The color of a plot can be specified using the option color=c, where c is a string or a color data structure. Some 3-D plotting commands can also accept a color option value in the form of a procedure or expression. For a list of color names, see the plot/colornames help page.

The strings that can be given directly to a plotting command are those from the "HTML" color palette. To see a list of all colors in this palette, issue the command ColorTools:-GetPalette("HTML"). See the ColorTools:-GetPalette help page for more information.

Colors from other palettes understood by Maple can also be used by adding the palette name as a prefix in the string passed to the plotting command. For example, to generate a curve with the "Violet" color from the "Spring" palette, use the option color="Spring Violet". Use the option color="Spring n", where n is a positive integer, to get the n-th color from the "Spring" palette. Note that built-in palettes are automatically expanded as needed, so n can be larger than the number of entries shown by the ColorTools:-GetPalette command. The ColorTools:-PaletteNames command gives a list of all available palettes.

You can specify colors by their RGB values using a color data structure, which is constructed with the ColorTools:-Color command. An example is: color=ColorTools:-Color([0.5, 0.2, 0.1]). Other color spaces, such as "HSV", are also available and are described on the ColorTools:-ColorSpaces help page. Multiple colors, given as Arrays of RGB, HSV or HUE values, may be provided through a color data structure as described on the plot/structure help page. You must ensure that the Array dimensions are appropriate for the plot object being displayed.

A default set of colors from the "Niagara" palette is used by certain plotting commands, including the 2-D plot command. You can change the default assignment of colors with the plots:-setcolors command.

Some 3-D plotting commands, including plot3d, also allow you to specify a procedure or an expression involving the plot variables. This feature is useful for purposes such as visualizing four-dimensional objects using color as the fourth dimension.  For more information, see the plot3d/colorfunc help page. You can also apply color schemes to surfaces with the colorscheme option, as described on the plot/colorscheme help page.

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\sin \,\mathrm{color}=''SteelBlue''\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\cos \,\mathrm{color}=''Niagara\; DarkOrchid''\right)$

$\mathrm{plot3d}\left(\sin \left(x\right)\cos \left(y\right)\,x=-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\,y=-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\,\mathrm{color}=''Nautical\; GrayViolet''\right)$

$\mathrm{myskyblue}≔\mathrm{ColorTools}:-\mathrm{Color}\left(\left[0.196\,0.6\,0.8\right]\right)\:$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\tan \left(x\right)\,x=-1..1\,\mathrm{color}=\mathrm{myskyblue}\,\mathrm{thickness}=3\right)$

$p≔\mathrm{seq}\left(\mathrm{seq}\left(\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{polygonplot}\right]\left(\left[\left[i\,j\right]\,\left[i+1\,j\right]\,\left[i+1\,j+1\right]\,\left[i\,j+1\right]\right]\,\mathrm{color}=\mathrm{ColorTools}:-\mathrm{Color}\left(\left[\frac{\mathrm{rand}\left(\right)}{{10}^{12}}\,\frac{\mathrm{rand}\left(\right)}{{10}^{12}}\,\frac{\mathrm{rand}\left(\right)}{{10}^{12}}\right]\right)\right)\,i=1..10\right)\,j=1..10\right)\:$

$\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{display}\right]\left(\left[p\right]\right)$

$p≔\mathrm{seq}\left(\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{polygonplot}\right]\left(\left[\left[0\,0\right]\,\left[1\,0\right]\,\left[1\,1\right]\,\left[0\,1\right]\right]\,\mathrm{axes}=\mathrm{none}\,\mathrm{color}=\mathrm{ColorTools}:-\mathrm{Color}\left(\left[\frac{\mathrm{rand}\left(\right)}{{10}^{12}}\,\frac{\mathrm{rand}\left(\right)}{{10}^{12}}\,\frac{\mathrm{rand}\left(\right)}{{10}^{12}}\right]\right)\right)\,i=1..20\right)\:$

$\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{display}\right]\left(\left[p\right]\,\mathrm{insequence}=\mathrm{true}\,\mathrm{axes}=\mathrm{none}\right)$

$p≔\mathrm{seq}\left(\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{polygonplot}\right]\left(\left[\left[0\,0\right]\,\left[1\,0\right]\,\left[1\,1\right]\,\left[0\,1\right]\right]\,\mathrm{axes}=\mathrm{none}\,\mathrm{color}=\mathrm{ColorTools}:-\mathrm{Color}\left(''HSV''\,\left[0.5\,0.8\,\frac{i}{20.0}\right]\right)\right)\,i=1..20\right)\:$

$\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{display}\right]\left(\left[p\right]\,\mathrm{insequence}=\mathrm{true}\,\mathrm{axes}=\mathrm{none}\right)$

The Plot Color Option command was updated in Maple 18.

The color option was updated in Maple 18.