How do I output coloured text to a Linux terminal

Question

How do I print coloured characters to a Linux terminal that supports it   How do I tell whether the terminal supports colour codes

User · Accepted Answer

You need to output ANSI colour codes  Note that not all terminals support this  if colour sequences are not supported  garbage will show up  Example   cout  lt  lt   quot  033 1 31mbold red text 033 0m n quot    Here   033 is the ESC character  ASCII 27  It is followed by    then zero or more numbers separated by    and finally the letter m  The numbers describe the colour and format to switch to from that point onwards  The codes for foreground and background colours are           foreground background black        30         40 red          31         41 green        32         42 yellow       33         43 blue         34         44 magenta      35         45 cyan         36         46 white        37         47  Additionally  you can use these  reset             0   everything back to normal  bold bright       1   often a brighter shade of the same colour  underline         4 inverse           7   swap foreground and background colours  bold bright off  21 underline off    24 inverse off      27  See the table on Wikipedia for other  less widely supported codes   To determine whether your terminal supports colour sequences  read the value of the TERM environment variable  It should specify the particular terminal type used  e g  vt100  gnome-terminal  xterm  screen        Then look that up in the terminfo database  check the colors capability

User · Answer

on OSX shell  this works for me  including 2 spaces in front of  red text       printf   e 033 31m  red text n    echo    tput setaf 1   red text

User · Answer

This is an old topic  but I wrote a class with nested subclasses and static members for colors defined by simple C macros   I got the color function from this post Color Text In C Programming in dreamincode net by user no2pencil   I made it this way so to be able to use the static constants in std  cout stream like this   cout  lt  lt  zkr  cc  fore  red  lt  lt   This is red text           lt  lt  zkr  cc  console  lt  lt   And changing to console default colors  fg  bg         lt  lt  endl    The class and a test program source code can be downloaded here   cc  console will reset to console default colors and attributes  cc  underline will underline the text  which works on putty which I ve tested the test program   Colors   black blue red magenta green cyan yellow white  lightblack lightblue lightred lightmagenta lightgreen lightcyan lightyellow lightwhite   Which can be used with both fore and back static subclasses of the cc static class   EDIT 2017  I m just adding the class code here to be more practical   The color code macros    define CC CONSOLE COLOR DEFAULT   033 0m   define CC FORECOLOR C    033    C  m   define CC BACKCOLOR C    033    C  m   define CC ATTR A    033    A  m    and the main color function that defines a color or an attribute to the screen   char  cc  color int attr  int fg  int bg        static char command 13           Command is the control command to the terminal        sprintf command    c  d  d  dm   0x1B  attr  fg   30  bg   40       return command      ccolor h   include  lt stdio h gt    define CC CONSOLE COLOR DEFAULT   033 0m   define CC FORECOLOR C    033    C  m   define CC BACKCOLOR C    033    C  m   define CC ATTR A    033    A  m   namespace zkr       class cc           public           class fore                   public              static const char  black              static const char  blue              static const char  red              static const char  magenta              static const char  green              static const char  cyan              static const char  yellow              static const char  white              static const char  console               static const char  lightblack              static const char  lightblue              static const char  lightred              static const char  lightmagenta              static const char  lightgreen              static const char  lightcyan              static const char  lightyellow              static const char  lightwhite                      class back                   public              static const char  black              static const char  blue              static const char  red              static const char  magenta              static const char  green              static const char  cyan              static const char  yellow              static const char  white              static const char  console               static const char  lightblack              static const char  lightblue              static const char  lightred              static const char  lightmagenta              static const char  lightgreen              static const char  lightcyan              static const char  lightyellow              static const char  lightwhite                      static char  color int attr  int fg  int bg           static const char  console          static const char  underline          static const char  bold             ccolor cpp   include  ccolor h   using namespace std   namespace zkr       enum Color               Black          Red          Green          Yellow          Blue          Magenta          Cyan          White          Default   9             enum Attributes               Reset          Bright          Dim          Underline          Blink          Reverse          Hidden             char  cc  color int attr  int fg  int bg                static char command 13              Command is the control command to the terminal            sprintf command    c  d  d  dm   0x1B  attr  fg   30  bg   40           return command             const char  cc  console   CC CONSOLE COLOR DEFAULT      const char  cc  underline   CC ATTR 4       const char  cc  bold   CC ATTR 1        const char  cc  fore  black   CC FORECOLOR 30       const char  cc  fore  blue   CC FORECOLOR 34       const char  cc  fore  red   CC FORECOLOR 31       const char  cc  fore  magenta   CC FORECOLOR 35       const char  cc  fore  green   CC FORECOLOR 92       const char  cc  fore  cyan   CC FORECOLOR 36       const char  cc  fore  yellow   CC FORECOLOR 33       const char  cc  fore  white   CC FORECOLOR 37       const char  cc  fore  console   CC FORECOLOR 39        const char  cc  fore  lightblack   CC FORECOLOR 90       const char  cc  fore  lightblue   CC FORECOLOR 94       const char  cc  fore  lightred   CC FORECOLOR 91       const char  cc  fore  lightmagenta   CC FORECOLOR 95       const char  cc  fore  lightgreen   CC FORECOLOR 92       const char  cc  fore  lightcyan   CC FORECOLOR 96       const char  cc  fore  lightyellow   CC FORECOLOR 93       const char  cc  fore  lightwhite   CC FORECOLOR 97        const char  cc  back  black   CC BACKCOLOR 40       const char  cc  back  blue   CC BACKCOLOR 44       const char  cc  back  red   CC BACKCOLOR 41       const char  cc  back  magenta   CC BACKCOLOR 45       const char  cc  back  green   CC BACKCOLOR 42       const char  cc  back  cyan   CC BACKCOLOR 46       const char  cc  back  yellow   CC BACKCOLOR 43       const char  cc  back  white   CC BACKCOLOR 47       const char  cc  back  console   CC BACKCOLOR 49        const char  cc  back  lightblack   CC BACKCOLOR 100       const char  cc  back  lightblue   CC BACKCOLOR 104       const char  cc  back  lightred   CC BACKCOLOR 101       const char  cc  back  lightmagenta   CC BACKCOLOR 105       const char  cc  back  lightgreen   CC BACKCOLOR 102       const char  cc  back  lightcyan   CC BACKCOLOR 106       const char  cc  back  lightyellow   CC BACKCOLOR 103       const char  cc  back  lightwhite   CC BACKCOLOR 107

User · Answer

You can use ANSI colour codes   use these functions   enum c color BLACK 30 RED 31 GREEN 32 YELLOW 33 BLUE 34 MAGENTA 35 CYAN 36 WHITE 37   enum c decoration NORMAL 0 BOLD 1 FAINT 2 ITALIC 3 UNDERLINE 4 RIVERCED 26 FRAMED 51   void pr const string str c color color c decoration decoration c decoration  NORMAL     cout lt  lt   033   lt  lt decoration lt  lt     lt  lt color lt  lt  m  lt  lt str lt  lt   033 0m      void prl const string str c color color c decoration decoration c decoration  NORMAL      cout lt  lt   033   lt  lt decoration lt  lt     lt  lt color lt  lt  m  lt  lt str lt  lt   033 0m  lt  lt endl

User · Answer

try my header here for a quick and easy way to color text  Aedi s Color Header    Escape-Sequence-Color-Header  Color Your Output in Unix using C        Text Attribute Options   ATTRIBUTES OFF  BOLD  UNDERSCORE  BLINK  REVERSE VIDEO  CONCEALED     Color Options   BLACK  RED  GREEN  YELLOW  BLUE  MAGENTA  CYAN  WHITE     Format   General Format  include value you want in  variable   COLOR  Foreground Color   Background Color  COLOR  Text Attribute   Foreground Color   Background Color  COLOR NORMAL     To set color to default   e g   COLOR BLUE BLACK    Leave Text Attribute Blank if no Text Attribute appied COLOR UNDERSCORE YELLOW RED COLOR NORMAL     Usage   Just use  to stream the color you want before outputting text and use  again to set the color to normal after outputting text   cout  lt  lt  COLOR BLUE BLACK  lt  lt   TEXT   lt  lt  COLOR NORMAL  lt  lt  endl  cout  lt  lt  COLOR BOLD YELLOW CYAN  lt  lt   TEXT   lt  lt  COLOR NORMAL  lt  lt  endl

User · Answer

From my understanding  a typical ANSI color code        033  FORMAT ATTRIBUTE   FORGROUND COLOR   BACKGROUND COLOR m TEXT  033  RESET FORMATE ATTRIBUTE m    is composed of  name and codec    FORMAT ATTRIBUTE     Default    0        Bold    1        Dim    2        Underlined    3        Blink    5        Reverse    7        Hidden    8     FORGROUND COLOR     Default    39        Black    30        Red    31        Green    32        Yellow    33        Blue    34        Magenta    35        Cyan    36        Light Gray    37        Dark Gray    90        Light Red    91        Light Green    92        Light Yellow    93        Light Blue    94        Light Magenta    95        Light Cyan    96        White    97     BACKGROUND COLOR     Default    49        Black    40        Red    41        Green    42        Yellow    43        Blue    44        Megenta    45        Cyan    46        Light Gray    47        Dark Gray    100        Light Red    101        Light Green    102        Light Yellow    103        Light Blue    104        Light Magenta    105        Light Cyan    106        White    107     TEXT  RESET FORMAT ATTRIBUTE     All    0        Bold    21        Dim    22        Underlined    24        Blink    25        Reverse    27        Hidden    28       With this information  it is easy to colorize a string  I am a banana   with forground color  Yellow  and background color  Green  like this    033 0 33 42mI am a Banana  033 0m    Or with a C   library colorize  auto const amp  colorized text   color  rize   I am a banana     Yellow    Green     std  cout  lt  lt  colorized text  lt  lt  std  endl    More examples with FORMAT ATTRIBUTE here

User · Answer

As others have stated  you can use escape characters  You can use my header in order to make it easier    ifndef  COLORS   define  COLORS      FOREGROUND     define RST    x1B 0m   define KRED    x1B 31m   define KGRN    x1B 32m   define KYEL    x1B 33m   define KBLU    x1B 34m   define KMAG    x1B 35m   define KCYN    x1B 36m   define KWHT    x1B 37m    define FRED x  KRED x RST  define FGRN x  KGRN x RST  define FYEL x  KYEL x RST  define FBLU x  KBLU x RST  define FMAG x  KMAG x RST  define FCYN x  KCYN x RST  define FWHT x  KWHT x RST   define BOLD x    x1B 1m  x RST  define UNDL x    x1B 4m  x RST   endif      COLORS       An example using the macros of the header could be    include  lt iostream gt   include  colors h  using namespace std   int main         cout  lt  lt  FBLU  I m blue     lt  lt  endl      cout  lt  lt  BOLD FBLU  I m blue-bold      lt  lt  endl      return 0

User · Answer

You can use escape sequences  if your terminal supports it  For example   echo    033 32m  Hello     033 36m  colourful    033 33mworld  033 0m

User · Answer

I wrote a cross-platform library color ostream for this  with the support of ANSI color  256 color and true color  all you have to do is directly including it and changing cout to rd cout like this    std       basic color   256 color   true color       ----      ----      ----      ----      std  cout   color ostream  rd cout   color ostream  rd256 cout   color ostream  rdtrue cout     std  wcout   color ostream  rd wcout   color ostream  rd256 wcout   color ostream  rdtrue wcout     std  cerr   color ostream  rd cerr   color ostream  rd256 cerr   color ostream  rdtrue cerr     std  wcerr   color ostream  rd wcerr   color ostream  rd256 wcerr   color ostream  rdtrue wcerr     std  clog   color ostream  rd clog   color ostream  rd256 clog   color ostream  rdtrue clog     std  wclog   color ostream  rd wclog   color ostream  rd256 wclog   color ostream  rdtrue wclog   Here is an simple example    hello cpp  include  quot color ostream h quot   using namespace color ostream   int main   maybe unused   int argc    maybe unused   char  argv          rd wcout imbue std  locale std  locale    quot  quot  LC CTYPE        rd wcout  lt  lt  L quot Hello world n quot       rd wcout  lt  lt  L quot Hola Mundo n quot       rd wcout  lt  lt  L quot Bonjour le monde n quot        rd256 wcout  lt  lt  L quot  n256 color quot   lt  lt  std  endl      rd256 wcout  lt  lt  L quot Hello world n quot       rd256 wcout  lt  lt  L quot Hola Mundo n quot       rd256 wcout  lt  lt  L quot Bonjour le monde n quot        rdtrue wcout  lt  lt  L quot  ntrue color quot   lt  lt  std  endl      rdtrue wcout  lt  lt  L quot Hello world n quot       rdtrue wcout  lt  lt  L quot Hola Mundo n quot       rdtrue wcout  lt  lt  L quot Bonjour le monde n quot       return 0

User · Answer

The best way is to use the ncurses library - though this might be a sledgehammer to crack a nut if you just want to output a simple coloured string

User · Answer

I use the following solution  it s quite simple and elegant  can be easily pasted into source  and works on Linux Bash   const std  string red   033 0 31m    const std  string green   033 1 32m    const std  string yellow   033 1 33m    const std  string cyan   033 0 36m    const std  string magenta   033 0 35m    const std  string reset   033 0m     std  cout  lt  lt   Measured runtime     lt  lt  yellow  lt  lt  timer count    lt  lt  reset  lt  lt  std  endl

User · Answer

An expanded version of gon1332 s header          COLORS h        Posted by Gon1332 May 15 2015 on StackOverflow     https   stackoverflow com questions 2616906 how-do-i-output-coloured-text-to-a-linux-terminal 2616912        Description  An easy header file to make colored text output to terminal second nature      Modified by Shades Aug  14 2018     PLEASE carefully read comments before using this tool  this will save you a lot of bugs that are going to be just about impossible to find   ifndef COLORS h  define COLORS h     FOREGROUND       These codes set the actual text to the specified color  define RESETTEXT    x1B 0m     Set all colors back to normal   define FOREBLK    x1B 30m     Black  define FORERED    x1B 31m     Red  define FOREGRN    x1B 32m     Green  define FOREYEL    x1B 33m     Yellow  define FOREBLU    x1B 34m     Blue  define FOREMAG    x1B 35m     Magenta  define FORECYN    x1B 36m     Cyan  define FOREWHT    x1B 37m     White     BACKGROUND       These codes set the background color behind the text   define BACKBLK   x1B 40m   define BACKRED   x1B 41m   define BACKGRN   x1B 42m   define BACKYEL   x1B 43m   define BACKBLU   x1B 44m   define BACKMAG   x1B 45m   define BACKCYN   x1B 46m   define BACKWHT   x1B 47m      These will set the text color and then set it back to normal afterwards   define BLK x  FOREBLK x RESETTEXT  define RED x  FORERED x RESETTEXT  define GRN x  FOREGRN x RESETTEXT  define YEL x  FOREYEL x RESETTEXT  define BLU x  FOREBLU x RESETTEXT  define MAG x  FOREMAG x RESETTEXT  define CYN x  FORECYN x RESETTEXT  define WHT x  FOREWHT x RESETTEXT     Example usage  cout  lt  lt  BLU  This text s color is now blue     lt  lt  endl      These will set the text s background color then reset it back   define BackBLK x  BACKBLK x RESETTEXT  define BackRED x  BACKRED x RESETTEXT  define BackGRN x  BACKGRN x RESETTEXT  define BackYEL x  BACKYEL x RESETTEXT  define BackBLU x  BACKBLU x RESETTEXT  define BackMAG x  BACKMAG x RESETTEXT  define BackCYN x  BACKCYN x RESETTEXT  define BackWHT x  BACKWHT x RESETTEXT     Example usage  cout  lt  lt  BACKRED FOREBLU  I am blue text on a red background      lt  lt  endl      These functions will set the background to the specified color indefinitely     NOTE  These do NOT call RESETTEXT afterwards  Thus  they will set the background color indefinitely until the user executes cout  lt  lt  RESETTEXT    OR if a function is used that calles RESETTEXT i e  cout  lt  lt  RED  Hello World    will reset the background color since it calls RESETTEXT     To set text COLOR indefinitely  see SetFore functions below   define SetBackBLK BACKBLK  define SetBackRED BACKRED  define SetBackGRN BACKGRN  define SetBackYEL BACKYEL  define SetBackBLU BACKBLU  define SetBackMAG BACKMAG  define SetBackCYN BACKCYN  define SetBackWHT BACKWHT     Example usage  cout  lt  lt  SetBackRED  lt  lt   This text s background and all text after it will be red until RESETTEXT is called in some way   lt  lt  endl      These functions will set the text color until RESETTEXT is called   See above comments   define SetForeBLK FOREBLK  define SetForeRED FORERED  define SetForeGRN FOREGRN  define SetForeYEL FOREYEL  define SetForeBLU FOREBLU  define SetForeMAG FOREMAG  define SetForeCYN FORECYN  define SetForeWHT FOREWHT     Example usage  cout  lt  lt  SetForeRED  lt  lt   This text and all text after it will be red until RESETTEXT is called in some way   lt  lt  endl    define BOLD x    x1B 1m  x RESETTEXT    Embolden text then reset it   define BRIGHT x    x1B 1m  x RESETTEXT    Brighten text then reset it   Same as bold but is available for program clarity   define UNDL x    x1B 4m  x RESETTEXT    Underline text then reset it      Example usage  cout  lt  lt  BOLD BLU  I am bold blue text      lt  lt  endl      These functions will embolden or underline text indefinitely until RESETTEXT is called in some way    define SetBOLD   x1B 1m     Embolden text indefinitely   define SetBRIGHT   x1B 1m     Brighten text indefinitely   Same as bold but is available for program clarity   define SetUNDL   x1B 4m     Underline text indefinitely      Example usage  cout  lt  lt  setBOLD  lt  lt   I and all text after me will be BOLD Bright until RESETTEXT is called in some way    lt  lt  endl    endif    COLORS h      As you can see  it has more capabilities such as the ability to set background color temporarily  indefinitely  and other features  I also believe it is a bit more beginner friendly and easier to remember all of the functions    include  lt iostream gt   include  COLORS h   int main       std  cout  lt  lt  SetBackBLU  lt  lt  SetForeRED  lt  lt  endl    std  cout  lt  lt   I am red text on a blue background        lt  lt  endl    return 0      Simply include the header file in your project and you re ready to rock and roll with the colored terminal output

User · Answer

Before you going to output any color you need make sure you are in a terminal    -t 1    amp  amp  echo  Yes I am in a terminal     isatty 3  call in C  Then you need to check terminal capability if it support color on systems with terminfo  Linux based  you can obtain quantity of supported colors as Number Of colors Supported   tput colors   on systems with termcap  BSD based  you can obtain quantity of supported colors as Number Of colors Supported   tput Co   Then make you decision      Number Of colors Supported  -ge 8    amp  amp        echo  You are fine and can print colors             echo  Terminal does not support color      BTW  do not use coloring as it was suggested before with ESC characters  Use standard call to terminal capability that will assign you CORRECT colors that particular terminal support  BSD Based fg black  quot   tput AF 0  quot  fg red  quot   tput AF 1  quot  fg green  quot   tput AF 2  quot  fg yellow  quot   tput AF 3  quot  fg blue  quot   tput AF 4  quot  fg magenta  quot   tput AF 5  quot  fg cyan  quot   tput AF 6  quot  fg white  quot   tput AF 7  quot  reset  quot   tput me  quot   Linux Based fg black  quot   tput setaf 0  quot  fg red  quot   tput setaf 1  quot  fg green  quot   tput setaf 2  quot  fg yellow  quot   tput setaf 3  quot  fg blue  quot   tput setaf 4  quot  fg magenta  quot   tput setaf 5  quot  fg cyan  quot   tput setaf 6  quot  fg white  quot   tput setaf 7  quot  reset  quot   tput sgr0  quot   Use As echo -e  quot   fg red   Red    fg green  Bull   reset  quot

User · Answer

Basics  I have written a C   class which can be used to set the foreground and background color of output  This sample program serves as an example of printing This - gt word lt - is red  and formatting it so that the foreground color of word is red    include  colormod h     namespace Color  include  lt iostream gt  using namespace std  int main         Color  Modifier red Color  FG RED       Color  Modifier def Color  FG DEFAULT       cout  lt  lt   This - gt    lt  lt  red  lt  lt   word   lt  lt  def  lt  lt    lt - is red    lt  lt  endl      Source   include  lt ostream gt  namespace Color       enum Code           FG RED        31          FG GREEN      32          FG BLUE       34          FG DEFAULT    39          BG RED        41          BG GREEN      42          BG BLUE       44          BG DEFAULT    49            class Modifier           Code code      public          Modifier Code pCode    code pCode             friend std  ostream amp          operator lt  lt  std  ostream amp  os  const Modifier amp  mod                return os  lt  lt    033    lt  lt  mod code  lt  lt   m                        Advanced  You may want to add additional features to the class  It is  for example  possible to add the color magenta and even styles like boldface  To do this  just an another entry to the Code enumeration  This is a good reference

[c++] How do I output coloured text to a Linux terminal?

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