Opacity
Opacity[a]
is a graphics directive that specifies that graphical objects that follow are to be displayed, if possible, with opacity a.
Opacity[a,color]
uses the specified color with opacity a.
Details
- Opacity runs from 0 to 1, with 0 representing perfect transparency.
- If an opacity-a object with color c1 is placed in front of an object with color c2, the resulting color will be the blend ac1+(1-a)c2.
- If red and blue with opacity 0.5 are combined, the result is purple—not black, as it would be with physical monochromatic filters. »
- Opacity works in both 2D and 3D graphics.
- It may take significantly longer to render 3D graphics that involve transparent surfaces.
- Graphics that involve transparency may need to be printed as high‐resolution bitmaps.
- On many computer systems, objects with opacity a will appear completely transparent if a is too small. »
Examples
open allclose allBasic Examples (3)
Scope (3)
Generalizations & Extensions (1)
Directive can be used to combine colors with opacity:
Applications (3)
Properties & Relations (7)
Overlapping of translucent red and blue disks results in purple:
Background color can be seen through a transparent object:
Opacity plus color can also be specified using the optional final parameter of various color directives:
Each color primitive supports an extended form that can be used to specify opacity:
Opacity is used by default to show overlapping fillings:
Opacity is used for fillings to surface plots:
Opacity is used in ParametricPlot to visualize regions that get covered multiple times:
Possible Issues (5)
If the opacity is too small, objects will typically render as completely transparent:
Overlapping of multiple translucent objects can generate an opaque result:
If each opacity is too small, any number of elements together will still render as transparent:
Completely transparent objects are still counted for PlotRange:
The two-argument form of Opacity might be partially modified by subsequent directives:
The default rendering of opacity may clip objects that are behind too many other objects in 3D graphics:
Rendering can be improved by increasing the depth peeling layers with RenderingOptions:
Alternatively, the graphic can be rendered using a BSP tree, which is slower but has no layer limit:
Text
Wolfram Research (2007), Opacity, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Opacity.html.
CMS
Wolfram Language. 2007. "Opacity." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Opacity.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (2007). Opacity. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Opacity.html