Details

Snapshot 1: use the System collection to display only the square background color (region 0) with region numbering off and antialiasing off

Snapshot 2: use the Atoms collection to display one full-disk foreground color (region 1) on a non-white background (region 0)

Snapshot 3: use the GeologicAges collection to display a side-by-side comparison of two foreground colors on a non-white background with antialiasing on

Snapshot 4: use the HTML collection to display above-below comparison of two foreground colors on a white background with antialiasing off

Snapshot 5: use the Legacy collection to display nine foreground colors on a white background with clockwise region numbering

Snapshot 6: use the WebSafe to collection display 12 foreground colors on a white background with counterclockwise region numbering

This Demonstration lets you display from 1 to 13 colored regions. They are numbered from 0 to 12, where region 0 is always the square background and regions 1 to 12 are equiangular segments of a foreground disk. The colored regions are displayed on the left and the number of disk segments from 0 to 12 (the "last visible region") is chosen from the left dropdown menu. When you mouse over a colored region, a tooltip appears showing the text used to reference that color in Mathematica. The named color collection whose panel is displayed on the right is chosen from the right dropdown menu. When you mouse over a dot in a color collection's panel, a tooltip appears showing the color's name. To color a region, click it first and its number will be displayed in a larger size than that of the others. Then click a dot in the displayed color collection's panel on the right to choose the color. The four checkbox controls above the graphics specify: 1) whether to label the regions in clockwise or counterclockwise order, 2) whether to use antialiasing to blur and thereby smooth the edges of regions, 3) whether or not to display the region numbers, and 4) whether a selected dot's color applies to all displayed regions or only to the selected region. If the "clockwise" box is checked, region 1 starts at the 12 o'clock position and if unchecked, region 1 starts at the 3 o'clock position. This makes it possible to do comparisons of two foreground colors, either side-by-side or above-below.

A Mathematica notebook .nb file and a Wolfram CDF Player .cdf file similar to this Demonstration but with additional controls allowing entry of any RGB or grayscale color, along with the ability to find the nearest named color and to copy a color's reference text, the color's name, or its RGB values to the clipboard, are available here: Select, View and Compare Colors.