  The colors and chemical abundances of early-type galaxies at redshifts z<0.3
are studied using a sample of nearly 9000 galaxies, selected from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey using morphological and spectral criteria. In this sample,
redder galaxies have larger velocity dispersions. Color also correlates with
magnitude and size, but these correlations are entirely due to the L-sigma and
R_o-sigma relations: the primary correlation is color-sigma. The red light in
early-type galaxies is, on average, slightly more centrally concentrated than
the blue. Because of these color gradients, the strength of the
color--magnitude relation depends on whether or not the colors are defined
using a fixed metric aperture. Chemical evolution and star formation histories
of early-type galaxies are investigated using co-added spectra of similar
objects. At fixed sigma, the population at z ~ 0.2 had weaker Mg_2 and stronger
H_beta absorption compared to the population at z ~ 0. It was also bluer.
Comparison of these colors and line-strengths, and their evolution, with
single-burst stellar population models suggests a formation time of 9 Gyrs ago,
consistent with a Fundamental Plane analysis of this sample.
