I found the built-in method for HSB (which is not the same as HSL, but is similar)

[Color.getHSBColor(float h, float s, float b)](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/awt/Color.html#getHSBColor(float,%20float,%20float))

Most of the given answers here seem to assume that HSL == HSB, which is false. The HSB colorspace is useful (and used) in many cases, but there is one notable exception: CSS. The non-RGB css color functions, hsl() and hsla() are HSL, not HSB. As such, it is very useful to be able to convert to and from HSL in java.

There is a good writeup about the problem here: http://tips4java.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/hsl-color/ TL;DR: the code is here: http://www.camick.com/java/source/HSLColor.java

I have created a gist backup, should the blog ever go down: https://gist.github.com/Yona-Appletree/0c4b58763f070ae8cdff7db583c82563

The methods therein are pretty easy to extract if you don t want to use the whole class.

License

The code appears to be in the public domain, as noted on the "About" page of the blog (https://tips4java.wordpress.com/about/):

We assume no responsibility for the code. You are free to use and/or modify and/or distribute any or all code posted on the Java Tips Weblog without restriction. A credit in the code comments would be nice, but not in any way mandatory.

EDIT: I realize HSB != HSL, the answer below is for HSB.

I don t think there is any need to use ColorSpaces here. Try something like the following:

float hue = 0.9f; //hue
float saturation = 1.0f; //saturation
float brightness = 0.8f; //brightness

Color myRGBColor = Color.getHSBColor(hue, saturation, brightness);

Here is a simple implementation that will return a Color based on hue, saturation, and lightness values from 0.0 to 1.0...

static public Color hslColor(float h, float s, float l) {
    float q, p, r, g, b;

    if (s == 0) {
        r = g = b = l; // achromatic
    } else {
        q = l < 0.5 ? (l * (1 + s)) : (l + s - l * s);
        p = 2 * l - q;
        r = hue2rgb(p, q, h + 1.0f / 3);
        g = hue2rgb(p, q, h);
        b = hue2rgb(p, q, h - 1.0f / 3);
    }
    return new Color(Math.round(r * 255), Math.round(g * 255), Math.round(b * 255));
}

EDIT by Yona-Appletree:

I found what I think is the correct hue2rgb function and tested it as working:

private static float hue2rgb(float p, float q, float h) {
    if (h < 0) {
        h += 1;
    }

    if (h > 1) {
        h -= 1;
    }

    if (6 * h < 1) {
        return p + ((q - p) * 6 * h);
    }

    if (2 * h < 1) {
        return q;
    }

    if (3 * h < 2) {
        return p + ((q - p) * 6 * ((2.0f / 3.0f) - h));
    }

    return p;
}

Maybe this will help. The JDK doesn t seem to be very helpful when wanting to use colors in another color space.

Edit: In ColorSpace.getName(idx) there s this little snippet:

 case ColorSpace.TYPE_HLS:
                    compName = new String[] {"Hue", "Lightness", 
                                             "Saturation"};

so it was what you thought, but looking at the type hierarchy of ColorSpace it doesn t seem to be used or implemented in any way anywhere. ColorSpace is extended by only two other classes BogusColorSpace and ICC_ColorSpace, so I m guessing they re expecting developers to create their own implementations for different color spaces.

If your input is swing/awt widgets, then with Java 7 JColorChooser you can get Color by HSV and HSL spaces. http://java.dzone.com/articles/new-color-chooser-jdk-7