Write foreground color CMYK, RGB, HEX

This would get the Color Picker conversions for a selected fill color and copy them as text to the clipboard—make sure you have an object with a fill color selected. Just keep in mind that the Color Picker is color managed, so the conversions would depend on your document’s assigned color profiles.

Hex values typically are used for HTML coding, so for web hex values your assigned RGB profile needs to be sRGB.

getColorPickerValues()


function getColorPickerValues(){
    try {
        var fc = app.activeDocument.selection[0].fillColor
    }catch(e) {
        alert("Please select an object with a fill color applied");
        return
    }  

    var sp = fc.properties;
    var h, k, r, str;
    $.writeln(fc.name)

    if (fc.name == "None" || fc.name == "Black" || fc.name == "Registration") {
        alert("Can not get fill color conversions")
        return
    }

    if (fc.space == ColorSpace.CMYK) {
        k = fc.colorValue;
        fc.space = ColorSpace.RGB;
        r = roundColor(fc.colorValue);
        h = convertRGB(fc.colorValue);
        fc.properties = sp;
    } else {
        fc.space = ColorSpace.RGB;
        r = roundColor(fc.colorValue);
        h = convertRGB(r);
        fc.properties = sp;
        fc.space = ColorSpace.CMYK;
        k = roundColor(fc.colorValue);
        fc.properties = sp;
    }
    
    setClipboard("Hex: " + h + "\r" + "RGB: " + r + "\r" + "CMYK: " + k)
}


/**
* Round color values to nearest integer 
* @ param array of color values 
* @Return rounded array 
* 
*/
function roundColor(a){
    var ca = []
    for (var i = 0; i < a.length; i++){
        ca.push(Math.round(a[i]))
    };   
    return ca
}


/**
* Converts 8-bit RGB values to Hex 
* @ param array of RGB 
* @ return hex value 
* 
*/
function convertRGB(a){
    var h1 = toHex(Math.round(a[0]))
    if (h1.length == 1) {
        h1 = "0" + h1
    } 

    var h2 = toHex(Math.round(a[1]))
    if (h2.length == 1) {
        h2 = "0" + h2
    } 

    var h3 = toHex(Math.round(a[2]))
    if (h3.length == 1) {
        h3 = "0" + h3
    } 
    return "#" + h1 + h2 + h3
}

function toHex(d) {
  var r = d % 16;
  if (d - r == 0) {
    return toChar(r);
  }
  return toHex((d - r) / 16) + toChar(r);
}

function toChar(n) {
  const alpha = "0123456789ABCDEF";
  return alpha.charAt(n);
}


/**
* Sets the clipboard to the provided string
*/
function setClipboard(s){
    var tf = app.activeDocument.pages[0].textFrames.add()
	tf.parentStory.texts[0].select();
    tf.parentStory.contents = s;
    tf.parentStory.texts.everyItem().select(SelectionOptions.REPLACE_WITH)
	app.copy()
    tf.remove()
}

The pasted clipboard text after running the script with the blue circle selected:

Hi @ehho.collectif , I don’t think you can get the state of the Color Picker via scripting, but you can get a selection’s fill color properties, and from there get the hex, RGB, and CMYK color managed values. Would you have an object with a fill color selected when you want the foreground color values?

Are you aware that these are only numbers and these numbers are linked to each other. Applications which have colormanagement, like InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop help to translate these values from one color system to antoher and with different color profiles will translate those values differently.

Why do you need a script for those numbers as the CM does a good job to get the closest color from a different color space?

Also, I’m not sure if you are trying to create swatches or colors from a list of hex values, or you are trying to get the color conversions for an existing set of swatches?

If you are trying to get color conversions, this might be helpful:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/branding-color-guide/td-p/10818696

I don't think it's possible to copy paste this natively in indesign

Hi @ehho.collectif , you can paste a hex code into the Color Picker’s #: field, which will also give you the RGB equivalent of the hex code.

Make sure you cursor is in one of the R, G, B fields—clicking OK will set the foreground color to the pasted HEX/RGB value, or click Add RGB Swatch to create a new RGB Swatch in the Swatches panel.

If you place your cursor in one of the C,M,Y, or K fields the returned CMYK values are a color managed conversion from your document’s assigned RGB profile to the document’s assigned CMYK profile :

Are these swatches in your InDesign document? If not, where are these colors coming from? Where are you writing them to? A text frame on the document? Which one? 

As you can see, many questions need to be answered, and thus this is more complicated than it might appear to you.