$COLOR

$COLOR is a metacommand that adds named color constants into a program, which then can be used instead of hardcoded literal color values.

Syntax

$COLOR:{0|32}

Parameters

• The one and only parameter is a literal number designating either to include SCREEN 0 based color indexes, or full _RGB32 color values with full (opaque) alpha.

Description

• $COLOR:0 adds constants for the colors 0-15 available in SCREEN 0, these do also match for the first 16 colors on 8-Bit (256 colors) graphic screens as long as they are not changed using PALETTE or _PALETTECOLOR. For the actual constant names see $COLOR:0 Name Table.
• $COLOR:32 adds constants for full 32-Bit color values as used on 32-Bit screens created via _NEWIMAGE, similar to HTML color names. For the actual constant names see $COLOR:32 Name Table.
• Prior to QB64-PE v0.5.0, $COLOR was not compatible with $NOPREFIX.
• Since QB64-PE v0.5.0, $COLOR can now be used with $NOPREFIX, with a few notable differences to three conflicting colors -- Red, Green, Blue.

Red would conflict with _RED, Green would conflict with _GREEN, and Blue would conflict with _BLUE, once the underscore was removed from those commands with $NOPREFIX.

To prevent these conflicts, the COLOR values have had NP_ prepended to the front of them, to distinguish them from the non-prefixed command names. All other color names remain the same, with only the three colors in conflict having to use NP_ (for No Prefix) in front of them.

Note that $NOPREFIX was deprecated in QB64-PE v4.0.0 and so also the NP_ color names are gone.

Examples

Example 1

Adding named color constants for SCREEN 0.

$COLOR:0 COLOR BrightWhite, Red PRINT "Bright white on red."

Bright white on red.

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Example 2

Adding named color constants for 32-bit modes.

SCREEN _NEWIMAGE(640, 400, 32) $COLOR:32 COLOR CrayolaGold, DarkCyan PRINT "CrayolaGold on DarkCyan."

CrayolaGold on DarkCyan.

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Example 3

Adding named color constants for 32-bit modes (with $NOPREFIX in effect).

$NOPREFIX SCREEN NEWIMAGE(640, 400, 32) $COLOR:32 COLOR NP_Red, White 'notice the NP_ in front of Red? 'This is to distinguish the color from the command with $NOPREFIX. PRINT "Red on White."

Red on White.

See also

• COLOR
• SCREEN, _NEWIMAGE
• Metacommand
• $COLOR:0 Name Table
• $COLOR:32 Name Table

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