COLOR

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The COLOR statement is used to change the foreground and background colors for printing text.


Syntax

COLOR [foreground&][, background&]


Description

  • background& colors are available in all QB64 color SCREEN modes.
  • SCREEN mode 10 has only 3 white foreground attributes including flashing.
  • To change the background& color only, use a comma and the desired color. Ex: COLOR , background&
  • Graphic drawing statements like PSET, PRESET, LINE, etc, also use the colors set by the COLOR statement if no color is passed when they are called.
  • The $COLOR metacommand adds named color constants for both text and 32-bit modes.


Screen Mode Attributes

  • SCREEN 0 background& colors 0 to 7 can be changed each text character without affecting other text. Use CLS after a background color statement to create a fullscreen background color. 64 DAC hues with 16 high intensity blinking foreground (16 to 31) color attributes. See _BLINK.
    • See example 7 below for more SCREEN 0 background colors.
  • SCREEN 1 has 4 background color attributes: 0 = black, 1 = blue, 2 = green, 3 = grey. White foreground color only.
  • SCREEN 2 is monochrome with white forecolor and black background.
  • SCREEN 7 can use 16 (DAC) colors with background colors. RGB settings can be changed in colors 0 to 7 using _PALETTECOLOR.
  • SCREEN 8 has 16 color attributes with 16 background colors.
  • SCREEN 9 can use up to 64 DAC color hues in 16 color attributes with background colors assigned to attribute 0 with a _PALETTECOLOR swap. RGB settings can be changed in colors 0 to 5 and 7 using _PALETTECOLOR.
  • SCREEN 10 has only 4 color attributes with black background. COLOR 0 = black, 1 = grey, 2 = flash white and 3 = bright white.
  • SCREEN 11 is monochrome with white forecolor and a black background.
  • SCREEN 12 can use 16 color attributes with a black background. 256K possible RGB color hues. Background colors can be used with QB64.
  • SCREEN 13 can use 256 color attributes with a black background. 256K possible RGB hues.
  • PALETTE swaps can be made in SCREEN 7 and 9 only. Those screens were DAC screen modes in QBasic.
  • _DEST can be used to set the destination page or image to color using QB64.
  • _DEFAULTCOLOR returns the current color being used on an image or screen page handle.

24/32-Bit colors using QB64

  • Pixel color intensities for red, green, blue and alpha range from 0 to 255 when used with _RGB, _RGBA, _RGB32 and RGBA32.
  • Combined RGB function values returned are LONG values. Blue intensity values may be cut off using SINGLE variables.
  • _ALPHA transparency values can range from 0 as transparent up to 255 which is fully opaque.
  • _CLEARCOLOR can also be used to set a color as transparent.
  • Colors can be mixed by using _BLEND (default) in 32-bit screen modes. _DONTBLEND disables blending.
  • NOTE: Default 32-bit backgrounds are clear black or _RGBA(0, 0, 0, 0). Use CLS to make the black opaque.

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RGB Palette Intensities

RGB intensity values can be converted to hexadecimal values to create the LONG _PALETTECOLOR value in non-32-bit screens: 

SCREEN 12
alpha$ = "FF" 'solid alpha colors only
PRINT "Attribute = Hex value      Red          Green         Blue "
PRINT
COLOR 7
FOR attribute = 1 TO 15
  OUT &H3C7, attribute 'set color attribute to read
  red$ = HEX$(INP(&H3C9) * 255 / 63) 'convert port setting to 32 bit values
  grn$ = HEX$(INP(&H3C9) * 255 / 63)
  blu$ = HEX$(INP(&H3C9) * 255 / 63)
  IF LEN(red$) = 1 THEN red$ = "0" + red$ '2 hex digits required
  IF LEN(grn$) = 1 THEN grn$ = "0" + grn$ 'for low or zero hex values
  IF LEN(blu$) = 1 THEN blu$ = "0" + blu$
  hex32$ = "&H" + alpha$ + red$ + grn$ + blu$
  _PALETTECOLOR attribute, VAL(hex32$) 'VAL converts hex string to a LONG 32 bit value
  IF attribute THEN COLOR attribute 'exclude black color print
  PRINT "COLOR" + STR$(attribute) + " = " + hex32$, red$, grn$, blu$ 'returns closest attribute
NEXT

Attribute  Hex value      Red        Green       Blue

COLOR 1 = &HFF0000AA       00         00         AA
COLOR 2 = &HFF00AA00       00         AA         00
COLOR 3 = &HFF00AAAA       00         AA         AA
COLOR 4 = &HFFAA0000       AA         00         00
COLOR 5 = &HFFAA00AA       AA         00         AA
COLOR 6 = &HFFAA5500       AA         55         00
COLOR 7 = &HFFAAAAAA       AA         AA         AA
COLOR 8 = &HFF555555       55         55         55
COLOR 9 = &HFF5555FF       55         55         FF
COLOR 10 = &HFF55FF55      55         FF         55
COLOR 11 = &HFF55FFFF      55         FF         FF
COLOR 12 = &HFFFF5555      FF         55         55
COLOR 13 = &HFFFF55FF      FF         55         FF
COLOR 14 = &HFFFFFF55      FF         FF         55
COLOR 15 = &HFFFFFFFF      FF         FF         FF
Explanation: The DAC intensity values are multiplied by (255 / 63) to get the _RGB intensity values as hexadecimal values. The individual 2 digit HEX$ intensity values can be added to "&HFF" to make up the 32-bit hexadecimal string value necessary for VAL to return to _PALETTECOLOR. The statement is only included in the example to show how that can be done with any 32-bit color value.

Read & write color port intensities with INP & OUT

  • Legacy code may use INP and OUT to read or set color port intensities. QB64 emulates VGA memory to maintain compatibility.
  • The same can be achieved using _PALETTECOLOR (recommended practice).
OUT &H3C7, attribute 'Set port to read RGB settings with:
color_intensity = INP(&H3C9) 'reads present intensity setting
OUT &H3C8, attribute 'Set port to write RGB settings with:
OUT &H3C9, color_intensity 'writes new intensity setting
  • After every 3 reads or writes, changes to next higher color attribute. Loops can be used to set more than one attribute's intensities.
  • Color port setting of red, green and blue intensities can be done in ascending order.
  • Color port attribute intensity values range from 0 to 63 (1/4 of the 32-bit values) in QBasic's legacy 4 and 8 bit screen modes.

(Return to Table of Contents)


Examples

Example 1: Reading the default RGB color settings of color attribute 15. 

 OUT &H3C7, 15
 red% = INP(&H3C9)
 green% = INP(&H3C9)
 blue% = INP(&H3C9)
 PRINT red%, green%, blue%

 63       63       63


Example 2: Changing the color settings of attribute 0 (the background) to blue in SCREENs 12 or 13. 

SCREEN 12
OUT &H3C8, 0          'set color port attribute to write
OUT &H3C9, 0          'red intensity
OUT &H3C9, 0          'green intensity
OUT &H3C9, 42         'blue intensity

OUT &H3C7, 0
PRINT INP(&H3C9); INP(&H3C9); INP(&H3C9)
END

 0  0  42


Example 3: Printing in fullscreen SCREEN 0 mode with a color background under the text only. 

SCREEN 0: _FULLSCREEN ' used for fullscreen instead of window
COLOR 14, 6: LOCATE 4, 4: PRINT "Hello!"



    Hello!


Example 4: Using CLS after setting the background color in SCREEN 0 to make the color cover the entire screen. 

SCREEN 0: _FULLSCREEN
COLOR , 7: CLS
COLOR 9: PRINT "Hello"

Hello


Example 5: Using a different foreground color for each letter: 

SCREEN 0
COLOR 1: PRINT "H";
COLOR 3: PRINT "E";
COLOR 4: PRINT "L";
COLOR 5: PRINT "L";
COLOR 6: PRINT "O"
COLOR 9: PRINT "W";
COLOR 11: PRINT "O";
COLOR 12: PRINT "R";
COLOR 13: PRINT "L";
COLOR 14: PRINT "D"

HELLO
WORLD


See also


Navigation:
Main Page with Articles and Tutorials
Keyword Reference - Alphabetical
Keyword Reference - By usage
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