Excel - Color Scales

Color Scales in Conditional Formatting

In Microsoft Excel, one of the options in the Conditional Formatting menu is Color Scales. You can seamlessly apply interactive shades to a range of cells. The Color Scales offer wide variations of two- and three-scale colors, like the Red-Yellow-Green color scale, the Green-Yellow scale, and others. The color indicates where each cell value falls within that range. There are 12 colors, each with different shades in the Color Scales.

The bottom color in the Color Scales icon indicates the smallest value, and the top color represents the highest value in the selected range of cells.

Color Variations in 3-D Scales

Color variations in the 3-D scales are listed below −

• Green Yellow Red
• Red Yellow Green
• Green White Red
• Red White Green
• Blue White Red
• Red White Blue

Color Variations in 2-D Scales

Color variations in the 2-D scales are given below −

• White Red
• Red White
• Green White
• White Green
• Green Yellow
• Yellow Green

Using Conditional Formatting 3-Color Scales

Various steps are given below −

Step 1 − Open an Excel worksheet and select the cell range C2:C15..

Step 2 − You can switch to the Home tab and expand the "Conditional Formatting" button and select "Color Scales" from the drop-down menu and choose the "Green-White-Red" color scales.

Therefore, the Color Scales are applied to the selected range of cells, and the cells' backgrounds are changed to Green, White, or Red according to their values.

As you can observe in the screenshot, the minimum salary (25000) is highlighted in Dark red, and the maximum salary is highlighted in Solid green. You can use the Manage Rules option in the Conditional Formatting menu to alter or delete the existing color scales.

Add 2-color Scales in Excel

A total of 6 color variations are included in the 2-color Scales. You can employ any of these two-color variations in the specific range of cells.

Below are the following steps to add 2-color scales in Excel −

Step 1 − Select the cell range A2:A14 in the active worksheet.

Step 2 − Select the "Green-Yellow" color from the "Color Scales" under the "Conditional Formatting" menu as shown below −

Therefore, a "Green-Yellow" color has been applied to the selected range of cells. The minimum cell value,15, is populated in Yellow, and the maximum cell value, 200, is populated in Dark green.