Use of Color - 2D Display Modes
In NMR, like in typography or geography, color can enhance readability, if used wisely.
- Following the Mac tradition, the background is normally white.
- Thin straight lines, like scales and integral regions, are normally black.
- Anti-aliasing is disabled when drawing the above elements. It can also be, optionally, disabled when drawing anything else (command: ‘iNMR/Preferences’; panel: ‘Display’).
- You can change these colors inside the Application preferences.
- You can swap these colors with Shift-B.
- Scale labels are red (unless you choose another color) on screen, black when printed or copied.
- Grid and selections are always drawn in transparent gray.
- The 2D fast plot always employs the same, program-defined, colors. Fast Plot is the preferred drawing mode for unprocessed 2D spectra.
- 1D spectra are drawn in two, user-specified, colors: one color for the spectrum, one color for the integrals.
- The contour plot is drawn in two, user-specified, colors: one for positive levels, one for negative levels. Contour Plot is the preferred drawing mode for processed 2D spectra. When in time domain, iNMR automatically switches to the fast Plot mode, regardless of which mode is actually selected.
- The stacked plot also employs two alternated colors, with no meaning implied. You typically use the Stacked Plot to visualize arrayed 1D spectra or to examine closely one or a few rows from a 2D matrix. The stacked plot can be straight or oblique (try dragging the right margin).
- The arrayed plot has all the spectra at the same vertical position, side by side. The ppm scales still refer to the fast/contour plots and should be ignored when using the arrayed plot mode. Mouse operations are still synchronized with the displayed scales.
- The chessboard plot combines the stacked and the arrayed modes together. Each trace is tagged with a written index. Small 3D spectra can be displayed in their entirety.
You change the colors with the command ‘Format/Levels & Colors’. The four numerical values you see in the dialog affect how the 2D spectrum is drawn. The names you see attached to these parameters come from the contour plot terminology, yet the parameters are also connected to how other display modes are implemented. Each parameter is restricted into its own range of allowed values.
The first color of a spectrum can also be changed from inside the ‘Overlay manager’ window, when another document is in the foreground. The same window also contains a special button to change the color to a multiple selection of spectra.
You can create a color gradient through all open windows with the command ‘color’ (only available in the Console).