glColor

These functions set the current color.

glColor3b, glColor3d, glColor3f, glColor3i, glColor3s, **
glColor3ub**, glColor3ui, glColor3us, glColor4b, glColor4d, **
glColor4f**, glColor4i, glColor4s, glColor4ub, glColor4ui, **
glColor4us**, glColor3bv, glColor3dv, glColor3fv, glColor3iv, **
glColor3sv**, glColor3ubv, glColor3uiv, glColor3usv, **
glColor4bv**, glColor4dv, glColor4fv, glColor4iv, glColor4sv, **
glColor4ubv**, glColor4uiv, glColor4usv.

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

Parameters

  • red, green, blue
    New red, green, and blue values for the current color.
  • alpha
    A new alpha value for the current color. Included only in the four-argument glColor4 function.
void glColor3bv(
  const GLbyte *v);void glColor3dv(  const GLdouble *v);void glColor3fv(  const GLfloat *v);void glColor3iv(  const GLint *v);void glColor3sv(  const GLshort *v);void glColor3ubv(  const GLubyte *v);void glColor3uiv(  const GLuint *v);void glColor3usv(  const GLushort *v);void glColor4bv(  const GLbyte *v);void glColor4dv(  const GLdouble *v);void glColor4fv(  const GLfloat *v);void glColor4iv(  const GLint *v);void glColor4sv(  const GLshort *v);void glColor4ubv(  const GLubyte *v);void glColor4uiv(  const GLuint *v);void glColor4usv(  const GLushort *v);

Parameters

  • v
    A pointer to an array that contains red, green, blue, and (sometimes) alpha values.

Remarks

OpenGL stores both a current single-valued color index and a current four-valued RGBA color. The glColor function sets a new four-valued RGBA color.

There are two major variants to glColor:

  • The glColor3 variants specify new red, green, and blue values explicitly, and set the current alpha value to 1.0 implicitly.
  • The glColor4 variants specify all four color components explicitly.

The glColor3b, glColor4b, glColor3s, glColor4s, glColor3i, and glColor4i functions take three or four signed byte, short, or long integers as arguments. When you append v to the name, the color functions 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 zero 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. Floating-point values are mapped directly.

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

You can update the current color at any time. In particular, you can call glColor between a call to glBegin and the corresponding call to glEnd.

The following functions retrieve information related to the glColor functions:

glGet with argument GL_CURRENT_COLOR

glGet with argument GL_RGBA_MODE

Requirements

**  Windows NT/2000:** Requires Windows NT 3.5 or later.
**  Windows 95/98:** Requires Windows 95 or later. Available as a redistributable for Windows 95.
**  Header:** Declared in Gl.h.
**  Library:** Use Opengl32.lib.

See Also

glBegin, glEnd, glGet, glIndex