How to find good looking font color if background color is known? [closed]

If you need an algorithm, try this: Convert the color from RGB space to HSV space (Hue, Saturation, Value). If your UI framework can’t do it, check this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV#Conversion_from_RGB_to_HSL_or_HSV

Hue is in [0,360). To find the “opposite” color (think colorwheel), just add 180 degrees:

h = (h + 180) % 360;

For saturation and value, invert them:

l = 1.0 - l;
v = 1.0 - v;

Convert back to RGB. This should always give you a high contrast even though most combinations will look ugly.

If you want to avoid the “ugly” part, build a table with several “good” combinations, find the one with the least difference

def q(x):
    return x*x
def diff(col1, col2):
    return math.sqrt(q(col1.r-col2.r) + q(col1.g-col2.g) + q(col1.b-col2.b))

and use that.