Prior to Max version 5, colors were specified as three integer numbers from 0-255 for the R, G, and B components.
We call this the legacy or RGB color format. In Max 5, the new and preferred way to specify a color is with four
floating-point numbers between 0 and 1. The first three numbers are for the R, G, and B components, and the fourth
value is for alpha. We call this format RGBA. Alpha defines the transparency of the color. If the alpha is 0, you
won't see the color at all. If the alpha is 1, the color is completely opaque. When converting between a legacy
color style, the alpha is set to 1.
For compatibility with old patches, you can continue to send messages to objects to specify
color in the legacy RGB format. However, in most cases, a new message has been defined for
the RGBA format. For example, the
comment object accepts a message
frgb to set
the text color using three integers (RGB format). It also accepts a new
textcolor
message to set the text color using four floats (RGBA format). In the Max Reference manual,
RGB format messages are identified as Legacy RGB Format with a link to this page.