Colorizing text in the console with C++
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
Add a little Color to your Console Text
HANDLE hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
// you can loop k higher to see more color choices
for(int k = 1; k < 255; k++)
{
// pick the colorattribute k you want
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, k);
cout << k << " I want to be nice today!" << endl;
}
Character Attributes Here is how the "k" value be interpreted.
I've found header-only open-source C++ library working on multiple platforms: https://github.com/imfl/color-console
Color Console:
A lightweight header-only C++ library to bring colors to your Windows console with a very-easy-to-use API that frees you from the burden of setting and resetting screen colors every time you make a call.
#include "../include/color.hpp" #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << dye::aqua("Hello, World!") << std::endl; return 0; }
You are seeing Hello, World! in aqua.
Why Use It?
No need to reset: most solutions on the market work like manipulators, which constantly require you to reset the screen color after you set it. While this traditional approach is also offered in this library in the hue namespace ...
tabulate:
If You want not only to change colors but print text in more readable form (e.g. in form of tabular) it is also https://github.com/p-ranav/tabulate which can change colors and draw tables in console.
tabulate is a header-only library. Just add include/ to your include_directories and you should be good to go. A single header file version is also available in single_include/. NOTE Tabulate supports >=C++11.
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.