

How the algorithm for coloring the iTunes song list works - cgs
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13637892/how-does-the-algorithm-to-color-the-song-list-in-itunes-11-work

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nimeshneema
You may find this post by Wade Cosgrove of Panic interesting

[http://www.panic.com/blog/2012/12/itunes-11-and-
colors/](http://www.panic.com/blog/2012/12/itunes-11-and-colors/)

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lukashed
I've taken their algorithm and ported it over to JavaScript a while ago:
[https://github.com/lukashed/itunes-
colors](https://github.com/lukashed/itunes-colors)

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visarga
How I'd do it:

1\. pick 500 random points from the album art

2\. cluster them in 10 classes (k-means is an old, well understood algorithm)

3\. pick the median point of dominant class for the bg

4\. pick a contrasting color from a different cluster for the text

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raverbashing
I wouldn't pick the median of the dominant class for the BG, but rather from
the borders (even though this could work)

for 4 you want that, picking from one of the colors of the album or a
contrasting color if this is not available from the album

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jemhoff
How I'd do it: Use Embedly! Our extract API returns the dominant colors of all
the images it finds: [http://embed.ly/docs/extract/api/response#extract-
images](http://embed.ly/docs/extract/api/response#extract-images)

For those that are curious, what happens under the covers is a random sampling
of the image followed by a conversion to LAB color space (even better than YUV
in terms of human perception) and finally some K-means clustering.

To see this in action, check out [http://tightro.pe](http://tightro.pe).

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mwexler
They also use a similar trick based on the icon colors for the iTunes ios app
update feature (for those of us who still like plugging our phone or tablet
into the USB cable). In the latest iTunes, when you click on an app in icon
mode to find out what's new in the update, the background reflects the colors
of the icon, which can make for some odd combinations...

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kenrikm
I've done something similar in one of my older iOS apps however I used a 8x8
sample. Still an interesting read.

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Jleagle
So iTunes changes colour for every album you click on? This sounds awful..

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jbrooksuk
Not really. It changes the background colour of the album view , see
[http://thomaspark.me/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/it...](http://thomaspark.me/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/itunes11.png)

