col2rgb {grDevices}R Documentation

Color to RGB Conversion

Description

R color to RGB (red/green/blue) conversion.

Usage

col2rgb(col, alpha = FALSE)

Arguments

col

vector of any of the three kinds of R color specifications, i.e., either a color name (as listed by colors()), a hexadecimal string (see Details), or a positive integer i meaning palette()[i].

alpha

logical value indicating whether the alpha channel (opacity) values should be returned.

Details

NA (as integer or character) and "NA" mean transparent, which can also be specified as "transparent".

Values of col not of one of these types are coerced: real vectors are coerced to integer and other types to character. (factors are coerced to character: in all other cases the class is ignored when doing the coercion.)

Hexadecimal string colors can be in the long hexadecimal form (e.g., "#rrggbb" or "#rrggbbaa") or the short form (e.g, "#rgb" or "#rgba"). The short form is expanded to the long form by replicating digits (not by adding zeroes), e.g., "#rgb" becomes "#rrggbb".

Zero and negative values of col are an error.

Value

An integer matrix with three or four (for alpha = TRUE) rows and number of columns the length of col. If col has names these are used as the column names of the return value.

Author(s)

Martin Maechler and the R core team.

See Also

rgb, colors, palette, etc.

The newer, more flexible interface, convertColor().

Examples

col2rgb("peachpuff")
col2rgb(c(blu = "royalblue", reddish = "tomato"))  # note: colnames

col2rgb(1:8)  # the ones from the palette() (if the default)

col2rgb(paste0("gold", 1:4))

col2rgb("#08a0ff")
## all three kinds of color specifications:
col2rgb(c(red = "red", hex = "#abcdef"))
col2rgb(c(palette = 1:3))

# long and short form of hexadecimal notation
col2rgb(c(long = "#559955", short = "#595"))
# with alpha
col2rgb(c(long = "#559955BB", short = "#595B"), alpha = TRUE)

##-- NON-INTRODUCTORY examples --

grC <- col2rgb(paste0("gray", 0:100))
table(print(diff(grC["red",])))  # '2' or '3': almost equidistant
## The 'named' grays are in between {"slate gray" is not gray, strictly}
col2rgb(c(g66 = "gray66", darkg =  "dark gray", g67 = "gray67",
          g74 = "gray74", gray  =       "gray", g75 = "gray75",
          g82 = "gray82", light = "light gray", g83 = "gray83"))

crgb <- col2rgb(cc <- colors())
colnames(crgb) <- cc
t(crgb)  # The whole table

## How many names are 'aliases' of each other?
ccodes <- c(256^(2:0) %*% crgb)
cl <- split(cc, ccodes)
length(cl) # 502 distinct colors
table(tcc <- lengths(cl))
## All the multiply named colors:
clmult <- cl[tcc >= 2]
names(clmult) <- sapply(clmult, function(x) paste(crgb[,x[1]], collapse = ","))
utils::str(clmult)

## Look at the color cube:
tc <- t(crgb[, !duplicated(ccodes)])
cNms <- rownames(tc)
if(requireNamespace("lattice", quietly = TRUE))
    lattice::cloud(blue ~ red + green, data = as.data.frame(tc), col = cNms)
## The 8 corners of the color cube:
isC <- rowSums(tc == 0 | tc == 255) == 3
cNms[isC] # "white" "black" "blue" "cyan" "green" "magenta" "red" "yellow"

table(is.gray <- tc[,1] == tc[,2] & tc[,2] == tc[,3])  # (397, 105)

## Not run: ## Look at the color cube dynamically:
 if(require("rgl")) {
   open3d(windowRect = c(50,50, 950, 950)) # large, so we see details
   plot3d (tc, col = cNms, size = 11) # --> rotate w/ mouse; enlarged corners:
   points3d(tc[isC,], col = cNms[isC], size=22)
   bg3d("darkgray") # (to "see more"); rotate around gray-axis:
   play3d(spin3d(axis = c(1, 1, 1), rpm = 2), duration = 30)
   if(FALSE) # add all names {zoom in with 2nd mouse button!}
     text3d(tc[!is.gray,], texts = cNms[!is.gray],
                             col = cNms[!is.gray], adj=-1/4, cex = 1/2)
   if(FALSE) { ## next version of {rgl}
     hover3d(tc, labels = cNms)
     message("Move mouse over plot to identify points.")
   } else { ##  click on blob to see colors()' name:
     identify3d(tc, labels=cNms)
   }
 }

## End(Not run)

[Package grDevices version 4.4.0 Index]