1991-2006
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
glColor
3G

# 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`

## See Also

`glColorPointer`, glIndex, glSecondaryColor

## Copyright

Copyright 1991-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc. This document is licensed under the SGI Free Software B License. For details, see http://oss.sgi.com/projects/FreeB/.