# How should I assign RGB colors to points in the Mandelbrot Set?

I decided to learn about the Canvas object in javascript by implementing a display of the Mandelbrot Set.

I am mimicking the Mandelbrot psuedocode found on wikipedia. The thrust of it is that the number of iterations it takes for a point to diverge is proportional to the color that is assigned to that point. However, in javascript, colors are represented in three dimensions, which one dimension (with values from 0 to 255) for the red, blue, and green channels. Obviously when I assign the same values to each channel, I get a boring image in shades of grey.

I was wondering, how would one map this "number of iterations to diverge" into the RGB space and make it look more interesting?

• Perhaps use the HSV color space instead of RGB? Dec 12 '11 at 20:57
• – lhf
Dec 12 '11 at 21:01
• @ChrisPhan, Your comments led me in the right direction. HSL made it super-easy to have better looking output. Do you guys think I should delete me question? Dec 12 '11 at 21:45
• Don't delete questions without good reason - especially if they provide an answer (even if it's in the comments). Someone in the future might make good use of the thread. Dec 12 '11 at 21:49

red = UInt8((sin(self.freqRed * unit * mandelColor + self.phaseRed) + 1) / 2 * 255.0)