How to dynamically change text colour based on dynamically changing background colour

Question

I am setting up a new website and need my text to change colour based on the ever-changing background colours in order to maintain contrast. I have scoured the web for answers that don't involve Sass, but none have worked...

I have tried some JavaScript, but they work only when the background is a fixed colour that you change manually.

My Current File: https://codepen.io/jonathanlee/pen/wZXvRY

var color = function getRandomColor() {
  var letters = '0123456789ABCDEF'.split('');
  var color = '#';
  for (var i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
    color += letters[Math.floor(Math.random() * 16)];
  }
  return color;
}
setInterval(function() {
  document.getElementById("test").style.backgroundColor = color(); //() to execute the function!
}, 3000);

var ww = function isDarkColor(rgb) {
  return Math.round((
    parseInt(rgb[0], 10) * 299 +
    parseInt(rgb[1], 10) * 587 +
    parseInt(rgb[2], 10) * 114) / 1000) <= 140
}

if (ww <= 140) {
  document.getElementById("test").style.color = '#fff';
} else {
  document.getElementById("test").style.color = '#000';
}

One of the other solutions I've tried, but didn't work: http://jsfiddle.net/QkSva/

function isDark(color) {
  var match = /rgb\((\d+).*?(\d+).*?(\d+)\)/.exec(color);
  return (match[1] & 255) +
    (match[2] & 255) +
    (match[3] & 255) <
    3 * 256 / 2;
}
$('div').each(function() {
  console.log($(this).css("background-color"))
  $(this).css("color", isDark($(this).css("background-color")) ? 'white' : 'black');
});

The real-life example is an alternate homepage on the website I'm working on, https://nepmelbourne.com/q . I have got a dynamic background, but there are some colours that don't contrast well against my white text.

Answer 1

One way to do it would be to set opposite color of background color to text as follows,

 function invertColor(hex, bw) { if (hex.indexOf('#') === 0) { hex = hex.slice(1); } // convert 3-digit hex to 6-digits. if (hex.length === 3) { hex = hex[0] + hex[0] + hex[1] + hex[1] + hex[2] + hex[2]; } if (hex.length !== 6) { throw new Error('Invalid HEX color.'); } var r = parseInt(hex.slice(0, 2), 16), g = parseInt(hex.slice(2, 4), 16), b = parseInt(hex.slice(4, 6), 16); if (bw) { // http://stackoverflow.com/a/3943023/112731 return (r * 0.299 + g * 0.587 + b * 0.114) > 186 ? '#000000' : '#FFFFFF'; } // invert color components r = (255 - r).toString(16); g = (255 - g).toString(16); b = (255 - b).toString(16); // pad each with zeros and return return "#" + padZero(r) + padZero(g) + padZero(b); } function padZero(str, len) { len = len || 2; var zeros = new Array(len).join('0'); return (zeros + str).slice(-len); } var color = function getRandomColor() { var letters = '0123456789ABCDEF'.split(''); var color = '#'; for (var i = 0; i < 6; i++) { color += letters[Math.floor(Math.random() * 16)]; } return color; } setInterval(function() { var bgColor = color(); var textColor = invertColor(bgColor,true); document.getElementById("test").style.backgroundColor = bgColor; //() to execute the function! document.getElementById("test").style.color = textColor; }, 3000); 

 <div id="test">This is some text</div> 

Opposite color code taken from How can I generate the opposite color according to current color?

Added an extra parameter bw to invertColor(), if bw is set to true the text color will be black if background is bright and vice versa.