Method and system for generating colors using constrained color properties

• US 20060206812A1
• Filed: 03/14/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Barn-Wan, Huh, Da Hye
• Granted Patent: US 7,500,189 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/272
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

Generally, the present invention provides embodiments of systems and methods for extrapolating formats to create pleasing format templates. In an exemplary embodiment, a method for creating a color template for a document comprises receiving at least one color for the document. Then, the colors received become constraints of at least one document parameter. A color template is then selected and automatically applied to the constrained document parameters to extrapolate one or more other colors for the unset color parameters. Finally, the color template with the extrapolated colors is provided with the received colors and the extrapolated colors.

Claims

1. A computer program product encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer implemented method for creating a color template for a document, the method comprising:

receiving at least one color for the document;

constraining at least one document parameter to the received color;

selecting an example color template;

automatically applying the example color template to the constrained color parameters to extrapolate one or more other colors for unset document parameters;

providing the color template based on the received colors and the extrapolated colors.

2. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein selecting comprises:

providing one or more example color templates; and

receiving a selection of the example color template.

3. A computer program product defined in claim 2, wherein providing comprises:

comparing one or more constrained parameters to one or more attributes of one or more example color template in a template example library; and

automatically selecting one or more example color templates that closely compare to the one or more constrained parameters.

4. A computer program product defined in claim 3, wherein a constrained parameter is one of a color setting or a relationship between two color settings.

5. A computer program product defined in claim 4, wherein the color setting is a value for hue.

6. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein automatically applying comprises:

determining one or more relationships between a base color, corresponding to one of the constrained parameters, and an second color; and

applying the one or more relationships to the constrained parameter corresponding to the base color to extrapolate one or more new colors related to the second color.

7. A computer program product defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving selection of the color template; and

automatically applying the coloring to one or more portions of the document based on the color template.

8. A computer program product defined in claim 7, wherein one or more colors set by the user are changed when automatically applying the coloring.

9. A computer program product defined in claim 1, wherein two or more applications apply the color template to color portions of documents generated by the two or more applications.

10. A computer program product defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user created document having one or more colors;

extracting the color settings from the user created document; and

providing the extracted color settings as the at least one color for the document.

11. A computer program product encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer system for creating a color template for a document, the system comprising:

a matching engine that receives constrained color parameters and extracts one or more example color templates that relate to one or more of the constrained color parameters;

an algorithm engine that applies the color relationships in the one or more example color templates to the constrained color parameters to extrapolate one or more color templates;

a template application module that receives a choice of a color template and automatically applies the chosen color template to the document.

12. A computer program product defined in claim 11, further comprising a color template example library where the matching engine extracts the one or more example color templates.

13. A computer program product defined in claim 11, wherein the matching engine compares one or more constrained color parameters to one or more colors of one or more example color templates to determine which example color templates to extract.

14. A computer program product defined in claim 13, wherein the matching engine calculates a mathematical distance between the constrained color parameter and the one or more colors of the one or more example color templates.

15. A computer program product defined in claim 14, wherein the mathematical distance is between two hue settings for two colors.

16. A computer program product defined in claim 14, wherein the mathematical distance is between the offsets for two sets of two colors having a relationship.

17. A computer program product defined in claim 11, wherein the algorithm engine determines one or more relationships between a base color, corresponding to one of the constrained color parameters, in the color template and a second color and applies the one or more relationships to the constrained color parameter corresponding to the base color to extrapolate one or more new colors related to the second color.

18. A computer program product encoding a data structure for a color template with extrapolated colors, the data structure comprising:

a first data field that contains information for a style template that comprises one or more styles and formatting for the styles that is applied to a document;

a second data field that contains user-set color parameters for one or more of the styles in the first data field; and

a third data field that contains one or more extrapolated colors based on the user-set color parameters and set for one or more styles in the first data field that the user did not set.

19. A computer program product defined in claim 18, further comprising a fourth data field that contains information about relationships between user-set color parameters, wherein the fourth data field is used to extrapolate the extrapolated colors in the third data field.

20. A computer program product defined in claim 18, further comprising a fifth data field that contains one or other formats assigned to the styles in the first data field.