OKlab - OKlch color space

[smg]

Will be nice to see OKLab/OKLch color space implemented in Affinity suite.

LittleCMS has just released it.

There are any plans?

 

 

[Mark Oehlschlager]

I just became aware of OKLab and OKlch. Apparently both are now incorporated into the latest CSS specs.

OKlch is rapidly gaining popularity as a color model. OKlch is essentially a variant of CIE Lab wherein the abstract color components  "a-opponent" and "b-opponent" are replaced with the more human readable color components of chroma (saturation), and hue.

OKlch improves upon the HSL color model by normalizing lightness values for colors with the same saturation and hue values. (Using the standard HSL model, a yellow and purple color sharing the same lightness (e.g., 50%) and saturation (e.g., 100%) will nevertheless show an apparent difference in lightness; whereas, using the OKlch model, that yellow and purple will display the exact same apparent lightness.)

Anyway, I'm sure the developers at Serif understand this and are aware. I would simply like to request that OKLab and OKlch color models be added to the Affinity suite.

[przemoc]

For reference mentioning archived v1 thread.

[Zodman]

I've just started using OKLCH and find it a more precise and intuitive way to work with colour.

I'm currently having to use an external tool to manipulate the colour (online app), then manually port it back to Affinity Designer using the corresponding HEX code.

It would be very nice if Affinity Designer had this colour picker inside the app instead of having to go outside.

Code for the app, and links to the code for the original specification, are avaliable from the online app.

[Jordan Becker]

On 2/25/2025 at 11:38 PM, Zodman said:

I'm currently having to use an external tool to manipulate the colour (online app), then manually port it back to Affinity Designer using the corresponding HEX code.

Please note that only sRGB colors can be encoded using hex codes (each channel with 256 possible values). Oklch is also capable of encoding wide gamut color spaces such as P3 and beyond. Copying the hex codes will then mean you’re copying a sRGB "closest match" color —if you selected a color outside of the sRGB color space in the Oklch picker, that is.

I’d be thrilled to have support for OKLCH and OKLAB in the Affinity suite for sure!

[matisso]

On 2/25/2025 at 11:38 PM, Zodman said:

It would be very nice if Affinity Designer had this colour picker inside the app instead of having to go outside.

Or the community could simply create plugins just like it’s possible for Figma; if only there was a way…

I support the idea, but I’m skeptical this gains traction. 🤔