[c++] Colorizing text in the console with C++

How can I write colored text to the console with C++? That is, how can I write different text with different colors?

You don't need to use any library. Just only write system("color 4f");

Standard C++ has no notion of 'colors'. So what you are asking depends on the operating system.

For Windows, you can check out the SetConsoleTextAttribute function.

On *nix, you have to use the ANSI escape sequences.

Assuming you're talking about a Windows console window, look up the console functions in the MSDN Library documentation.

Otherwise, or more generally, it depends on the console. Colors are not supported by the C++ library. But a library for console handling may/will support colors. E.g. google "ncurses colors".

For connected serial terminals and terminal emulators you can control things by outputting "escape sequences". These typically start with ASCII 27 (the escape character in ASCII). There is an ANSI standard and a lot of custom schemes.

ANSI escape color codes :

Name            FG  BG
Black           30  40
Red             31  41
Green           32  42
Yellow          33  43
Blue            34  44
Magenta         35  45
Cyan            36  46
White           37  47
Bright Black    90  100
Bright Red      91  101
Bright Green    92  102
Bright Yellow   93  103
Bright Blue     94  104
Bright Magenta  95  105
Bright Cyan     96  106
Bright White    97  107

Sample code for C/C++ :

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main(int argc, char ** argv){
    
    printf("\n");
    printf("\x1B[31mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[32mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[33mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[34mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[35mTexting\033[0m\n");
    
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[37mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[93mTexting\033[0m\n");
    
    printf("\033[3;42;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;43;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;44;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;104;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;100;30mTexting\033[0m\n");

    printf("\033[3;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[2;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[1;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\t\t");
    printf("\n");

    return 0;
}

GCC :

g++ cpp_interactive_terminal.cpp -o cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi
chmod +x cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi
./cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi

On Windows 10 you may use escape sequences this way:

#ifdef _WIN32
SetConsoleMode(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING);
#endif
// print in red and restore colors default
std::cout << "\033[32m" << "Error!" << "\033[0m" << std::endl;

In Windows, you can use any combination of red green and blue on the foreground (text) and the background.

/* you can use these constants
FOREGROUND_BLUE
FOREGROUND_GREEN
FOREGROUND_RED
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY
BACKGROUND_BLUE
BACKGROUND_GREEN
BACKGROUND_RED
BACKGROUND_INTENSITY
*/

HANDLE hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, FOREGROUND_BLUE | FOREGROUND_GREEN | FOREGROUND_INTENSITY);
std::cout << "I'm cyan! Who are you?" << std::endl;

Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682088(v=vs.85).aspx#_win32_character_attributes

Here cplusplus example is an example how to use colors in console.

Do not use "system("Color …")" if you don't want the entire screen to be filled up with color. This is the script needed to make colored text:

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h>

int main()
{
const WORD colors[] =
{
0x1A, 0x2B, 0x3C, 0x4D, 0x5E, 0x6F,
0xA1, 0xB2, 0xC3, 0xD4, 0xE5, 0xF6
};

HANDLE hstdin = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);
HANDLE hstdout = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
WORD   index = 0;


    SetConsoleTextAttribute(hstdout, colors[index]);
    std::cout << "Hello world" << std::endl;
FlushConsoleInputBuffer(hstdin);
return 0;
}

I'm not sure what you really want to do, but my guess is you want your C++ program to output colored text in the console, right ? Don't know about Windows, but on all Unices (including Mac OS X), you'd simply use ANSI escape sequences for that.

You can write methods and call like this

HANDLE  hConsole;
hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
int col=12;

// color your text in Windows console mode
// colors are 0=black 1=blue 2=green and so on to 15=white  
// colorattribute = foreground + background * 16
// to get red text on yellow use 4 + 14*16 = 228
// light red on yellow would be 12 + 14*16 = 236

FlushConsoleInputBuffer(hConsole);
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, col);

cout << "Color Text";

SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, 15); //set back to black background and white text

The simplest way you can do is:

#include <stdlib.h>

system("Color F3");

Where "F" is the code for the background color and 3 is the code for the text color.

Mess around with it to see other color combinations:

system("Color 1A");
std::cout << "Hello, what is your name?" << std::endl;
system("Color 3B");
std::cout << "Hello, what is your name?" << std::endl;
system("Color 4c");
std::cout << "Hello, what is your name?" << std::endl;

Note: I only tested on Windows. Works. As pointed out, this is not cross-platform, it will not work on Linux systems.