ActionScript 3.0 Color Output Error?

Question

I'm employing color in a current AS3 project, and have come across what appears to be an error in the Flash Player (version 10). it might also be an error with Apple's DigitalColor Meter (version 3.7.2), which is what i'm using to sample the displayed colors on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6.3).

//Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors of the RGB color wheel

var red:Number = 0xFF0000;
var orange:Number = 0xFF7D00;
var yellow:Number = 0xFFFF00;
var chartreuse:Number = 0x7DFF00;
var green:Number = 0x00FF00;
var spring:Number = 0x00FF7D;
var cyan:Number = 0x00FFFF;
var azure:Number = 0x007DFF; //reads 0x0077FF
var blue:Number = 0x0000FF;
var violet:Number = 0x7D00FF;
var magenta:Number = 0xFF00FF; //reads 0xFF00F8
var rose:Number = 0xFF007D; //reads 0xFF0077

all of these colors display normally except for 3: Azure, Magenta and Rose. they are coded with the appropriate number, but when i use the color meter to sample the displayed colors, those 3 return inaccurate results.

anyone have any insight about this issue? what is causing the error, the Flash runtime or the color sampler? if it's the Flash player, could this problem be much deeper?

*sampling this image will return inaccurate results due to .jpg compression. it's simply for illustration

Answer 1

Since you're using a Mac, it could be due to the way the Mac handles color profiles at the system level. Try changing the profile under the color panel in the Display preference pane and see if the output changes. I'm not sure what profile would give you accurate results (maybe sRGB?), but depending on what you're using this for, the colors are probably going to look slightly different on just about any screen you look at it on.