• Defined in java.awt.* library.
  
• Specifies a color in RGBA  (red, green, blue, alpha) format.  the RGB part refers to the intensity of the red, green, and blue light. 0 values is no light, a value of 255 is maximum intensity.  If RGB are all 0, black results, if all 255, then white results. The alpha portion is used to specify opaqueness/transparency.
• Static colors - the color class provides a good number of static constants for common colors. they can be reference directly. E.g.
• Color.red - bright red
• Color.green - bright green.
• others Color.black, Color.red, Color.magenta, Color.cyan, etc.

• Colors can also be created by creating an instance of the Color class. Here are two of the more useful constructors

public Color(int r, int g, int b) -  Creates an opaque sRGB color with the specified red, green, and blue values in the range (0 - 255). The actual color used in rendering depends on finding the best match given the color space available for a given output device. Alpha is defaulted to 255.

public Color(int r,  int g, int b, int a) - Creates an sRGB color with the specified red, green, blue, and alpha values in the range (0 - 255).  For the RGB the lower the value, the darker the color, for Alpha, the lower the value the more translucent the color.

examples:

Color c1 = new Color(128,0,0);  // dark red opaque
Color c2 = new Color(0,255,0,128);  // bright green, somewhat translucent

• JColorChooser provides a pane of controls designed to allow a user to manipulate and select a color.
• JColorChooser can be invoked in several ways
• use a static method (does not require creating an instance of the class) to pop up a color chooser dialog
• as a panel within an application.
• if you use it as a panel within an application, then use the getColor method to select the current color.
  
• static method:

public static Color showDialog(Component component,  String title, Color initialColor) 

Shows a modal color-chooser dialog and blocks until the dialog is hidden. If the user presses the "OK" button, then this method hides/disposes the dialog and returns the selected color. If the user presses the "Cancel" button or closes the dialog without pressing "OK", then this method hides/disposes the dialog and returns null.

Parameters:

component - the parent Component for the dialog
title - the String containing the dialog's title
initialColor - the initial Color set when the color-chooser is shown

Returns:

the selected color or null if the user opted out

Example:

 Color myColor = JColorChooser.showDialog(this, "Select a color",Color.red);