Rendering a raster dataset with the Discrete Color renderer

The Discrete Color renderer is used to display the values in the raster dataset using a random color. It can only be used with integer raster datasets, and a legend is not generated.

This renderer is similar to the Unique Values renderer, but it is more efficient when there are a large number of unique values as it does not have to calculate how many unique values exist. The Discrete Color renderer will assign a color to each unique value until it reaches the maximum number of colors that you chose. The next unique value will start at the beginning of the color scheme; this process will continue until each unique value has a color assigned to it.

A legend displaying which color is mapped to which value is not generated or displayed in the table of contents.

Steps:

1. Right-click the raster layer in the table of contents and click Properties.
2. Click the Symbology tab.
3. Click Discrete Color.
4. Click the Color scheme drop-down arrow and click a color scheme.

   Right-click the color scheme to

   • Toggle between a graphic view and text view.
   • Open the Properties to modify specifics about how the color ramp is generated.
   • Save the color ramp.

5. Type a value in the Number of colors text box.

   The number of discrete colors must be an integer. The discrete color renderer will assign a color to each unique value until it reaches the maximum number of colors that you chose. Then the next unique value will start at the beginning of the color ramp; this process will continue until each unique value has a color assigned to it.

6. Optionally, click the Display NoData as button to symbolize the NoData using a color.
7. Click OK.