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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
Lighter
  • See Also
    • Darker
    • Blend
    • GrayLevel
    • ColorSlider
    • ImageAdjust
    • LightDarkSwitched
  • Related Guides
    • Colors
    • Color Processing
    • Image Restoration
    • Graphics Options & Styling
    • Basic Image Manipulation
    • Computational Photography
    • Video Editing
    • Video Computation: Update History
    • See Also
      • Darker
      • Blend
      • GrayLevel
      • ColorSlider
      • ImageAdjust
      • LightDarkSwitched
    • Related Guides
      • Colors
      • Color Processing
      • Image Restoration
      • Graphics Options & Styling
      • Basic Image Manipulation
      • Computational Photography
      • Video Editing
      • Video Computation: Update History

Lighter[color]

represents a lighter version of the specified color.

Lighter[color,f]

represents a version of the specified color lightened by a fraction f.

Lighter[image,…]

gives a lighter version of an image.

Lighter[video,…]

gives a version of a video with lighter frames.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Data  
Parameters  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
Interactive Examples  
Neat Examples  
See Also
Related Guides
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • Darker
    • Blend
    • GrayLevel
    • ColorSlider
    • ImageAdjust
    • LightDarkSwitched
  • Related Guides
    • Colors
    • Color Processing
    • Image Restoration
    • Graphics Options & Styling
    • Basic Image Manipulation
    • Computational Photography
    • Video Editing
    • Video Computation: Update History
    • See Also
      • Darker
      • Blend
      • GrayLevel
      • ColorSlider
      • ImageAdjust
      • LightDarkSwitched
    • Related Guides
      • Colors
      • Color Processing
      • Image Restoration
      • Graphics Options & Styling
      • Basic Image Manipulation
      • Computational Photography
      • Video Editing
      • Video Computation: Update History

Lighter

Lighter[color]

represents a lighter version of the specified color.

Lighter[color,f]

represents a version of the specified color lightened by a fraction f.

Lighter[image,…]

gives a lighter version of an image.

Lighter[video,…]

gives a version of a video with lighter frames.

Details

  • Lighter can be used to create a lighter version of a color or an image.
  • Lighter[color,1] gives white. »
  • Lighter[color,0] gives color. »
  • Lighter[color] is equivalent to Lighter[color,1/3]. »
  • Lighter[color,f] for values of f outside the range 0 to 1 are clipped.
  • Lighter[image] works with 2D as well as 3D images.
  • Lighter[{col1,col2,…},…] gives lighter versions of each of the coli. »
  • When applied to color, Lighter always returns an RGBColor.
  • When applied to color images, Lighter always returns an RGB image.
  • Lighter does not affect the opacity of a color or an image. »

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

Lighter version of colors:

Specify how much the color should be lightened by using a fraction:

Lighter version of an image:

Scope  (9)

Data  (6)

Lighter version of a color:

Lighter version of a 2D grayscale image:

Lighter version of an image:

Lighter video:

Lighter version of a 3D image:

Lighter automatically threads over colors:

Parameters  (3)

The default lightening fraction is :

Specify different darkening fractions:

With a lightening fraction of zero, the color is unchanged:

With a lightening fraction of one, the color becomes white:

Applications  (4)

Use Lighter to construct ColorFunction for plots:

Use Darker and Lighter values of a particular hue as a color function:

Make a dark, starry sky brighter:

Enhance a dark region of an image:

Properties & Relations  (5)

Lighter of a color is always returned as an RGBColor:

The opacity value is unaffected by Lighter:

Lighter is a special case of Blend:

Lighter and Darker are not commutative:

Lighter for images is a special case of ImageAdjust:

Possible Issues  (3)

Values outside of the 0–1 range will be clipped:

Some colors may look faded during the lightening:

Lighter behaves differently when applied to a color and an image pixel of the same color:

Interactive Examples  (1)

Observe the changing chromaticity of a color image as the image is made lighter:

Neat Examples  (1)

Tilted bumpy texture:

See Also

Darker  Blend  GrayLevel  ColorSlider  ImageAdjust  LightDarkSwitched

Function Repository: PalerColor

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Colors
  • ▪
  • Color Processing
  • ▪
  • Image Restoration
  • ▪
  • Graphics Options & Styling
  • ▪
  • Basic Image Manipulation
  • ▪
  • Computational Photography
  • ▪
  • Video Editing
  • ▪
  • Video Computation: Update History

History

Introduced in 2007 (6.0) | Updated in 2012 (9.0) ▪ 2014 (10.0) ▪ 2021 (13.0)

Wolfram Research (2007), Lighter, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Lighter.html (updated 2021).

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), Lighter, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Lighter.html (updated 2021).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "Lighter." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2021. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Lighter.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). Lighter. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Lighter.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_lighter, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Lighter}", year="2021", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Lighter.html}", note=[Accessed: 01-March-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_lighter, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Lighter}, year={2021}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Lighter.html}, note=[Accessed: 01-March-2026]}

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