Can we assign 8-bit color values or only 16-bit?

DEVONthink
1

I’ve been working on a script that lets me select some bad-colored text and replace it with pure black while preserving the non-normal colors of all the other text. Here’s the relevant part for my question:

tell application id “DNtp”
 try
  set theText to a reference to selected text of think window 1
  color of attribute runs of theText
  end try
 end tell

Here’s what the AppleScript Editor shows in Replies:

tell application "DEVONthink 3”

get color of every attribute run of selected text of think window 1

→ {{254, 254, 254}, {65535, 0, 0}, {254, 254, 254}}

end tell

Result:

{{254, 254, 254}, {65535, 0, 0}, {254, 254, 254}}

This has always puzzled me, but only today am I first verbalizing it.

I’d like to use 8-bit color assignments, but I’ve always believed that DT forces us to use 16-bit colors. And yet here DT is showing that it does grok 8-bit colors. What’s the real deal? When I examine the text color using the color picker, I get nice hex #DBDBDB. DT will not let us use {219, 219, 219}; we have to use {54110, 54110, 54110} instead.

But now I see that sometimes 8-bit values are allowed. What’s the real deal?

2

Actually DEVONthink doesn’t handle this on its own, it’s handled by the standard text suite of macOS. This should be identical to e.g. scripting TextEdit.

3

Got it. Thanks!