PGF supports several types of shadings. The most advanced type of shading is "functional shadings". For such shadings the color of each point is calculated by calling a user specified function for each point in the shaded area. The shading function is specified using a simplified form of a subset of the PostScript language.
In this impressive example a functional shading is used to draw a slice of the cone shaped HSV color space. Note the smooth color transitions. The most interesting part of the code is the conversion from HSV to RGB.
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Edit and compile if you like:
% HSV shading % Author: Ken Stars \documentclass{article} \usepackage{tikz} \begin{document} \pgfdeclarefunctionalshading{HSVsweep} {\pgfpoint{-2cm}{-2cm}} {\pgfpoint{2cm}{2cm}} {} { % x y 2 copy % ... x y x y 2 copy 0 eq exch 0 eq and { pop pop 0.0 } % silently deal with error: return % arbitrary heading of zero for origin {atan 360.0 div} % ... x y heading; heading being in %the interval [0, 1.0] ifelse % because we will use it for 'Hue' dup 360 eq { pop 0.0 }{} ifelse % if heading is 360 %degrees, make it zero instead 3 1 roll % ... heading x y dup mul % ... heading x y*y exch dup mul % ... heading y*y x*x add sqrt % ... heading ra_pt (distance from origin in points) 56 div % scale it means a ra of just under 2 cm dup 1.0 ge % BOOLEAN. ready to clamp to interval [0, 1.0] { pop 1.0 }{} ifelse % We shall use the scaled ra as 'Saturation' 2.5 mul 0.25 sub % now, Ra in [0.1, 0.5] --> Saturation % in [0.0, 1.0]. Saturation varies between the two radii 1 % ... H S V ( with 'Value' set to literal constant of 1.0 ) 1 index 1.0 eq % TEST I [ S == 1.0 ] { % BLOCK A [ take stack to V V V ] achromatic case 3 1 roll pop pop dup dup } { % BLOCK B take stack to V T Q P i % C version to use as model: % H' = H * 6 % i = floor(H') % f = H' - i % P = V * (1.0 - S) % Q = V * (1.0 - (S*f)) % T = V * (1.0 - (S * (1.0 - f))) 3 -1 roll 6.0 mul dup 4 1 roll % H' S V H' floor % H' S V i dup 5 1 roll % i H' S V i 3 index sub neg % i H' S V f 1.0 3 index sub % i H' S V f (1.0 - S ) 2 index mul % i H' S V f P 6 1 roll % P i H' S V f dup 3 index mul neg 1.0 add % P i H' S V f ( 1.0 - (f*S)) 2 index mul % P i H' S V f Q 7 1 roll % Q P i H' S V f neg 1.0 add % Q P i H' S V (1.0 - f) 2 index mul neg 1.0 add % Q P i H' S V (1.0 - S * (1.0 - f)) 1 index mul % Q P i H' S V T 7 2 roll % V T Q P i H' S pop pop % V T Q P i %%% % end of BLOCK B. The rest is just stack manipulation dup 0 eq % TEST II [ i == 0 ] { % BLOCK C [ take stack to V T P ] pop exch pop } { dup 1 eq % TEST III [ i == 1 ] { % BLOCK D [ take stack to Q V P ] pop exch 4 1 roll exch pop } { dup 2 eq % TEST IV [ i == 2 ] { % BLOCK E [ take stack to P V T ] pop 4 1 roll pop } { dup 3 eq % TEST V [ i == 3 ] { % BLOCK F [ take stack to P Q V ] pop exch 4 2 roll pop } { dup 4 eq % TEST VI [ i == 4 ] { % BLOCK G [ take stack to T P V ] pop exch pop 3 -1 roll } { % BLOCK H [ take stack to V P Q ] pop 3 1 roll exch pop } ifelse } ifelse % for V } ifelse % for IV } ifelse % for III } ifelse % for II % BLOCK I } ifelse % for I % BLOCK J % .. RGB at last % Fix for Apple's PDF viewer shading bug: cvr 3 1 roll cvr 3 1 roll cvr 3 1 roll } \begin{tikzpicture} \def\ra{3.8cm} \def\raB{1cm} \draw[shading=HSVsweep,even odd rule] (0,0) circle (\ra) circle (\raB); \foreach \x in {0, 30, ..., 330} \draw (-\x+90:3.8) -- (-\x+90:4.0) (-\x+90:4.4) node {$\x^\circ$}; \end{tikzpicture} % The shading can also be used for other shapes %\begin{tikzpicture} % \draw[shading=HSVsweep,shading angle=90] (0,0) rectangle (4,8); %\end{tikzpicture} \end{document} See: James D FOLEY et al "Computer Graphics, Principals and Practice" 2nd edition ISBN 0-204-84840-6 Page 593. Figure 13.34 "Algorithm for converting from HSV to RGB color space" (This is C. I had to convert it to Postscript. Mostly lots of nasty stack manipulation)
Click to download: hsv-shading.tex • hsv-shading.pdf
Open in Overleaf: hsv-shading.tex
Comments
#1 Kjell Magne Fauske, October 29, 2008 at 8:33 a.m.
Update: Added a workaround for Apple’s PDF viewer shading bug. Thanks Berteun Damman for the patch.
#2 hakan tiftikci, November 11, 2009 at 8:40 a.m.
can alpha channel (~transparency) be specified in “functional shadings”?
#3 Kjell Magne Fauske, November 13, 2009 at 10:41 a.m.
I checked the PGF documentation, but as far as I can see, you can’t specify alpha channel when using functional shadings, only RGB-values. There are probably workarounds since PGF supports fadings with varying alpha-values.