How to get the RGB/Long values from PowerPoint color palette

Question

I am trying (mostly successfully) to "read" the colors from the active ThemeColorScheme.

The subroutine below will obtain 12 colors from the theme, for example this is myAccent1:

I need also to obtain 4 more colors from the palette. The four colors I need will be the one immediately below the color indicated above, and then the next 3 colors from left-to-right.

Because the ThemeColorScheme object holds 12 items only I get The specified value is out of range error, as expected if I try to assign a value to myAccent9 this way. I understand this error and why it occurs. What I do not know is how to access the other 40-odd colors from the palette, which are not part of the ThemeColorScheme object?

Private Sub ColorOverride()

Dim pres As Presentation
Dim thm As OfficeTheme
Dim themeColor As themeColor
Dim schemeColors As ThemeColorScheme

Set pres = ActivePresentation

Set schemeColors = pres.Designs(1).SlideMaster.Theme.ThemeColorScheme

    myDark1 = schemeColors(1).RGB         'msoThemeColorDark1
    myLight1 = schemeColors(2).RGB        'msoThemeColorLight
    myDark2 = schemeColors(3).RGB         'msoThemeColorDark2
    myLight2 = schemeColors(4).RGB        'msoThemeColorLight2
    myAccent1 = schemeColors(5).RGB       'msoThemeColorAccent1
    myAccent2 = schemeColors(6).RGB       'msoThemeColorAccent2
    myAccent3 = schemeColors(7).RGB       'msoThemeColorAccent3
    myAccent4 = schemeColors(8).RGB       'msoThemeColorAccent4
    myAccent5 = schemeColors(9).RGB       'msoThemeColorAccent5
    myAccent6 = schemeColors(10).RGB      'msoThemeColorAccent6
    myAccent7 = schemeColors(11).RGB      'msoThemeColorThemeHyperlink
    myAccent8 = schemeColors(12).RGB      'msoThemeColorFollowedHyperlink

    '## THESE LINES RAISE AN ERROR, AS EXPECTED:

    'myAccent9 = schemeColors(13).RGB     
    'myAccent10 = schemeColors(14).RGB
    'myAccent11 = schemeColors(15).RGB
    'myAccent12 = schemeColors(16).RGB

End Sub

So my question is, how might I obtain the RGB value of these colors from the palette/theme?

Answer 1

If you use VBA for excel, you can record your keystrokes. Selecting another color (from below the theme) shows:

    .Pattern = xlSolid
    .PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
    .ThemeColor = xlThemeColorLight2
    .TintAndShade = 0.599993896298105
    .PatternTintAndShade = 0

The .TintAndShade factor modifies the defined color. Different colors in the theme use different values for .TintAndShade - sometimes the numbers are negative (to make light colors darker).

Incomplete table of .TintAndShade (for the theme I happened to have in Excel, first two colors):

 0.00  0.00
-0.05  0.50
-0.15  0.35
-0.25  0.25
-0.35  0.15
-0.50  0.05

EDIT some code that "more or less" does the conversion - you need to make sure that you have the right values in your shades, but otherwise the conversion of colors seems to work

updated to be pure PowerPoint code, with output shown at the end

Option Explicit

Sub calcColor()
Dim ii As Integer, jj As Integer
Dim pres As Presentation
Dim thm As OfficeTheme
Dim themeColor As themeColor
Dim schemeColors As ThemeColorScheme
Dim shade
Dim shades(12) As Variant
Dim c, c2 As Long
Dim newShape As Shape

Set pres = ActivePresentation
Set schemeColors = pres.Designs(1).SlideMaster.Theme.ThemeColorScheme
shades(0) = Array(0, -0.05, -0.15, -0.25, -0.35, -0.5)
shades(1) = Array(0, 0.05, 0.15, 0.25, 0.35, 0.5)
shades(2) = Array(-0.1, -0.25, -0.5, -0.75, -0.9)
For ii = 3 To 11
  shades(ii) = Array(-0.8, -0.6, -0.4, 0.25, 0.5)
Next

For ii = 0 To 11
  c = schemeColors(ii + 1).RGB
  For jj = 0 To 4
    c2 = fadeRGB(c, shades(ii)(jj))
    Set newShape = pres.Slides(1).Shapes.AddShape(msoShapeRectangle, 200 + 30 * ii, 200 + 30 * jj, 25, 25)
    newShape.Fill.BackColor.RGB = c2
    newShape.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = c2
    newShape.Line.ForeColor.RGB = 0
    newShape.Line.BackColor.RGB = 0
  Next jj
Next ii

End Sub

Function fadeRGB(ByVal c, s) As Long
Dim r, ii
r = toRGB(c)
For ii = 0 To 2
  If s < 0 Then
    r(ii) = Int((r(ii) - 255) * s + r(ii))
  Else
    r(ii) = Int(r(ii) * (1 - s))
  End If
Next ii
fadeRGB = r(0) + 256& * (r(1) + 256& * r(2))

End Function

Function toRGB(c)
Dim retval(3), ii

For ii = 0 To 2
  retval(ii) = c Mod 256
  c = (c - retval(ii)) / 256
Next

toRGB = retval

End Function