# Pinwheel Fractal: Colorful Symmetry

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/pinwheel-fractal-colorful-symmetry/49629>\
**Category:** Gallery\
**Created:** [October 9, 2026, 3:52am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/pinwheel-fractal-colorful-symmetry/49629 "2026-10-09T03:52:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Boleeman](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/boleeman/32/21972_2.png) [@Boleeman](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Boleeman)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2026, 3:52am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/pinwheel-fractal-colorful-symmetry/49629/1 "2026-10-09T03:52:45Z")

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Hi All.

Years ago I accidentally stumbled across a fractal written in Processing on Github called the “Pinwheel Fractal”. I didn’t think much of it until I got into Lazarus/Pascal programming and made a version ( at [Lazarus Forum Link](https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php?topic=71332.0) ). While the rendering of the fractal had some nice geometry, it lacked color effects (as it was usually one color) I did however make a random fill as well (but it was not all that appealing).

Years later I did a search for the basic form of Pinwheel Fractal on the OpenProcessing, but could not find the simple triangular form of it so I made one here:  
Basic Version (OpenProcessing):  
[OpenProcessing Link Site](https://openprocessing.org/@Boleeman/3030703)

While drinking a triple blended coffee in my backyard (and pondering about life in general) I was looking at all my fruit trees in full blossom, with all sorts of wonderful colors, I realized then, that the Pinwheel fractal needs some extra color effects. I did some searching on the internet and found some research papers outlining coloring techniques … so I started “PLAYING AROUND”.  
After pulling an addictive P5 JavaScript programming “_All-Nighter_” I eventually came up with some really nice renders.  
It did this by:  
Making different Fill Rules  
Playing around with some coloring schemes.  
Tweaking outlining (and when not to have it).  
Joining 2 triangles to make a rendered rectangle pattern.  
Playing around with Alpha/Transparency

I will upload my P5 JavaScript source soon but meanwhile …

I decided to do it in P5 JavaScript, as it could make some exceptionally nice graphics and I even have an export to SVG (which is harder to do in Lazarus).

Have a look at the samples below (I reduced the file sizes to upload to this forum).\

What do you think?

 ![1pinwheel](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/3X/a/b/ab4f8897403bed19d2084e6befec06a72723746f.png)

 ![2pinwheel](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/3X/6/d/6d0bb0657108270dc5b6f307e8c5eadaf31ee14c.png)

 ![5pinwheel](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/3X/f/1/f166b202d0857b137efdc37c31f24e2c68c60fee.png)

 ![3pinwheel](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/3X/3/d/3de9402e82288e8902f6a42b47d14fe06c30d1a9.png)

 ![4pinwheel](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/3X/7/4/744187e2a2ea0b53289f57a4dec1cec7620ad8c2.png)

What;s next?

Well I am sort of thinking “Trouchet” Curves !