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glColor

Name

glColor — set the current color

C Specification

void glColor3b(GLbyte red,
GLbyte green,
GLbyte blue);
void glColor3s(GLshort red,
GLshort green,
GLshort blue);
void glColor3i(GLint red,
GLint green,
GLint blue);
void glColor3f(GLfloat red,
GLfloat green,
GLfloat blue);
void glColor3d(GLdouble red,
GLdouble green,
GLdouble blue);
void glColor3ub(GLubyte red,
GLubyte green,
GLubyte blue);
void glColor3us(GLushort red,
GLushort green,
GLushort blue);
void glColor3ui(GLuint red,
GLuint green,
GLuint blue);
void glColor4b(GLbyte red,
GLbyte green,
GLbyte blue,
GLbyte alpha);
void glColor4s(GLshort red,
GLshort green,
GLshort blue,
GLshort alpha);
void glColor4i(GLint red,
GLint green,
GLint blue,
GLint alpha);
void glColor4f(GLfloat red,
GLfloat green,
GLfloat blue,
GLfloat alpha);
void glColor4d(GLdouble red,
GLdouble green,
GLdouble blue,
GLdouble alpha);
void glColor4ub(GLubyte red,
GLubyte green,
GLubyte blue,
GLubyte alpha);
void glColor4us(GLushort red,
GLushort green,
GLushort blue,
GLushort alpha);
void glColor4ui(GLuint red,
GLuint green,
GLuint blue,
GLuint alpha);

Parameters

red, green, blue

Specify new red, green, and blue values for the current color.

alpha

Specifies a new alpha value for the current color. Included only in the four-argument glColor4 commands.

C Specification

void glColor3bv(const GLbyte * v);
void glColor3sv(const GLshort * v);
void glColor3iv(const GLint * v);
void glColor3fv(const GLfloat * v);
void glColor3dv(const GLdouble * v);
void glColor3ubv(const GLubyte * v);
void glColor3usv(const GLushort * v);
void glColor3uiv(const GLuint * v);
void glColor4bv(const GLbyte * v);
void glColor4sv(const GLshort * v);
void glColor4iv(const GLint * v);
void glColor4fv(const GLfloat * v);
void glColor4dv(const GLdouble * v);
void glColor4ubv(const GLubyte * v);
void glColor4usv(const GLushort * v);
void glColor4uiv(const GLuint * v);

Parameters

v

Specifies a pointer to an array that contains red, green, blue, and (sometimes) alpha values.

Description

The GL stores both a current single-valued color index and a current four-valued RGBA color. glColor sets a new four-valued RGBA color. glColor has two major variants: glColor3 and glColor4. glColor3 variants specify new red, green, and blue values explicitly and set the current alpha value to 1.0 (full intensity) implicitly. glColor4 variants specify all four color components explicitly.

glColor3b, glColor4b, glColor3s, glColor4s, glColor3i, and glColor4i take three or four signed byte, short, or long integers as arguments. When v is appended to the name, the color commands can take a pointer to an array of such values.

Current color values are stored in floating-point format, with unspecified mantissa and exponent sizes. Unsigned integer color components, when specified, are linearly mapped to floating-point values such that the largest representable value maps to 1.0 (full intensity), and 0 maps to 0.0 (zero intensity). Signed integer color components, when specified, are linearly mapped to floating-point values such that the most positive representable value maps to 1.0, and the most negative representable value maps to -1.0 . (Note that this mapping does not convert 0 precisely to 0.0.) Floating-point values are mapped directly.

Neither floating-point nor signed integer values are clamped to the range 0 1 before the current color is updated. However, color components are clamped to this range before they are interpolated or written into a color buffer.

Notes

The initial value for the current color is (1, 1, 1, 1).

The current color can be updated at any time. In particular, glColor can be called between a call to glBegin and the corresponding call to glEnd.

Associated Gets

glGet with argument GL_CURRENT_COLOR

glGet with argument GL_RGBA_MODE

Tutorials

See Also

glColorPointer, glIndex, glSecondaryColor

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