Color picker components in the Layers panel

For vector layers, the color wheel and recent colors can be accessed through a context menu in the Layers panel. Depending on the type of style applied to the vector layer (vector layer styles are discussed in detail later in this chapter), the color wheel will be accessible in different ways.

If the vector layer has a single symbol style, the color wheel can be accessed by right-clicking on the layer name in the Layers panel, then choosing Styles to expose the color wheel and recent colors (shown in the following screenshot):

Further to this, as of version 3.x QGIS now has the Layer Styling Panel that allows you quick access to a view of the Symbology tab. To add this feature to the Panel, go to View | Panels | Layer Styling Panel. In the Layer panel simply click on a layer and then click on the Layer Styling Panel. In addition to this, the styling changes that you make in the Layer Styling Panel are rendered Live, is as much as they update the data on the Map Canvas in realtime without the need to Apply changes.

To change which layer to render, you can either tab back into the Layers panel and choose the layer to change or, at the top of the Layer Styling Panel, you can access GIS layers via a drop-down option:

If the vector layer uses Categorized, Graduated, or Rule-based styles, as we will see soon in the Styling Vectors section, then the color wheel and recent colors can be accessed by right-clicking on an individual symbol from the expanded layer in the Layers panel:

With the color wheel and recent colors displayed in the context menu, the color changes you make in the context menu will be changed on the map canvas in real time. To see all the symbol options for the selected symbol or class, click on Edit Symbol.