Java OceanAtlas

Creating A Custom Colorbar

From the Resources menu select the Contour Manager command:

The Contour Manager shows a scrollable list of all the currently defined colorbars. To create a new colorbar, click the New... button. You will then be presented with the Contour Manager window:

Follow these steps to create a new colorbar:

1) Enter the 4 character parameter name for the colorbar. If your parameter name is less than 4 characters, add spaces at the end of the name until you have 4 characters. This parameter name should match measured parameter names in the data file or one that will be computed from measured values.

2) Enter a title for the colorbar. The title is used creating a name for the colorbar when saved to disk.

3) Enter an optional description for the colorbar.

4) Enter the number of values/colors in this colorbar. Maximum is 128.

5) Enter the range of values described by this colorbar

6) Choose how colors will be assigned when you create the initial colorbar. To change the start, middle or end colors when using blended colors, click on the small color "swatch" to display a standard color picker dialog. Use this to create a new color either by selecting from a predefined palette of colors or by setting RGB or HSV values. The Rainbow and Inverse Rainbow options will create a colorbar that goes from red to purple or purple to red. To assign colors from a palette, first click "Assign colors from color table" then click the Start color swatch. From the displayed color palette select a new start color (the start color swatch will change to the selected color). Now choose whether subsequent colors will be taken from the table in rows (across table) or in columns (down table).

7) Now click one of the shape buttons to create the initial colorbar. The colorbar will be previewed in the Value editor/preview panel below.

If you are happy with your colorbar you can save it to disk by clicking the Save... button. The following steps are useful if you want to further refine your colorbar--either it's shape or assigning specific values to specific colors.

8) To change individual colors, click in the preview to the right of the graph to highlight any of the swatches. The color picker dialog will be displayed and you can design a new color for the swatch. After this dialog is dismissed, the swatch will remain highlighted, you can now select a new color from the color table by clicking the desired color in the table. Tip: when one of these swatches is highlighted you can use the tab key to move the highlight to the next swatch or press shift and tab to move the highlight to the previous swatch. This way you can assign new colors from the color table without having to go through the color picker dialog.

9) You can change the value of any color by first clicking on it's symbol in the graph panel. You can then use the up/down arrow keys to adjust the value of the point. You can also type in a new value for the point in the text box and clicking the Apply button. Tip: After you have selected one of the symbols on the graph, you can use the left/right arrow keys to move to the next point. Tip: Clicking and holding the mouse down in the graph allows you to "paint" a colorbar graph in any shape you wish.

Note: The values of a colorbar should always be increasing--each value should only have one color assigned to it.