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Colors

You can use specify fill and line colors either:

• with its standard name or CSS name
• using HEX value (6 digits): #RRGGBB
• using HEX value (8 digits) with alpha compositing or RGBA color model: #RRGGBBaa
• using short HEX value (3 digits): #RGB (so #ABC means #AABBCC)
• using very short HEX value (1 digits): #x which is a shortcut for #xxxxxx (so you get some gray)

A special color values: transparent can be used, synonym of transparent black (#00000000).

Example on Gantt Diagram:

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@startgantt [Activity1] lasts 5 days [Activity2] lasts 5 days [Activity1] is colored in White/Red [Activity2] is colored in Silver/SeaGreen [Activity1] -> [Activity2] @endgantt

Example on Sequence Diagram:

🎉 Copied!

@startuml actor Bob #Red/Yellow actor Alice #FF0000/FFFF00 Alice -> Bob : hello @enduml

This uses Color Gradient, see next section. See also skinparam.

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Color gradient

You can also use color gradient in background, with the following syntax: two colors names separated either by:

• |,
• /,
• \, or
• -

depending the direction of the gradient.

See the previous section, and Color gradient on Class diagram page.

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Automatic Font Color

PlantUML allows dynamic font color selection using the #? syntax. The system automatically chooses between two colors based on the current background color to ensure optimal contrast and readability.

How It Works:

• The #? prefix defines a conditional color choice.
• Two colors follow, separated by a colon.
• The engine selects one based on the background:
• If the background is light, it uses the first color.
• If the background is dark, it uses the second color to maintain contrast.

Thus, the #?black:white syntax ensures that text remains legible across different background colors.

🎉 Copied!

@startuml <style> document { BackGroundColor darkblue } root { FontColor #?black:white LineColor white } </style> alice -> bob : hello @enduml

In this example, since the background is dark blue, the font color automatically switches to white for better contrast in the message "hello", while keeping black for the participant labels.

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Color with preprocessing

You can manipulate color with Preprocessing, and the Builtin functions:

Name	Description	Example	Return
%darken	Return a darken color of a given color with some ratio	%darken("red", 20)	#CC0000
%is_dark	Check if a color is a dark one	%is_dark("#000000")	true
%is_light	Check if a color is a light one	%is_light("#000000")	false
%lighten	Return a lighten color of a given color with some ratio	%lighten("red", 20)	#CC3333
%reverse_color	Reverse a color using RGB	%reverse_color("#FF7700")	#0088FF
%reverse_hsluv_color	Reverse a color using HSLuv	%reverse_hsluv_color("#FF7700")	#602800

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View colors in PlantUML

A user has recently created an image to display all names colors used by PlantUML. (We thank him by the way!)

So a new feature has been added to print all those colors using a special diagram description:

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@startuml colors @enduml

It is also possible to print a palette of colors close to some other color (using its name or HEX value).

🎉 Copied!

@startuml colors chocolate @enduml

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Archimate colors

Archimate uses color names that reflect the purpose of a node:

• Application
• Business
• Implementation
• Motivation
• Physical
• Strategy
• Technology

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@startuml skinparam minClassWidth 125 skinparam nodesep 10 skinparam ranksep 10 rectangle Application #Application rectangle Business #Business rectangle Implementation #Implementation rectangle Motivation #Motivation rectangle Physical #Physical rectangle Strategy #Strategy rectangle Technology #Technology @enduml

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PlantUML colors

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@startuml skinparam minClassWidth 200 skinparam nodesep 10 skinparam ranksep 10 rectangle "ClassColor" { rectangle "Class_C_Background\n #ADD1B2" #ADD1B2 rectangle "Class_N_Background\n #E3664A" #E3664A rectangle "Class_A_Background\n #A9DCDF" #A9DCDF rectangle "Class_I_Background\n #B4A7E5" #B4A7E5 rectangle "Class_E_Background\n #EB937F" #EB937F } rectangle "DefaultColor" { rectangle "BackGroundColor_Default\n #FEFECE" #FEFECE rectangle "LineColor_Default\n #A80036" #A80036 rectangle "Legend_BackGroundColor\n #DDDDDD" #DDDDDD rectangle "//TBC//\n..." } @enduml