[Back] [Up] [Next]

## Setting contour colors

The main portion of the Contour plot attributes window, also known as the Contour colors area, is devoted to setting contour colors. Contour plot colors can be assigned three different ways, the first of which uses a color table. A color table is a named palette of colors that you can customize to suite your needs. When the Contour plot uses a color table to color the levels, it selects colors that are evenly spaced through the color table based on the number of levels. For example, if you have five levels and you are coloring them using the "rainbow" color table, the Contour plot picks five colors out of the color table so your levels are colored magenta, blue, cyan, green, yellow, and red. The colors change when increasing or decreasing the number of levels when you use a color table because VisIt uses the new number of levels to sample different locations in the color table. As a rule, increasing the number of levels results in coloration that is closer to the color table because more colors from the color table are represented. To color a Contour plot with a color table, click on the Color table radio button and choose a color table from the Color table menu to right of the Color table radio button.

If you want all levels to be the same color, click the Single radio button at the top of the Contour plot attributes window and select a new color from the Popup color menu that is activated by clicking on the Single color button . The opacity slider next to the Single color button sets the opacity for the single color.

Clicking the Multiple radio button causes each level to be a different, user-specified color. By default, multiple colors are set using the colors of the discrete color table that is active when the Contour plot is created. To change the color for any of the levels, click on the level's Color button and select a new color from the Popup color menu. To change the opacity for a level, move its opacity slider to the left to make the level more transparent or move the slider to the right to make the level more opaque.