For non-graphical objects, FCol specifies a single colour. For graphical objects with more than one constituent part, it may specify a set of background colours, one for each part. A single colour is represented by a single number which refers to a standard colour, or by a 3-element vector which defines a colour explicitly in terms of its red, green and blue intensities.
If FCol is 0 (which is the default) the foreground colour is defined by your current colour scheme for the object in question. For example, if you select red as your MS-Windows "Button Text" colour, you will by default get red writing on all your Button objects, simply by not specifying FCol or by setting it to 0.
A negative value of FCol refers to a standard MS-Windows colour as described below. Positive values are reserved for a possible future extension.
| FCol | Colour Element | FCol | Colour Element |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Default | ¯11 | Active Border |
| ¯1 | Scroll Bars | ¯12 | Inactive Border |
| ¯2 | Desktop | ¯13 | Application Workspace |
| ¯3 | Active Title Bar | ¯14 | Highlight |
| ¯4 | Inactive Title Bar | ¯15 | Highlighted Text |
| ¯5 | Menu Bar | ¯16 | Button Face |
| ¯6 | Window Background | ¯17 | Button Shadow |
| ¯7 | Window Frame | ¯18 | Disabled Text |
| ¯8 | Menu Text | ¯19 | Button Text |
| ¯9 | Window Text | ¯20 | Inactive Title Bar Text |
| ¯10 | Active Title Bar Text | ¯21 | Button Highlight |
If instead, FCol contains a 3-element vector, it specifies the intensity of the red, green and blue components of the colour as values in the range 0-255. For example, (255 0 0) is red and (255 255 0) is yellow.
Note that if the colour specified by FCol would normally be rendered as a dithered colour, it is instead converted to the nearest pure colour available on the device. The actual colour realised also depends upon the capabilities of the display adapter and driver, and the current Windows colour map.
For a Button, Combo, Edit, Label, List, Menu and MenuItem, FCol refers to the colour of the text in the object. Borders around these objects (where applicable) are drawn using the standard Windows colour. For a Static object however, FCol specifies the colour of its border.
For the Ellipse, Poly and Rect objects, FCol specifies the colour of the line drawn around the perimeter of the object. If a dashed or dotted line is used (LStyle 1-4) the "gaps" in the line are drawn using the colour specified by BCol, or are left undrawn if BCol is not specified. For the Marker object, FCol specifies the colour in which the markers are drawn. For the graphics objects Ellipse, Poly, Rect and Text, FCol may be a vector of 3-element vectors specifying a set of colours for the constituent parts of the object. For example, a Poly object consisting of four polygons, may have a FCol property of four 3-element vectors. In addition, for graphics objects, FCol is used in place of FillCol if the latter is not specified.