<p>Note: as I don't have any working version of pymol at the moment,
I am not able to test the solution properly.<br>
However, an easy way is to first create a selection, and then to color it:</p>

<pre><code>select toBecolored, resi 3-8
color yellow, toBecolored
</code></pre>

<p>Regarding the L/H chain part, if they are effectively annotated as L and H, something like the following should work:</p>

<pre><code>select toBeColored, ((i. 10-20 or i. 30-40) and c. L ) or ((i. 5-10+20-30) and c. H)
color yellow, toBeColored
</code></pre>

<p>Combining both commands is probably possible as:</p>

<pre><code>color yellow, ((i. 10-20 or i. 30-40) and c. L ) or ((i. 5-10+20-30) and c. H)
</code></pre>

<p>Pymol allows synonyms (eg. resi and i.  or chain and c.).</p>

<p>The following pages may be also helpful:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://pymolwiki.org/index.php/Selection_Algebra" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pymol wiki: help on Selection</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pymol.sourceforge.net/newman/user/S0220commands.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SourceForge</a></li>
</ul>

<p>And the two following links, if you want to get a bit deeper in proper programming with python for pymol (as they can provide you with inspiration):</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://pymolwiki.org/index.php/Category:Plugins" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pymol wiki: plugins</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/Pymol-Scripts/Pymol-script-repo" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pymol scripts</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-16T14:54:09.983Z
@Llopis: Thank you for the edit! It's a lot clearer now :)
Mitra
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-15T18:28:58.057Z
2017-11-16T14:55:32.380Z
2017-11-16T14:55:32.380Z
Mitra
<p>We can use</p>

<pre><code>color yellow, resi 3
color yellow, resi 3-8
</code></pre>

<p>to colour one residue or a range of residues. But what if I want to colour residue 3-8 and 10-20, how to write it?</p>

<p>Also, my protein has two chains, light chain (L) with 100 residues and heavy chain (H) with 100 residues. How to colour the residue 10-20, 30-40 of light chain, and the residue 5-10, 20-30 of heavy chain in one go?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-15T18:21:02.317Z
What you’ve written isn’t valid Python code. Is this in Pymol or similar?
Konrad Rudolph
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-15T18:28:48.587Z
@KonradRudolph it is Pymol code (you can use python with pymol but in the GUI you can type pymol code)
Mitra
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-15T23:57:53.767Z
I don't think that python is an appropriate tag for this post.  This really isn't a bioinformatics question.
Bioathlete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-16T10:01:38.280Z
there is no tag called "pymol", and where else would you recommend?
lanselibai
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-16T14:47:52.757Z
@Bioathlete why wouldn't this be a bioinformatics question? Where would you have such question otherwise?
Mitra
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-16T16:14:55.393Z
It is a general question for the use of a tool.  It belongs in a mailing or user list for that tool.
Bioathlete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-16T18:28:42.430Z
of course each software may have its own mailing list, like I use Gromacs as well. But we should still be able to ask questions here @Mitra thank you for changing it to tag pymol. I thought I do not have the authority as a newbie.
lanselibai
<pymol>
How to colour multiple residues in Pymol?
# How to colour multiple residues in Pymol?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-15)

We can use
color yellow, resi 3
color yellow, resi 3-8

to colour one residue or a range of residues. But what if I want to colour residue 3-8 and 10-20, how to write it?
Also, my protein has two chains, light chain (L) with 100 residues and heavy chain (H) with 100 residues. How to colour the residue 10-20, 30-40 of light chain, and the residue 5-10, 20-30 of heavy chain in one go?

**Tags:** pymol
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What you’ve written isn’t valid Python code. Is this in Pymol or similar?  
> **username_2**: @KonradRudolph it is Pymol code (you can use python with pymol but in the GUI you can type pymol code)  
> **username_3**: I don't think that python is an appropriate tag for this post.  This really isn't a bioinformatics question.  
> **username_0**: there is no tag called "pymol", and where else would you recommend?  
> **username_2**: @Bioathlete why wouldn't this be a bioinformatics question? Where would you have such question otherwise?  
> **username_3**: It is a general question for the use of a tool.  It belongs in a mailing or user list for that tool.  
> **username_0**: of course each software may have its own mailing list, like I use Gromacs as well. But we should still be able to ask questions here @Mitra thank you for changing it to tag pymol. I thought I do not have the authority as a newbie.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-11-15. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Note: as I don't have any working version of pymol at the moment,
I am not able to test the solution properly.
However, an easy way is to first create a selection, and then to color it:
select toBecolored, resi 3-8
color yellow, toBecolored

Regarding the L/H chain part, if they are effectively annotated as L and H, something like the following should work:
select toBeColored, ((i. 10-20 or i. 30-40) and c. L ) or ((i. 5-10+20-30) and c. H)
color yellow, toBeColored

Combining both commands is probably possible as:
color yellow, ((i. 10-20 or i. 30-40) and c. L ) or ((i. 5-10+20-30) and c. H)

Pymol allows synonyms (eg. resi and i.  or chain and c.).
The following pages may be also helpful:

Pymol wiki: help on Selection
SourceForge

And the two following links, if you want to get a bit deeper in proper programming with python for pymol (as they can provide you with inspiration):

Pymol wiki: plugins
Pymol scripts

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: @Llopis: Thank you for the edit! It's a lot clearer now :)  

---

