ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

Color.getTransform() Method

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Hexadecimal color values are familiar to most web developers, as they are often used in

HTML tags. For example, here we use a hexadecimal number to specify the background

color of an HTML page (equal values for red and blue combine to form pink):

<BODY BGCOLOR="#FF00FF">

The hex color format used in HTML tags is, in fact, the same as the format used by

getRGB() and setRGB(). However, it’s not mandatory to use hexadecimal to interpret the

return value of getRGB(); we can also extract the individual Red, Green and Blue color

offsets from the return value of getRGB(), using the bitwise operators:

var rgb = myColorObject.getRGB();

var red = (rgb >> 16) & 0xFF; // Isolate the Red offset and assign it to red

var green = (rgb >> 8) & 0xFF; // Isolate the Green offset and assign it to green

var blue = rgb & 0xFF; // Isolate the Blue offset and assign it to blue

With the offset values separated into individual variables (one for each primary color), we

can examine and manipulate them individually as decimal numbers. However, when we

want to apply any offset value changes to a Color object, we must reassemble the offsets

into a single number, as shown in the entry for the setRGB() method.

Usage

The getRGB() and setRGB() methods are