Color arrays

A color is represented in JavaScript as an array containing 1, 2, 4, or 5 elements corresponding to a Transparent, Gray, RGB, or CMYK color space, respectively. The first element in the array is a string denoting the color space type. The subsequent elements are numbers that range between zero and one inclusive. For example, the color red can be represented as ["RGB", 1, 0, 0].

Invalid strings or insufficient elements in a color array cause the color to be interpreted as the color black.

Color space

String

Number of additional elements

Description

Transparent

“T”

0

A transparent color space indicates a complete absence of color and allows those portions of the document underlying the current field to show through.

Gray

“G”

1

Colors are represented by a single value—the intensity of achromatic light. In this color space, 0 is black, 1 is white, and intermediate values represent shades of gray. For example, .5 represents medium gray.

RGB

“RGB”

3

Colors are represented by three values: the intensity of the red, green, and blue components in the output. RGB is commonly used for video displays, which are generally based on red, green, and blue phosphors.

CMYK

“CMYK”

4

Colors are represented by four values, the amounts of the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black components in the output. This color space is commonly used for color printers, where they are the colors of the inks used in four-color printing. Only cyan, magenta, and yellow are necessary, but black is generally used in printing because black ink produces a better black than a mixture of cyan, magenta, and yellow inks and because black ink is less expensive than the other inks.