Re: [css-color] Have you considered standardizing a rgba(#RRGGBB, <alpha-value>) notation?

I think we’re starting to need color manipulation functions. They are going to be immensely useful when combined with variables too, but also different color formats, named colors etc. For example, LESS has color functions like alpha(), darken(), lighten() etc.

On May 7, 2013, at 16:34, Šime Vidas wrote:

> Example:
> 
> A developer would like to define a color which “base” is #07C and which alpha value is 30%. The Color Level 4 unofficial draft [1] provides different notations for defining such a color value, but all of them force the developer to perform some sort of conversion beforehand.
> 
> 1. If the rgba() notation is chosen, one has to convert the hex color value to the corresponding three integer components:
> 
>     #07C => 0, 119, 204
> 
> 2. If the #RGBA notation is chosen, one has to convert the alpha value:
> 
>     30% => 255*0.3 (decimal) => 4D (hex)
> 
> The developer has to use tools to perform these conversions.It would be good if it were possible to use the values #07C and 30% directly somehow without having to perform manual conversions or rely on external tools. For instance, he Sass CSS-pre-processor provides this notation:
> 
>     rgba( #07C, .3 )
> 
> I'm not saying that the above notation is ideal. It does however provide a functionality that is currently missing in the CSS Color 4 draft - the functionality of defining color values by combining hex base color and decimal alpha values. 
> 
> [1]: http://rawgithub.com/tabatkins/specs/master/css-color/Overview.html
> 
> -- @simevidas
> 
> 
>