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1.16.1 colorspec

Many commands allow you to specify a linetype with an explicit color. Terminal-independent color choice is only possible for terminals that support RGB color or pm3d palettes.

Syntax:

           ... {linecolor | lc} {<colorspec> | <n>}
           ... {textcolor | tc} {<colorspec> | {linetype | lt} <n>}
     

where <colorspec> has one of the following forms:

           rgbcolor "colorname"
           rgbcolor "#RRGGBB"
           rgbcolor variable       # color is read from input file
           palette frac <val>      # <val> runs from 0 to 1
           palette cb <value>      # <val> lies within cbrange
           palette z
           variable                # color index is read from input file
     

The "<n>" is the linetype number the color of which is used, see test.

"colorname" refers to one of the color names built in to gnuplot. For a list of the available names, see colornames.

"#RRGGBB" is a hexadecimal constant preceded by the "#" symbol. The RRGGBB represents the red, green, and blue components of the color, each on a scale from 0 - 255. For example, magenta = full-scale red + full-scale blue would be represented by #FF00FF, which is the hexadecimal representation of (255 << 16) + (0 << 8) + (255).

The color palette is a linear gradient of colors that smoothly maps a single numerical value onto a particular color. Two such mappings are always in effect. `palette frac` maps a fractional value between 0 and 1 onto the full range of the color palette. `palette cb` maps the range of the color axis onto the same palette. See cbrange. See also `set colorbox`. You can use either of these to select a constant color from the current palette.

"palette z" maps the z value of each plot segment or plot element into the cbrange mapping of the palette. This allows smoothly-varying color along a 3d line or surface. It also allows coloring 2D plots by palette values read from an extra column of data (not all 2D plot styles allow an extra column).