H++;
if ($H>1) $H--;
}
$HSL['H'] = $H;
$HSL['S'] = $S;
$HSL['V'] = $V;
return $HSL;
}

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1I tidied up a few errors in this code, tested it against known results and it works fine. Thanks! – ʍǝɥʇɐɯ Oct 06 '11 at 12:38
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1I'm trying to get a grasp of how HSV works. Before you return the values, don't you have to multiply $H by 360, and $S and $V by 100? – Jack Humphries Nov 24 '12 at 02:13
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@JackHumphries - See my answer for a slightly easier to follow version, that also returns degrees and percentages. – Unsigned Dec 15 '12 at 00:02
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I've incorporated this and its sister function into a slightly-more-usable example: https://gist.github.com/zyphlar/55dea0fae7914ff8eb4a – willbradley Oct 21 '14 at 22:23
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Thoroughly tested and compressed, this is the function I'm going to stick with for converting RGB to HSV:
function RGBtoHSV($r,$g,$b) {
$r=($r/255); $g=($g/255); $b=($b/255);
$maxRGB=max($r,$g,$b); $minRGB=min($r,$g,$b); $chroma=$maxRGB-$minRGB;
if($chroma==0) return array('h'=>0,'s'=>0,'v'=>$maxRGB);
if($r==$minRGB)$h=3-(($g-$b)/$chroma);
elseif($b==$minRGB)$h=1-(($r-$g)/$chroma); else $h=5-(($b-$r)/$chroma);
return array('h'=>60*$h,'s'=>$chroma/$maxRGB,'v'=>$maxRGB);
}
Example:
Example using color "DarkSalmon":
echo '<pre><code>'. print_r( RGBtoHSV(233,150,122), true ) .'</code></pre>';
...returns:
Array
(
[h] => 15.135135135135
[s] => 0.47639484978541
[v] => 0.91372549019608
)

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I did it like this
function convertRgbToHsv($rgb)
{
$r = (int)substr($rgb, 0, 3) / 255;
$g = (int)substr($rgb, 3, 3) / 255;
$b = (int)substr($rgb, 6, 3) / 255;
$max = max($r, $g, $b);
$min = min($r, $g, $b);
$delta = $max - $min;
if (!$delta) {
$h = 0;
} else if ($r === $max) {
$h = 60 * ((($g - $b) / $delta) % 6);
} else if ($g === $max) {
$h = 60 * ((($b - $r) / $delta) + 2);
} else {
$h = 60 * ((($r - $g) / $delta) + 4);
}
$s = !!$max ? $delta / $max : 0;
$v = $max;
$hsv = array("h" => $h, "s" => $s, "v" => $v);
return $hsv;
}
Link to reference material here

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Here's my spin on it, along with a unit test. Since the S
and V
values are percentages, this code returns them as integers (0, 100) as opposed to (0, 1) - Example, 75
instead of 0.75
.
final class MathService
{
/**
* Converts an RGB point into HSV
*
* @param int $r
* @param int $g
* @param int $b
* @return array
*/
public function rgbToHsv(int $r, int $g, int $b): array
{
$rPrime = $r / 255;
$gPrime = $g / 255;
$bPrime = $b / 255;
$max = max([$rPrime, $gPrime, $bPrime]);
$min = min([$rPrime, $gPrime, $bPrime]);
$delta = $max - $min;
// Calculate H
if ($delta == 0) {
$h = 0;
} else {
if ($max === $rPrime) {
$h = 60 * ((($gPrime - $bPrime) / $delta) % 6);
}
if ($max === $gPrime) {
$h = 60 * ((($bPrime - $rPrime) / $delta) + 2);
}
if ($max === $bPrime) {
$h = 60 * ((($rPrime - $gPrime) / $delta) + 4);
}
}
// Calculate S
if ($max == 0) {
$s = 0;
} else {
$s = $delta / $max;
}
// Calculate V
$v = $max;
return [$h, (int)($s * 100), (int)($v * 100)];
}
}
PHPUnit test case with PHP 7.2
/**
* @test
*/
public function rgbToHsv_ComputesCorrectValues(): void
{
$service = new MathService();
$samples = [
// [R, G, B, H, S, V]
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
[255, 255, 255, 0, 0, 100],
[255, 0, 0, 0, 100, 100],
[0, 255, 0, 120, 100, 100],
[0, 0, 255, 240, 100, 100],
[255, 255, 0, 60, 100, 100],
[0, 255, 255, 180, 100, 100],
[255, 0, 255, 300, 100, 100],
[192, 192, 192, 0, 0, 75],
[128, 128, 128, 0, 0, 50],
[128, 0, 0, 0, 100, 50],
[128, 128, 0, 60, 100, 50],
[0, 128, 0, 120, 100, 50],
[128, 0, 128, 300, 100, 50],
[0, 128, 128, 180, 100, 50],
[0, 0, 128, 240, 100, 50],
];
foreach ($samples as $sample) {
list($r, $g, $b) = array_slice($sample, 0, 3);
$expected = array_slice($sample, 3);
$hsv = $service->rgbToHsv($r, $g, $b);
list($h, $s, $v) = $hsv;
self::assertEquals($expected, $hsv, "Error converting ({$r}, ${g}, ${b}). Got ({$h}, {$s}, {$v})");
}
}

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I don't get it, and just wasted time trying to figure out what you're trying to return with this code. Are you implying that **all** the other answers are incorrect? This doesn't return **Hue values below 60 or above 300**. Also, while integers may be easier to look at, percentages are [normally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentage#Examples) represented as a value between `0` and `1`, which also saves steps if further calculations are needed with the percentage, and accuracy is maintained by not rounding the values. – ashleedawg May 15 '19 at 02:32