How to | Use Colors in
Mathematica
| As well as being able to specify colors in several color spaces, Mathematica also contains a variety of predefined colors and aesthetically pleasing color spectrums. These colors can be applied to just about anything. | |
This is a selection of examples from the complete
"How to" screencast. »The quickest way to access all the colors in
Mathematica is through the palette, which can be found in the menu:
The palette lists the colors in collections such as
Gradients,
Physical,
Named, and
Indexed. Each collection contains a spectrum of colors. The value or range of values corresponding to the selected color is given above the
Insert button for the collection.
Here,
Red was inserted from the
Named collection. Evaluating a named color returns the RGB value of that color:
| Out[1]= |  |
You can convert to other color spaces by using
:
| Out[2]= |  |
The
Gradients collection on the palette provides a spectrum of colors with a range of indices. Here, the
Dark Rainbow color gradient was inserted using the palette.
Evaluating this reveals the underlying
ColorData function structure, with the acceptable range of indices listed. In this case, the indices can range from
to
:
| Out[3]= |  |
To retrieve the specific color value, the index can be specified as the second argument to
ColorData:
| Out[4]= |  |
This can be used directly in a graphics expression
| Out[5]= |  |
You can also create a variable index by using
Manipulate:
Here is an example of a 3D plot from the
ColorData documentation page. Notice how the values closer to 0 appear in cool colors (blue), while the values closer to 1 appear in warm colors (red):
| Out[7]= |  |
