Simple Colors in IDL When Not at PPPL

How to Plot with Colors in IDL When Not at PPPL

If you are not using the PPPL helper routines, you can still build a simple named-color structure from the active palette.

Device, Pseudo_Color=8, Decomposed=0
LoadCT, 39
c = { black : 0, $
      blue : .25*!d.n_colors, $
      ltblue : .40*!d.n_colors, $
      green : .65*!d.n_colors, $
      yellow : .75*!d.n_colors, $
      orange : .80*!d.n_colors, $
      red : .90*!d.n_colors, $
      white : !d.n_colors-1 }

IDL> plot, indgen(100), color=c.yellow
IDL> oplot, indgen(100)/2, color=c.blue

On PPPL systems, the older recommendation was to prefer mk_color when it is available.