is an option for contour plots that specifies how the regions between contour lines should be shaded.


ContourShading
is an option for contour plots that specifies how the regions between contour lines should be shaded.
Details

- The following settings can be given:
-
None use no shading Automatic use shading based on ColorFunction {g1,g2,…} cyclically use successive directives for successive regions - With ContourShading->False, regions between contour lines are left blank.
- With ContourShading->Automatic, regions are colored based on the setting for the option ColorFunction. The default is to color the regions with gray levels running from black to white with increasing height.
- The value given as the argument for the ColorFunction function is the average of the values of the contour lines bounding a particular region. If ColorFunctionScaling->True, it is scaled so as to lie between 0 and 1.
Examples
Basic Examples (4)
Shade the regions between contours with colors from the color function:
Leave the regions between contours blank:
Specify an explicit list of colors to shade the regions between contours:
Shade the regions between contours with colors from ColorData:
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
History
Introduced in 1991 (2.0) | Updated in 1999 (4.0) ▪ 2007 (6.0)
Text
Wolfram Research (1991), ContourShading, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ContourShading.html (updated 2007).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 1991. "ContourShading." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2007. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ContourShading.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (1991). ContourShading. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ContourShading.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_contourshading, author="Wolfram Research", title="{ContourShading}", year="2007", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ContourShading.html}", note=[Accessed: 08-August-2025]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_contourshading, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={ContourShading}, year={2007}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ContourShading.html}, note=[Accessed: 08-August-2025]}