WzColorEdit Overview

The WzColorEdit tool is used to select and set the image and plot colors for displaying data. Changes made to the color table using the WzColorEdit Tool are applied to all active VDA Tools, so the effect of the change can be seen immediately after it’s made.

note	Avoid using the PV‑WAVE DEVICE command at the WAVE> command line when VDA Tools are running.

17 predefined system color tables are available in the WzColorEdit tool, and you can also design your own custom color tables.

Modifying an existing color table may consist of changing individual color indices, or choosing two colors as the table extremes and interpolating between them to create all other indices in the color table. The interpolation, or ramping, of the colors can be an even linear progression, or it can be skewed toward the color at the ramp start (an exponential ramp) or toward the color at the ramp end (a logarithmic ramp).

You can save the entire VDA Tool, including the settings in the controls area and the image color and plot color maps. Do this by selecting File=>Save or Save As from the menu bar.

You can save the color maps alone, without the controls area settings, by using the Color Table=>Save Custom selection from the menu bar.

note

Normally, when you save and restore a custom color table using WzColorEdit, both the plot colors and the color table are saved and restored. The information for these two sets of colors is stored in two separate files ($HOME/.wgcolors and $HOME/.wg_plot_colors). It is possible, by deleting one of these files and not the other and then saving a new color table, for these files to get out of sync. To get them back in sync delete them both and start over. If they are out of sync when you restore a custom color table your plot colors revert back to the default set.

With the ease-of-use found in VDA Tools, one can more easily experience problems with color tables and display of images. In X11, colors are a resource many applications compete for. To check your color usage, use WzColorEdit to see how many colors your PV-WAVE session acquired and deal with it as appropriate. Resolution of a color table conflict may include:

To get more information on how color tables are set, read How PV-WAVE Allocates the Colormap in Appendix B: Output Devices and Window Systems, PV‑WAVE Reference.

Reference material on the menus of the WzColorEdit window. To access this information, click on the links in the WzColorEdit Contents topic.

Task-oriented information. To access this information, click on the How To link in the WzColorEdit Contents topic.

Context-sensitive reference material on dialog boxes. To access this information, click the Help button in any dialog box.

note	Don’t forget to check the message area at the bottom of the WzColorEdit window. The message area displays helpful information about many tasks.