Hmm, okay so this is trickier than I thought. So turns out converting with charCodeAt() gets the ASCII value, but while the prefs file is UTF-8 encoded, the color strings are in CP1252 or Windows-1252 encoding.
For example the character "ž" in ASCII is 382, which is out of scope for 0-255, while the Windows-1252 value is 158, the correct value.
You can test this by going to https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/ascii-to-hex.html
and selecting "Windows-1252" in character encoding, pasting the value for "Label Color ID 2 # 6" "ÿçÁž" and the result it will give you is correct: "ff e7 c1 9e".
The issue now is that I'm not aware of a built-in way to convert that with extendScript. I found a library online that works with node.js, so we would either need to find an ES3/ExtendScript compatible library for this conversion, or roll our own.
Also, looks like you're not the first one to run into this issue, found a few other similar threads without a definitive result:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects/color-labels/td-p/5644065
https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects/get-label-colors-from-pref/td-p/7716338
https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects/convert-the-ascii-color-code-to-hex/m-p/11197128
One alternative solution for values that are beyond 255, is to read the txt file and build your own parser, but I think finding or building a converter table of some sort would be the best approach.
Okay, this table seems to work for ASCII-extended characters. No garuntees, but looks like it checks out with the current colors. Built the table from this table https://theascii.com/extended-ascii-table/
var table1252 = {
"€":128,
"‚":130,
"ƒ":131,
"„":132,
"…":133,
"†":134,
"‡":135,
"ˆ":136,
"‰":137,
"Š":138,
"‹":139,
"Œ":140,
"Ž":142,
"‘":145,
"’":146,
"“":147,
"”":148,
"•":149,
"–":150,
"—":151,
"˜":152,
"™":153,
"š":154,
"›":155,
"œ":156,
"ž":158,
"Ÿ":159,
"¡":161,
"¢":162,
"£":163,
"¤":164,
"¥":165,
"¦":166,
"§":167,
"¨":168,
"©":169,
"ª":170,
"«":171,
"¬":172,
"�":173,
"®":174,
"¯":175,
"°":176,
"±":177,
"²":178,
"³":179,
"´":180,
"µ":181,
"¶":182,
"·":183,
"¸":184,
"¹":185,
"º":186,
"»":187,
"¼":188,
"½":189,
"¾":190,
"¿":191,
"À":192,
"Á":193,
"Â":194,
"Ã":195,
"Ä":196,
"Å":197,
"Æ":198,
"Ç":199,
"È":200,
"É":201,
"Ê":202,
"Ë":203,
"Ì":204,
"Í":205,
"Î":206,
"Ï":207,
"Ð":208,
"Ñ":209,
"Ò":210,
"Ó":211,
"Ô":212,
"Õ":213,
"Ö":214,
"×":215,
"Ø":216,
"Ù":217,
"Ú":218,
"Û":219,
"Ü":220,
"Ý":221,
"Þ":222,
"ß":223,
"à":224,
"á":225,
"â":226,
"ã":227,
"ä":228,
"å":229,
"æ":230,
"ç":231,
"è":232,
"é":233,
"ê":234,
"ë":235,
"ì":236,
"í":237,
"î":238,
"ï":239,
"ð":240,
"ñ":241,
"ò":242,
"ó":243,
"ô":244,
"õ":245,
"ö":246,
"÷":247,
"ø":248,
"ù":249,
"ú":250,
"û":251,
"ü":252,
"ý":253,
"þ":254,
"ÿ":255
};
function getLabelsFromPrefs(){
$.appEncoding = 'CP1252';
var sectionName = "Label Preference Color Section 5";
var prefFile = PREFType.PREF_Type_MACHINE_INDEPENDENT;
var keyName;
var mypref;
var resArray = [];
for(var i = 1; i <= 16; i++){
keyName = "Label Color ID 2 # " + i.toString();
mypref = app.preferences.getPrefAsString(sectionName, keyName, prefFile);
var res = '';
for(var j = 1; j < mypref.length; j++) {
var charCode = mypref.charCodeAt(j);
if(charCode > 254){
charCode = table1252[mypref[j]]
}
var newCode = charCode.toString(16).toUpperCase();
if(newCode.toString().length === 1){
newCode = '0'+newCode;
}
// alert(mypref[i] +' is '+charCode)
res += newCode;
}
resArray.push(res);
}
return resArray;
};
// B53838, E4D84C, A9CBC7, E5BCC9, A9A9CA, E7C19E, B3C7B3, 677DE0, 4AA44C, 8E2C9A, E8920D, 7F452A, F46DD6, 3DA2A5, A89677, 1E401E
alert(
"B53838 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[0] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[0] === "B53838") + "\n"+
"E4D84C - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[1] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[1] === "E4D84C") + "\n"+
"A9CBC7 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[2] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[2] === "A9CBC7") + "\n"+
"E5BCC9 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[3] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[3] === "E5BCC9") + "\n"+
"A9A9CA - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[4] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[4] === "A9A9CA") + "\n"+
"E7C19E - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[5] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[5] === "E7C19E") + "\n"+
"B3C7B3 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[6] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[6] === "B3C7B3") + "\n"+
"677DE0 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[7] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[7] === "677DE0") + "\n"+
"4AA44C - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[8] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[8] === "4AA44C") + "\n"+
"8E2C9A - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[9] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[9] === "8E2C9A") + "\n"+
"E8920D - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[10] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[10] === "E8920D") + "\n"+
"7F452A - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[11] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[11] === "7F452A") + "\n"+
"F46DD6 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[12] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[12] === "F46DD6") + "\n"+
"3DA2A5 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[13] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[13] === "3DA2A5") + "\n"+
"A89677 - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[14] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[14] === "A89677") + "\n"+
"1E401E - " + getLabelsFromPrefs()[15] + " - " + (getLabelsFromPrefs()[15] === "1E401E")
);
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