HOWTO: Creating color palettes for ChartFX for .NET

Q6001019. Creating color palettes for ChartFX for .NET

The information on this article applies to

Chart FX for .NET Web Forms
Chart FX for .NET Windows Form

Summary
This article describes how to create color palettes for use in any ChartFX for .NET product. To create a palette you will have to create a txt file that follows our color palette syntax, compile this palette (or multiple palettes) into a .resources file and finally you will have to set this palette using the Palette property.

Palette Syntax
A color palette is a text file composed by a physical palette (a list of 49 RGB colors) followed by one or more logical palettes (a list of indexes in the physical palette that specifies the default settings for series, labels, axes, etc.), any line that starts with a semicolon is considered a comment and ignored by our parser.

R0,G0,B0
R1,G1,B1
...
R48,G48,B48
SubPaletteName.
S0
S1
...
S15
Background
Alternate Background (used in gradients)
Inside
Border
AxesAndGridLines
Axes Alternate (used in Interlaced mode)
ConstantLines
Stripes
Labels
PointLabels
MarkerBorder
TitlesText
Legend
LegendBackground
DataEditorBackground (background of the cells in the data editor)
DataEditorText
DataEditorAlternateBackground
DataEditorAlternateText
DataEditorTitlesBackground
DataEditorTItlesText
DataEditorGridLines
DataBackgound (background of the data editor)

Note that

R[i],G[i],B[i] is the definition for color i in your palette, each of these items should be a number between 0 and 255
SubPaletteName is the name of the subpalette, note that this line SHOULD end with a period. This allows you to have multiple subpalettes that share the same physical palette
A logical color is a number between 0 and 48 (one of your physical colors) or a predefined color.
S[i] is the definition for the default color for series i. This should be a logical color.
All remaining items contain a logical color.

Predefined logical colors

; 255 Transparent;
; 254 SystemColors.Window
; 253 SystemColors.Control
; 252 SystemColors.ControlDark
; 251 SystemColors.WindowText
; 250 SystemColors.ControlText
; 249 SystemColors.ControlLight
; 248 SystemColors.ControlLightLight
; 247 SystemColors.ControlDarkDark
; 246 SystemColors.Caption
; 245 SystemColors.CaptionText

Compiling the palettes
To compile one or more palettes into a resources file you will need a tool called CfxResPkg as follows

CfxResPkg PaletteFileName.resources User1.pal [User2.pal User3.pal]

Note that the palette files should have a pal extension and that a resource file may contain more than one palette.

Using the palette
To use one of your palettes you will use the Palette property as follows

chart1.Palette = "PhysicalPath | PaletteName | SubPalette"

where

- PhysicalPath is the fully qualified name of the palette file.
- PaletteName is the name of the palette (including the pal extension).
- SubPalette is the name of the subpalette defined inside the pal file.

e.g.

chart1.Palette = "C:\\Temp\\User.resources|User.Pal|Yellows"

Download
Use the following links to download additional files. We recommend you maintain the directory structure when uncompressing ZIP files

Download User.pal
Sample Palette file

FTP Mirror Site Location File(s)

ModernWorld Europe (UK) User.pal

SFX Korea Asia (Korea) User.pal

Interland USA User.pal

ArticleID:Q6001019
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Reviewed:5/31/2002 2:16:00 PM

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FTP Mirror Site	Location	File(s)
	Europe (UK)	User.pal

	Asia (Korea)	User.pal

	USA	User.pal