d.shade(1)

NAME
d.shade - Drapes a color raster over an shaded relief or aspect map.

KEYWORDS
display, elevation, relief, hillshade, visualization

SYNOPSIS
d.shade
d.shade --help
d.shade [-n] shade=name color=name [brighten=integer] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-n
    Respect NULL values while drawing

--help
    Print usage summary

--verbose
    Verbose module output

--quiet
    Quiet module output

--ui
    Force launching GUI dialog

  Parameters:

shade=name [required]
    Name of shaded relief or aspect raster map

color=name [required]
    Name of raster to drape over relief raster map
    Typically, this raster is elevation or other colorful raster

brighten=integer
    Percent to brighten
    Options: -99-99
    Default: 0

DESCRIPTION
d.shade will drape a color raster map over a shaded relief map. In place of shaded relief, any raster map can be used including aspect or slope. The color raster map is usually an elevation raster map with colorful color table (as opposed to gray scale color table). However, any raster map can be used including categorical raster maps.

The advantage of this module is that it allows visualizing the shaded map without a need to create a new raster which would combine both. Comparing to creating shaded relief as semi-transparent overlay on the color raster map, this module gives result with more saturated colors.

The input for this module can be created for example using r.slope.aspect or r.relief
.

NOTES
Refer to the d.his help page for more details; d.shade is simply a frontend to that module.

EXAMPLES
In this example, the aspect map in the North Carolina sample dataset is used to hillshade the elevation map:

g.region raster=aspect -p
d.mon wx0
d.shade shade=aspect color=elevation

Figure: A detail of raster created by applying shading effect of aspect to elevation raster map from North Carolina dataset elevation map In this next example, a shaded relief raster map is created and used to create a colorized hillshade:

g.region raster=elevation
r.relief input=elevation output=elevation_shaded_relief
d.mon wx1
d.shade shade=elevation_shaded_relief color=elevation

Interesting visualizations can be created using different color tables for elevation raster map, for example using haxby color table.

SEE ALSO
d.his, g.pnmcomp, r.shade, r.slope.aspect, r.relief
wxGUI 3D viewer (NVIZ)

AUTHORS
Unknown; updated to GRASS 5.7 by Michael Barton

SOURCE CODE

Available at: d.shade source code (history)

Accessed: Monday May 11 17:55:41 2026

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