Parsing unknown color strings

When you have a color as a string but do not know its format ahead of time — a value from user input, a config file, or a database — use the Color facade. Its parse() method inspects the string, detects the format, and returns the matching color object.

use Renfordt\Colors\Color;

$color = Color::parse('#FF3377AA');   // HexColor
$color = Color::parse('rgb(255, 51, 119)');
$color = Color::parse('hsl(340, 100%, 60%)');
$color = Color::parse('RebeccaPurple');
$color = Color::parse('RAL 3020');

Color::make() is an alias of parse(), matching the create() / make() naming used by the individual color classes.

What it returns

parse() returns whichever class matches the detected format:

Input	Returns
#FF3377AA, FF3377	HexColor
red, RebeccaPurple	NamedColor
rgb(...), rgba(...)	RGBColor
hsl(...), hsla(...)	HSLColor
hsv(...), hsva(...)	HSVColor
RAL 3020, ral-1000	RALColor

Because the result is a normal color object, you can convert it straight away:

$rgb = Color::parse('hsl(340, 100%, 60%)')->toRGB();
$hex = Color::parse('RebeccaPurple')->toHex();   // #663399

Flexible functional notation

rgb(), hsl(), and hsv() (and their *a alpha variants) accept both the legacy comma syntax and the modern space/slash syntax. Percentages, a deg suffix on the hue, and an alpha component are all understood:

Color::parse('rgb(255, 51, 119)');         // legacy commas
Color::parse('rgb(255 51 119)');           // space-separated
Color::parse('rgba(255 51 119 / 0.5)');    // modern alpha after a slash
Color::parse('rgb(50%, 0%, 100%)');        // percentages
Color::parse('hsl(340deg, 100%, 60%)');    // deg suffix

Alpha is interpreted in each format's native way — a 0.0–1.0 opacity for rgba()/hsla()/hsva(), or a percentage — and ends up on the returned object (an int 0–255 for RGBColor, a float 0.0–1.0 for HSL/HSV).

Handling invalid input

parse() throws InvalidArgumentException when it cannot produce a color:

use Renfordt\Colors\Color;

try {
    $color = Color::parse($userInput);
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    // empty string, unknown RAL code, malformed functional notation,
    // or an unrecognised format
}

A RAL-prefixed value with a code that is not in the RAL table throws rather than falling through to another format, so RAL 9999 is treated as a clear error rather than an unknown string.

See the Color API reference for the full list of supported inputs and the detection order.