Colormap Editor

Figure 1. Colormap Editor

The Colormap Editor configures how the analyzer maps signal intensity to color. You can pick a stock colormap, modify its control points, generate a new colormap from a mathematical function, or override the linked UI colors (background, axes, …) just for this colormap.

Selected Colormap

The combo at the top of the page selects the active colormap. Three buttons next to it manage the colormap library:

Rename / Copy: Save the current colormap under a new name. Useful for creating a user-defined copy of a built-in colormap before customizing it.
Delete: Delete the currently selected colormap. Built-in colormaps cannot be deleted.
Read-only: Mark the current colormap as read-only to prevent accidental changes or deletion.

Control Point Editor

The colored field on the left of the dialog shows which colors represent which intensity. Colors are interpolated between the control points marked along the gradient. You can move and edit the control points with the mouse, or create new ones by double-clicking into empty space:

Table 1. Colormap Editor Mouse Commands
Mouse action	Command
Click + Drag control point	Move control point
Shift + Click + Drag control point	Move control point with more precision
Double-click control point	Set color
Right-click control point	Open context menu (set color or delete point)
Double-click empty space	Create new control point

The lowest control point is always rendered as the background color of the Analyzer View. To change it, use the Fonts and Colors page or the Linked UI Colors tab below.

Space Evenly

Arrange all control points so they have the same distance from each other. Useful after you have changed the number of control points and want them spread cleanly across the gradient.

Reverse Order

Reverse the order of the control points so the high-intensity colors are at the bottom and vice versa. This inverts the appearance of the spectrogram and can be a quick way to audition a new color scheme.

Interpolation

How colors transition between control points:

None: Hard color boundaries between control points. Each segment is a single solid color.
Linear: Straight gradients between control points (the most common choice).
Smooth: Cubic interpolation. Slightly softer transitions than linear, useful on colormaps with widely spaced control points.

A related but separate setting, Smooth Spectrogram Colors, controls whether the spectrogram itself smooths between adjacent samples. The Interpolation combo here only governs the colormap gradient.

Displayed Dynamic Range

The range of intensities mapped to the colormap, in decibels (dB). 0 dB is the loudest possible sine wave at the recording’s sample format (a 16-bit recording can theoretically reach about 96 dB of dynamic range). On the spectrogram it is usually better to narrow the displayed range to suppress noise and bring out the signal.

The same two values can also be set with the dynamic-range sliders on the toolbar — useful for tuning contrast on the fly.

Brightness (top level)

The saturation point of the colormap. Every intensity above this value is drawn at the colormap’s maximum-intensity color.

Contrast (range)

The width of the displayed dynamic range. A wider range shows more detail at the cost of clarity; a narrower range makes loud features stand out and pushes quiet detail to the floor color.

Height Shading

use shaded relief

When checked, the spectrogram is rendered with a shaded-relief effect that treats intensity as elevation, similar to a terrain map. This emphasizes peaks and ridges in the spectrum at the cost of some absolute-intensity readability.

Generate

Instead of placing control points by hand, you can generate the entire colormap from a mathematical function. The controls in this group are disabled while Use Function is unchecked, and the Control Points group above is disabled while it is checked.

Use Function

When checked, generate the colormap from the function below instead of the manual control points. Switching this off again preserves the control points you previously placed.

Generator Function

The function used to produce the colormap. Sinebow combines sine waves on each color channel to produce a continuous rainbow.

Gamma

Gamma exponent applied to the generator function. Values below 1 brighten the colormap; values above 1 darken it.

Offset

Phase offset of the generator function. Shifts the colormap along the hue cycle, which lets you pick the "starting color" of the rainbow.

Range

The portion of the function’s output range used by the colormap. Negative values reverse the color order — equivalent to clicking Reverse Order on a control-point colormap.

Linked UI Colors

This tab opens an editor similar to the Fonts and Colors page, but every change is local to the current colormap. For example, the spectrum background color is normally the global Analyzer View background; with Linked UI Colors you can override it (e.g. white) just for this colormap, and similarly tune the cursor lines, axis labels, and other UI colors so they read well against the chosen gradient.

Linked UI Colors are saved with the colormap, so a user-defined "high-contrast" colormap can carry its own background and axis colors without disturbing the global theme.