d.shade(1)

📦
version 8.4.2 · 8 versions
, in fedora 44

💅 d.shade — the GRASS GIS bestie manual ✨

okay so hi, welcome to d.shade(1), a page from the GRASS GIS User's Manual 🌈 and honestly? she's giving drama — she drapes a whole color raster over a shaded relief (or aspect) map like it's a little outfit change 👑

🌸 NAME 🌸

d.shade — drapes a color raster over an shaded relief or aspect map. (yes that's the official wording, "an shaded", we don't gatekeep grammar here 💖)

🎀 KEYWORDS 🎀

display, elevation, relief, hillshade, visualization — iykyk ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

✨ FLAGS ✨

  • --help — prints the usage summary, aka the cheat sheet 🫶
  • --verbose — verbose module output, she's chatty, we love that 💬
  • --quiet — quiet module output, she's mysterious, also love that 🤫
  • --ui — force launching the GUI dialog, pop off with the pretty buttons 🎨

🌈 PARAMETERS 🌈

  • shade=name [required] — the name of the shaded relief or aspect raster map. required, no skipping, bestie 🚨
  • color=name [required] — the name of the raster to drape over the relief raster map. typically this raster is elevation or some other colorful raster 🌸 also required, also not optional, periodt.
  • brighten=integer — percent to brighten ✨
    • Options: -99-99
    • Default: 0

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so d.shade will drape a color raster map over a shaded relief map. that's the whole vibe. but wait, there's range — in place of shaded relief, any raster map can be used, including aspect or slope. yes, literally any of them. and the color raster map? usually it's an elevation raster map with a colorful color table (as opposed to a gray scale color table). however — and this is important — any raster map can be used, including categorical raster maps. no cap. 🦋

the advantage of this module is that it lets you visualize the shaded map without a need to create a new raster which would combine both. like, no extra raster, no mess, no clutter, we stay clean. 🧚 comparing to creating shaded relief as a semi-transparent overlay on the color raster map, this module gives result with more saturated colors. saturated. glowing. main character energy. 🔥

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. she's a frontend. she's the face. she delegates. iconic behavior honestly. 💅

⭐ 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. 🎨 (haxby?? she's famous, she's the moment.)

🌸 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: Saturday Jan 17 05:41:51 2026

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okay that's the whole page bestie, go drape some rasters, you're gonna eat 💅✨

© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual — and this lil rewrite is running on GRASS 8.4.2 💖 mwah, see u in the group chat 🦋🎀

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