color comparison using VB.Net or C#

Note that the delta_e_2000 method expects two CLILab colors for comparison. I am going to assume that your 36 colors are GDI Colors. What I would suggest:

1. Convert your 36 GDI colors into a List of Extended_Color, calling the list, say, reference colors. The definition for Extended_Color is found in the article. You will need to convert a GDI Color into an XYZ color and then convert the XYZ color into a CIELab color.
2. Convert the GDI color of interest into a CIELab Color (the algorithm in the article stores the value in a class global variable).
3. The method nearest_known_color_name in the class Known_Colors_Palette provides the way in which the comparison might work. Simply, a record of the "shortest distance" is kept and at its conclusion, the closest matching color name is returned. You can modify the method to return whatever you want. For your case, assuming that the delta_e_2000 method is chosen, the foreach loop can be made quite simple.

If you have problems, you can contact me through email (gggustafson at gmail dot com).

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