| iTool User's Guide: Working with Styles |

## What Are Styles?

iTool styles provide a convenient way to store and apply a set of properties to items in your iTool. While modifying individual property items within a style has the same effect as creating a new style that sets the same properties, a new style can be created, customized, and applied in a current session or in later sessions. Styles provide a shortcut mechanism that allows you to quickly apply groups of properties to your visualization, and to automatically alter the properties of newly-created visualizations. Styles are available across all iTools. For example, a style created in the iPlot tool will also appear as a Style selection when working in the iImage tool. However, only relevant style properties are applied to a selected visualization. Property settings for absent visualization items in the style are ignored.

Nearly all properties can be stored in styles. The only exception to this are user-defined properties (such as the color look-up table associated with an image). Individual property styles are never global, that is, the color property associated with a plot object applies only to a plot, and does not affect the color property of a surface. Nevertheless, a style can easily be created to set the color property for these individual visualization types.

When applied, styles are not permanently linked to a visualization. In other words, the visualization is exactly the same as it would be if individual properties had been set instead of the style being applied. Changes to the style are not automatically updated in the visualization unless the style is re-applied to the visualization. All of these characteristics ensure that when an iTool is saved and then shared with any other users, it will display identically. There is no need to send an associated style file.

Note You can share styles with other users. See Importing and Exporting Styles for details.

### Type of Styles

Style information is stored in one or more style files located on your system. The two classes of style files are System Styles and Personal Styles:

- System Styles — IDL System Styles are pre-loaded in your IDL distribution. IDL's supplied System Styles are:

- IDL Classic - This System Style contains IDL Direct Graphics' common black background with white text and white linestyle.

- IDL Standard - This System Style is the iTools default and contains a white background with black text and black lines.

- Personal Styles — IDL Personal Styles are styles which you create. These are stored inside your .`idl` directory. When you create a new style within an iTool, it is automatically saved in this location.

Note Style information is stored independently of any iTool. Styles are never automatically saved by simply making style changes in an iTool. They must always be saved explicitly.

### Applying a Style

As mentioned, System Styles exist in your IDL distribution and are ready to use immediately (creating your own new Personal Styles is discussed at-length in the Creating Styles section). From an iTool window, in order to apply a style, select Edit Style Apply Style... or Edit Style Style Editor...

For more in-depth information on style application, see Applying Styles.

IDL Online Help (March 01, 2006)