The multiband color band renderer stretches three gradients (red, green, and blue) to three separate raster bands. The basic idea is that the computer will display natively used combinations of red, green, and blue lights to create the desired image. By matching individual raster bands to the red, green, and blue lights used by the display, the three bands' colors will mix so that they are perceived as other colors, thereby creating a red, green, and blue image composite that is suitable for display.

Contrast enhancements are available to adjust the way the gradients are stretched across the raster bands' values. Contrast enhancements have already been covered in the Singleband gray raster band rendering section, so refer to this section for an in-depth coverage of the topic.

Let's see how multiband rasters are rendered in QGIS. Add TL_ASTER.jpg from the sample data to the QGIS canvas. This sample image is a TerraLook image derived from an ASTER image. Open the Style...