Colors

Pure black. Faded, it makes a table background that lets the price pane show through; opaque, it is the text colour for a light cell.

black: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

panel = table("Last close", 1, 2, bgColor = fade(black, 25), textColor = white)

if bar.isLast
    cell(panel, 0, 0, "Close")
    cell(panel, 0, 1, text(close, 2))

Remarks. Opaque black disappears on a dark chart. Use it for backgrounds with fade(), or for text on a light fill.

See also. white, gray, table()

A mid grey, halfway between black and white, and the default colour of a level(). It reads on both light and dark charts, so it suits reference lines that should be seen but not noticed. The name is spelled gray.

gray: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(mom(close, 10), "Momentum", aqua)
level(0, "Zero", gray)

See also. silver, level()

A light grey. Use it for a secondary line, a neutral state between two coloured ones, or the start of a colour scale that blends towards a stronger colour.

silver: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(sma(close, 50), "SMA 50", silver)
plot(sma(close, 200), "SMA 200", fade(silver, 50))

See also. gray, mix()

Pure white. The usual text colour on a dark table cell or label plate.

white: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

panel = table("Symbol", 1, 1, bgColor = fade(navy, 20))

if bar.isLast
    cell(panel, 0, 0, chart.symbol, textColor = white)

Remarks. White text vanishes on a light chart background, so give it a dark cell or plate to sit on.

See also. black, cell(), draw.label()

Pure red. The conventional colour for a falling bar, a bearish signal and a stop level.

red: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

stopLine = close - 2 * atr(14)
plot(stopLine, "Two ATR stop", red, style = "step")

See also. maroon, lime, fade()

A dark red, half the strength of red. Use it for a second bearish shade, such as a support line that sits under a brighter stop.

maroon: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(lowest(low, 20)[1], "Low of the previous 20 bars", maroon, style = "step")

See also. red, brown

A muted red-brown. It gives a long, slow line a colour of its own without competing with the brighter lines around it.

brown: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(sma(close, 200), "SMA 200", brown, width = 2)

See also. maroon, orange, olive

A warm orange. It stands out on light and dark charts alike and is a common choice for the slower of two averages.

orange: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(ema(close, 9), "Fast EMA", aqua)
plot(ema(close, 21), "Slow EMA", orange)

See also. yellow, brown, aqua

Pure yellow. Faded, it makes a highlight behind a bar, such as the first bar of each session at 09:15 on NSE.

yellow: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

// The first bar of each IST day, which on NSE is the session's first bar.
newDay = isNone(time[1]) or not date.isSameDay(time, time[1], "Asia/Kolkata")
background(newDay ? fade(yellow, 80) : none)

Remarks. Opaque yellow is hard to read on a light chart. Use it faded, or for markers on a dark chart. The example tests the date rather than session.isFirstBar, which needs session hours the /trading chart does not state in this release.

See also. orange, background(), session.isFirstBar

A light, soft pink. It works well for a band that should be visible without dominating the candles.

pink: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

b = bollinger(close, 20, 2)
upper = plot(b[1], "Upper band", pink)
lower = plot(b[2], "Lower band", pink)
fill(upper, lower, fade(pink, 85))

See also. fuchsia, fill()

Pure, bright green. The conventional colour for a rising bar, a bullish signal and a breakout.

lime: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

barColor(close > high[1] ? lime : none)

See also. green, red, barColor()

A dark green, half the strength of lime. Use it for a second bullish shade, or for a volume column that should not glare.

green: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(volume, "Volume", close >= open ? green : maroon, style = "column")

See also. lime, teal, olive

A dark yellow-green. It suits a neutral secondary line that should stay in the background.

olive: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(wma(close, 30), "WMA 30", olive)

See also. green, brown

A dark blue-green. A calm colour for a line you read often but do not want to shout.

teal: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(ema(hl2, 34), "EMA 34 of the midpoint", teal)

See also. aqua, green, navy

Bright cyan. It reads clearly on both light and dark charts and is the most common colour for a study's main line or band.

aqua: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(ema(close, 20), "EMA 20", aqua, width = 2)

See also. teal, blue, fade()

Pure, deep blue. A strong colour for one important line, such as the session VWAP.

blue: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

// The day's VWAP, restarted on the first bar of each IST day.
newDay = isNone(time[1]) or not date.isSameDay(time, time[1], "Asia/Kolkata")
plot(vwapAnchor(hlc3, newDay), "VWAP", blue, width = 2)

Remarks. Pure blue is dark and can be hard to see on a dark chart; aqua is the brighter choice there. The example anchors the average itself because vwap() restarts on the session's first bar, which needs session hours the /trading chart does not state in this release; there vwap() has no value.

See also. aqua, navy, vwapAnchor(), vwap()

A very dark blue. It reads well on a light chart and as a dark cell or label background with white text.

navy: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(hlc3, "Typical price", navy)

Remarks. On a dark chart navy is close to invisible as a line. Use it for fills and backgrounds there instead.

See also. blue, white

A dark purple. A traditional colour for an oscillator such as the RSI, which sits in its own pane.

purple: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

plot(rsi(close, 14), "RSI", purple)
level(70, "Overbought", red)
level(30, "Oversold", lime)

See also. fuchsia, level()

Bright magenta. It is rarely used for lines, which is what makes it good for a rare event you want to catch the eye, such as a large opening gap.

fuchsia: color

Type

color

First value

bar 0

// The day's first bar, found by its IST date, and its gap from the last close.
newDay = isNone(time[1]) or not date.isSameDay(time, time[1], "Asia/Kolkata")
gapPercent = (open - close[1]) / close[1] * 100
if newDay and abs(gapPercent) > 1
    signal("GAP", color = fuchsia)

See also. purple, pink, signal()

A fully opaque colour from its red, green and blue channels, each a whole number from 0 to 255. Use it for a colour the nineteen names do not cover.

rgb(r: number, g: number, b: number) -> color

Returns

color

First value

bar 0

plot(ema(close, 50), "EMA 50", rgb(255, 136, 0), width = 2)

Remarks. A channel written as a number that is outside 0 to 255, or not whole, is refused when the script compiles:

plot(close, "Close", rgb(300, 0, 0))

A channel computed from data is not refused in this release: it is rounded to a whole number and held inside 0 to 255, so a red channel that works out at 300 quietly becomes 255. A later release may stop the study instead, with OS4009. Do not rely on the silent limit: bound a computed channel yourself with clamp(), so the decision is visible in the script.

See also. rgba(), mix(), clamp()

The same as rgb() with a fourth argument, the alpha, from 0 (invisible) to 1 (opaque). rgba(r, g, b, a) is the same colour as withAlpha(rgb(r, g, b), a).

rgba(r: number, g: number, b: number, a: number) -> color

Returns

color

First value

bar 0

plot(sma(close, 20), "SMA 20", rgba(0, 150, 255, 0.6))

Remarks. The three channels follow the rules of rgb(). A computed alpha below 0 or above 1 is clamped to the nearest end.

See also. rgb(), withAlpha(), fade()

The same colour made percent transparent, where 0 leaves it unchanged and 100 makes it invisible. It is the call most scripts reach for when shading a fill or a background.

fade(color: color, percent: number) -> color

Returns

color

First value

bar 0

b = bollinger(close, 20, 2)
upper = plot(b[1], "Upper", aqua)
lower = plot(b[2], "Lower", aqua)
fill(upper, lower, fade(aqua, 88))

Remarks. fade scales the alpha the colour already has: the result's alpha is alpha(color) * (100 - percent) / 100. On an opaque colour that is simply (100 - percent) / 100, but fading twice compounds, so fade(fade(aqua, 50), 50) has an alpha of 0.25, not 0.5. Apply fade once, to an opaque colour, or use withAlpha() to set an exact alpha.

A computed percent outside 0 to 100 is not refused. The resulting alpha is kept within 0 to 1, so a percent above 100 gives an invisible colour and a negative one makes the colour more opaque. Hold a computed percent in range with clamp().

As a guide, a fill between two plots wants roughly fade(c, 85) to fade(c, 95), and a whole-bar background() more than that.

See also. withAlpha(), alpha(), fill(), background()

The same colour with its alpha set to a, from 0 (invisible) to 1 (opaque), whatever alpha it had before. Reach for it when you compute an opacity from data, or when a colour may already be partly transparent.

withAlpha(color: color, a: number) -> color

Returns

color

First value

bar 0

r = rsi(close, 14)
// Readings far from 50 are drawn solidly; readings near 50 fade to 20 percent opacity.
strength = clamp(abs(r - 50) / 50, 0.2, 1)
plot(r, "RSI", withAlpha(purple, strength), width = 2)

Remarks. It sets the alpha rather than scaling it, so withAlpha(fade(aqua, 88), 1) is plain aqua again. A computed a outside 0 to 1 is clamped.

See also. fade(), alpha(), rgba()

The alpha of a colour, from 0 (invisible) to 1 (opaque). Use it when a colour comes out of a calculation and you need to know how visible it is, for example to keep a blended line from fading away altogether.

alpha(color: color) -> number

Returns

number

First value

bar 0

r = rsi(close, 14)

// Blend from a faint grey near 50 to a solid purple at the extremes.
weight = clamp(abs(r - 50) / 30, 0, 1)
shade  = mix(fade(silver, 90), purple, weight)

// A line nobody can see is no use: keep it at least 40 percent opaque.
lineColour = isNone(shade) ? none : alpha(shade) < 0.4 ? withAlpha(shade, 0.4) : shade
plot(r, "RSI", lineColour, width = 2)

Remarks. Every named colour has an alpha of 1. A hex alpha byte is divided by 255, so alpha(#ff880080) is about 0.502, and alpha(fade(aqua, 88)) is 0.12. The alpha of an absent colour is absent.

See also. withAlpha(), fade(), mix()

A blend of two colours: weight 0 gives a, 1 gives b, and 0.5 gives the colour halfway between. Compute the weight from a value and you have a colour scale, such as candles that grow redder as volume rises.

mix(a: color, b: color, weight: number) -> color

Returns

color

First value

bar 0

version 1
study("Volume heat", overlay = true)

hottest = input(3.0, "Volume multiple that counts as hot", min = 1.5, max = 10)

rv = relativeVolume(20)

// Volume at its average gives 0, volume at the hot multiple gives 1.
// The clamp keeps one enormous bar from pushing the weight past red.
weight = clamp((rv - 1) / (hottest - 1), 0, 1)

// Absent during warmup, which leaves the candles their own colour.
barColor(mix(silver, red, weight))

Remarks. All four channels are blended, alpha included. Red, green and blue are then rounded to whole numbers, halves away from zero, so mix(red, blue, 0.3) is #b3004dff. A weight outside 0 to 1 is not refused: the blend carries on past the far colour and each channel is then clamped to its range, which is rarely the colour you meant. Clamp the weight first, as above. An absent weight gives an absent colour.

See also. gradient(), clamp(), barColor()