How to Convert RGB Color to HSV?

How can I convert a RGB Color to HSV using C#?
I've searched for a fast method without using any external library.


Note that Color.GetSaturation() and Color.GetBrightness() return HSL values, not HSV.
The following code demonstrates the difference.

Color original = Color.FromArgb(50, 120, 200);
// original = {Name=ff3278c8, ARGB=(255, 50, 120, 200)}

double hue;
double saturation;
double value;
ColorToHSV(original, out hue, out saturation, out value);
// hue        = 212.0
// saturation = 0.75
// value      = 0.78431372549019607

Color copy = ColorFromHSV(hue, saturation, value);
// copy = {Name=ff3278c8, ARGB=(255, 50, 120, 200)}

// Compare that to the HSL values that the .NET framework provides: 
original.GetHue();        // 212.0
original.GetSaturation(); // 0.6
original.GetBrightness(); // 0.490196079

The following C# code is what you want. It converts between RGB and HSV using the algorithms described on Wikipedia. The ranges are 0 - 360 for hue, and 0 - 1 for saturation or value.

public static void ColorToHSV(Color color, out double hue, out double saturation, out double value)
{
    int max = Math.Max(color.R, Math.Max(color.G, color.B));
    int min = Math.Min(color.R, Math.Min(color.G, color.B));

    hue = color.GetHue();
    saturation = (max == 0) ? 0 : 1d - (1d * min / max);
    value = max / 255d;
}

public static Color ColorFromHSV(double hue, double saturation, double value)
{
    int hi = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor(hue / 60)) % 6;
    double f = hue / 60 - Math.Floor(hue / 60);

    value = value * 255;
    int v = Convert.ToInt32(value);
    int p = Convert.ToInt32(value * (1 - saturation));
    int q = Convert.ToInt32(value * (1 - f * saturation));
    int t = Convert.ToInt32(value * (1 - (1 - f) * saturation));

    if (hi == 0)
        return Color.FromArgb(255, v, t, p);
    else if (hi == 1)
        return Color.FromArgb(255, q, v, p);
    else if (hi == 2)
        return Color.FromArgb(255, p, v, t);
    else if (hi == 3)
        return Color.FromArgb(255, p, q, v);
    else if (hi == 4)
        return Color.FromArgb(255, t, p, v);
    else
        return Color.FromArgb(255, v, p, q);
}

Have you considered simply using System.Drawing namespace? For example:

System.Drawing.Color color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(red, green, blue);
float hue = color.GetHue();
float saturation = color.GetSaturation();
float lightness = color.GetBrightness();

Note that it's not exactly what you've asked for (see differences between HSL and HSV and the Color class does not have a conversion back from HSL/HSV but the latter is reasonably easy to add.


There's a C implementation here:

http://www.cs.rit.edu/~ncs/color/t_convert.html

Should be very straightforward to convert to C#, as almost no functions are called - just calculations.

found via Google


The EasyRGB has many color space conversions. Here is the code for the RGB->HSV conversion.