We have a lot of ways to customize our PlantUML diagrams. We can change the colors and we can even set gradients as color. A gradient has two colors and a direction. The direction of the gradient is set by the separator between the two colors. We can use the following separators to set the gradient direction:

  • /: direction top left to bottom right

  • \: direction bottom left to top right

  • |: direction left to right

  • -: direction top to bottom

In the following example PlantUML diagram definition we apply different gradient directions and different colors:

@startuml

title Gradient

skinparam defaultTextAlignment center
skinparam RectangleFontSize 20

skinparam TitleFontStyle bold
skinparam TitleFontColor #e723e7

' Define two colors for a gradient
' and use - for left to right.
skinparam BackgroundColor  #e2e2e2-#afafaf

' Define two colors for a gradient
' and use / for top left to bottom right.
skinparam RectangleBackgroundColor #ffd200/#8cfcff

rectangle A [
    From top left
    to bottom right
    <&fullscreen-enter>
]

' Use \ for bottom left to top right
rectangle B #ffd200\8cfcff [
    From bottom left
    to top right
    <&resize-both>
]

' Use | for left to right
rectangle C #ffd200|8cfcff [
    From left
    to right
    <&resize-width>
]

' Use | for top to bottom
rectangle D #ffd200-8cfcff [
    From top
    to bottom
    <&resize-height>
]

@enduml

When we convert this PlantUML syntax to a PNG image we get the following result:

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Written with PlantUML 1.2017.16.

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