Change ConsoleColor to a hex value

Question

So I recently started learning C#, and I'm struggling to change background color of a console to a hex value. Here is my code:

using System;

namespace MyFisrtC_App
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            ConsoleColor BGColor = ConsoleColor.White;
            ConsoleColor FGColor = ConsoleColor.Black;

            Console.Title = "Dumb App";
            Console.BackgroundColor = BGColor;
            Console.ForegroundColor = FGColor;

            Console.Clear();

            Console.WriteLine("This is just a simple dumb app. There is nothing special about it.");

            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Also if you know how to change font in C# that would be pretty cool.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 18 '20 at 13:01

This is unfortunately not possible due to the restriction of the Console API.

But you can for example calculate the nearest color to one that exist in the API.

static ConsoleColor ClosestConsoleColor(byte r, byte g, byte b)
{
    ConsoleColor ret = 0;
    double rr = r, gg = g, bb = b, delta = double.MaxValue;

    foreach (ConsoleColor cc in Enum.GetValues(typeof(ConsoleColor)))
    {
        var n = Enum.GetName(typeof(ConsoleColor), cc);
        var c = System.Drawing.Color.FromName(n == "DarkYellow" ? "Orange" : n); // bug fix
        var t = Math.Pow(c.R - rr, 2.0) + Math.Pow(c.G - gg, 2.0) + Math.Pow(c.B - bb, 2.0);
        if (t == 0.0)
            return cc;
        if (t < delta)
        {
            delta = t;
            ret = cc;
        }
    }
    return ret;
}

This is from: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12340136/10315352 credits all to @Glenn

I mean, it was the closest one to what I was trying to achieve. But I realized that you actually cant use hex values or any other colors than one in ConsoleColor — , Dec 18 '20 at 13:13

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 18 '20 at 12:51

0

ConsoleColour is an enum which essentially is a list of numbers with defined names. So you can do the below to convert a number to a color

        int number = 7;
        ConsoleColor colour = (ConsoleColor)number;

If you want to do it from hex use the below

string hex = "0A";
int number = Convert.ToInt32(hex, 16);
ConsoleColor colour = (ConsoleColor)number;

You just need to make sure the number doesnt fall outside of the length of the enum, for example

if(number < Enum.GetValues<ConsoleColor>().Length -1 && number >= 0)
{
   Console.ForeGroundColor = (ConsoleColor)number;
}

answered Dec 18 '20 at 12:51

Ben

757
4
14

That will turn number to a colour, but how can I get it working with whole hex values? – Dec 18 '20 at 12:56
@IKDev Ive updated my code to include converting a hex value to an int – Ben Dec 18 '20 at 12:57
Does it allow you to use hex values only of allready exsisting console colors or will it work with custom hex values too? – Dec 18 '20 at 13:02
Notice, the "hex" in this answer has nothing to do with writing a RGB (255, 255, 255) value as Hex (FFFFFF) - as the answer tried to explain the `ConsoleColor` is an `enum`, any `enum` can be casted to an `integer`, and this answer shows you how to convert a `hex` to an `integer` and that again to the `enum`. – Rand Random Dec 18 '20 at 13:04
As far as I'm aware you can only use the colours exposed by this enum. There may well be a Pinvoke to allow RGB colours but im not too sure. – Ben Dec 18 '20 at 13:27
There is a Pinvoke, https://stackoverflow.com/a/43321133/12429913 – Ben Dec 18 '20 at 13:30

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 18 '20 at 12:51

using System;

namespace TestCSharp
{
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
        Console.BackgroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
        Console.WriteLine("background red and text white");
        Console.ResetColor();
        Console.WriteLine("Color reset");
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
  }
}

you can't use hex value, you can use these color:

Black, DarkBlue, DarkGreen, DarkCyan, DarkRed, DarkMagenta, DarkYellow, Gray, DarkGray, Blue, Green, Cyan, Red, Magenta, Yellow, White

Well thats sad, that you cant use hex values – Dec 18 '20 at 12:58 — , Dec 18 '20 at 12:58

Change ConsoleColor to a hex value

3 Answers3