Colorizing text in the console with C++

Question

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

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

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;

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

Here is my solution that is lightweight and works with both Windows and Linux:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#ifdef _WIN32
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#define VC_EXTRALEAN
#include <Windows.h> // for displaying colors
#endif // Windows
using namespace std;

#define color_black      0
#define color_dark_blue  1
#define color_dark_green 2
#define color_light_blue 3
#define color_dark_red   4
#define color_magenta    5
#define color_orange     6
#define color_light_gray 7
#define color_gray       8
#define color_blue       9
#define color_green     10
#define color_cyan      11
#define color_red       12
#define color_pink      13
#define color_yellow    14
#define color_white     15

string get_textcolor_code(const int textcolor) { // Linux only
    switch(textcolor) {
        case  0: return "30"; // color_black      0
        case  1: return "34"; // color_dark_blue  1
        case  2: return "32"; // color_dark_green 2
        case  3: return "36"; // color_light_blue 3
        case  4: return "31"; // color_dark_red   4
        case  5: return "35"; // color_magenta    5
        case  6: return "33"; // color_orange     6
        case  7: return "37"; // color_light_gray 7
        case  8: return "90"; // color_gray       8
        case  9: return "94"; // color_blue       9
        case 10: return "92"; // color_green     10
        case 11: return "96"; // color_cyan      11
        case 12: return "91"; // color_red       12
        case 13: return "95"; // color_pink      13
        case 14: return "93"; // color_yellow    14
        case 15: return "97"; // color_white     15
        default: return "37";
    }
}
string get_backgroundcolor_code(const int backgroundcolor) { // Linux only
    switch(backgroundcolor) {
        case  0: return  "40"; // color_black      0
        case  1: return  "44"; // color_dark_blue  1
        case  2: return  "42"; // color_dark_green 2
        case  3: return  "46"; // color_light_blue 3
        case  4: return  "41"; // color_dark_red   4
        case  5: return  "45"; // color_magenta    5
        case  6: return  "43"; // color_orange     6
        case  7: return  "47"; // color_light_gray 7
        case  8: return "100"; // color_gray       8
        case  9: return "104"; // color_blue       9
        case 10: return "102"; // color_green     10
        case 11: return "106"; // color_cyan      11
        case 12: return "101"; // color_red       12
        case 13: return "105"; // color_pink      13
        case 14: return "103"; // color_yellow    14
        case 15: return "107"; // color_white     15
        default: return  "40";
    }
}
string get_print_color(const int textcolor) { // Linux only
    return "\033["+get_textcolor_code(textcolor)+"m";
}
string get_print_color(const int textcolor, const int backgroundcolor) { // Linux only
    return "\033["+get_textcolor_code(textcolor)+";"+get_backgroundcolor_code(backgroundcolor)+"m";
}
void print_color(const int textcolor) {
#if defined(_WIN32)
    static const HANDLE handle = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(handle, textcolor);
#elif defined(__linux__)
    cout << get_print_color(textcolor);
#endif // Windows/Linux
}
void print_color(const int textcolor, const int backgroundcolor) {
#if defined(_WIN32)
    static const HANDLE handle = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(handle, backgroundcolor<<4|textcolor);
#elif defined(__linux__)
    cout << get_print_color(textcolor, backgroundcolor);
#endif // Windows/Linux
}
void print_color_reset() {
#if defined(_WIN32)
    static const HANDLE handle = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(handle, 7); // reset color
#elif defined(__linux__)
    cout << "\033[0m"; // reset color
#endif // Windows/Linux
}

void println(const string& s="") {
    cout << s << endl;
}
void print(const string& s="") {
    cout << s;
}
void print(const string& s, const int textcolor) {
    print_color(textcolor);
    cout << s;
    print_color_reset();
}
void print(const string& s, const int textcolor, const int backgroundcolor) {
    print_color(textcolor, backgroundcolor);
    cout << s;
    print_color_reset();
}
void print_no_reset(const string& s, const int textcolor) { // print with color, but don't reset color afterwards (faster)
    print_color(textcolor);
    cout << s;
}
void print_no_reset(const string& s, const int textcolor, const int backgroundcolor) { // print with color, but don't reset color afterwards (faster)
    print_color(textcolor, backgroundcolor);
    cout << s;
}

And here is an example how to use it:

int main() {
    print("Hello ", color_red, color_blue);
    print("World!\n", color_black, color_yellow);
    println();
    return 0;
}

Answer 9

You can use ANSI escape sequences to colorizing the console text, it works for windows and Linux. For Windows, you need to activate the virtual terminal.

#include <iostream>

#ifdef _WIN32
#include <windows.h>

#define ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING 0x0004
#define DISABLE_NEWLINE_AUTO_RETURN  0x0008

void activateVirtualTerminal()
{       
    HANDLE handleOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    DWORD consoleMode;
    GetConsoleMode( handleOut , &consoleMode);
    consoleMode |= ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING;
    consoleMode |= DISABLE_NEWLINE_AUTO_RETURN;            
    SetConsoleMode( handleOut , consoleMode );
}
#endif

using namespace std;

enum COLORS {
    NC=-1,
    BLACK,
    RED,
    GREEN,
    YELLOW,
    BLUE,
    MAGENTA,
    CYAN,
    WHITE,
};

/**
* Colorize terminal colors ANSI escape sequences.
*
* @param font font color (-1 to 7), see COLORS enum
* @param back background color (-1 to 7), see COLORS enum
* @param style font style (1==bold, 4==underline)
**/
const char *colorize(int font, int back = -1, int style = -1) {
    static char code[20];
    
    if (font >= 0)
        font += 30;
    else
        font = 0;
    if (back >= 0)
        back += 40;
    else
        back = 0;

    if (back > 0 && style > 0) {
        sprintf(code, "\033[%d;%d;%dm", font, back, style);
    } else if (back > 0) {
        sprintf(code, "\033[%d;%dm", font, back);
    } else {

        sprintf(code, "\033[%dm", font);
    }

    return code;
}


int main()
{
#ifdef _WIN32
    activateVirtualTerminal();
#endif

    cout << colorize(RED) << "trying red" << colorize(NC) << endl;
    cout << colorize(RED, BLACK) << "red and black background" << colorize(NC) << endl;
    cout << colorize(YELLOW, BLUE, 1) << "yellow blue bold" << colorize(NC) << endl;
    cout << colorize(BLACK, WHITE) << "Black white" << colorize(NC) << endl;
    cout << colorize(MAGENTA, CYAN) << "Magenta cyan" << colorize(NC) << endl;

    return 1;
}

Answer 10

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

Answer 11

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.

Answer 12

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.

Answer 13

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

Answer 14

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;
}

Answer 15

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