Colr
A python module for using terminal colors in linux. It contains a simple
color
function that accepts style and color names, and outputs a string
with escape codes, but also has all colors and styles as chainable methods
on the Colr
object.
Dependencies:
System
- Python 3.5+ -
This library uses
yield from
and thetyping
module. Python 2 support is not planned.
Modules
There are no dependencies required for importing this library on Linux, however:
- Docopt - Only required for the command line tool and the colr.docopt wrapper, not the library itself.
- Colorama - Windows only. This is not required on linux. It provides a helper for basic color support for Windows.
Installation:
Colr is listed on PyPi, and can be installed using pip:
pip install colr
Or you can clone the repo on GitHub and install it from the command line:
git clone https://github.com/welbornprod/colr.git
cd colr
python3 setup.py install
Examples:
Simple:
from colr import color
print(color('Hello world.', fore='red', style='bright'))
Chainable:
from colr import Colr as C
print(
C()
.bright().red('Hello ')
.normal().blue('World')
)
# Background colors start with 'bg', and AttributeError will be raised on
# invalid method names.
print(C('Hello ', fore='red').bgwhite().blue('World'))
Examples (256 Colors):
Simple:
from colr import color
# Invalid color names/numbers raise a ValueError.
print(color('Hello world', fore=125, back=80))
Chainable:
from colr import Colr as C
# Foreground colors start with 'f_'
# Background colors start with 'b_'
print(C().f_125().b_80('Hello World'))
Examples (True Color):
Simple:
from colr import color
print(color('Hello there.', fore=(255, 0, 0), back=(0, 0, 0)))
Chainable:
from colr import Colr as C
# Foreground colors are set with the `rgb()` method.
# Background colors are set with the `b_rgb()` method.
# Text for the chained methods should be chained after or during
# the call to the methods.
print(C().b_rgb(0, 0, 0).rgb(255, 0, 0, 'Hello there.'))
Examples (Hex):
Simple:
from colr import color
# When not using the Colr.hex method, the closest matching extended code
# is used. For true color, just use:
# fore=hex2rgb('ff0000')
# or
# Colr.hex('ff0000', rgb_mode=True)
print(color('Hello there.', fore='ff0000', back='000'))
Chainable:
from colr import Colr as C
# Foreground colors are set with the `hex()` method.
# Background colors are set with the `b_hex()` method.
# Text for the chained methods should be chained after or during
# the call to the methods.
print(C().b_hex('#000').hex('ff0000', 'Hello there.'))
# With rgb_mode set, these are the same:
print(C().hex('ff0000', 'test', rgb_mode=True))
print(C().rgb(255, 0, 0, 'test'))
Documentation:
Documentation for the colr
API can be found in the GitHub repo
(github.com/welbornprod/colr):
Module/Object | Description |
---|---|
colr.Colr | Methods for the Colr object, to colorize text. |
colr.controls | Functions and classes to control the cursor/screen. |
colr.progress | Progress updates, bars, or spinners. |
colr.trans | Color code translation/detection. |
Colr Tool:
The colr
package can be used as a command line tool. An entry point script
named colr
is created when installed with pip. Otherwise it can be executed
using the python -m colr
method.
colr --help
Basic usage involves passing text, or piping stdin data and setting the colors by position or flag.
# These all do the same thing:
colr "Test" "red" "white" "bright"
colr "Test" -f "red" -b "white" -s "bright"
printf "Test" | colr -f "red" -b "white" -s "bright"
Using the positional arguments is faster for just setting fore colors, but the flag method is needed for stdin data, or for picking just the background color or style:
colr "Test" -s "bright"
Extended and True colors are supported:
colr "Test" 124 255
colr "Test" "255, 0, 0" "255, 255, 255"
# Use true color (rgb) escape codes to generate a gradient, and then
# center it in the terminal (0 means use terminal width).
colr "Test" -G "255,0,0" -G "0,0,255" -c 0
It will do fore, back, style, gradients, rainbows, justification, and translation. It can strip codes from text (as an argument or stdin), or explain the codes found in the text.
lolcat emulation:
fortune | colr --rainbow
The colr tool does not read files, but it's not a problem:
cat myfile.txt | colr --gradient red
Also see ccat.
Colr.docopt:
Colr provides a wrapper for docopt that will automatically colorize usage strings. If you provide it a script name it will add a little more color by colorizing the script name too.
from colr import docopt
argd = docopt(USAGE, script='mycommand')
Contributing:
As always contributions are welcome here. If you think you can improve something, or have a good idea for a feature, please file an issue or a pull request.
Notes:
Reasons
In the past, I used a simple color()
function because I'm not fond of the
string concatenation style that other libraries use. The 'clor' javascript
library uses method chaining because that style suits javascript, but I wanted
to make it available to Python also, at least as an option.
Reset Codes
The reset code is appended only if some kind of text was given, and
colr/style args were used. The only values that are considered 'no text'
values are None
and ''
(empty string). str(val)
is called on all other
values, so Colr(0, 'red')
and Colr(False, 'blue')
will work, and the reset
code will be appended.
This makes it possible to build background colors and styles, but also have separate styles for separate pieces of text.
Python 2
I don't really have the desire to back-port this to Python 2.
It wouldn't need too many changes, but I like the Python 3 features
(yield from
, str/bytes
).
Windows
Basic colors are supported on Windows through the
colorama library.
It is only imported if platform.system() == 'Windows'
.
It provides a wrapper around stdout
and stderr
to make basic ansi codes
work. If the import fails, then all color codes are disabled
(as if colr.disable()
was called).
I booted into Windows 8 for the first time in months to make this little
feature happen, only to discover that the color situation for CMD and
PowerShell really sucks. If you think you can help improve the colr
package
for windows, please see the contributing section.
Misc.
This library may be a little too flexible:
from colr import Colr as C
warnmsg = lambda s: C('warning', 'red').join('[', ']')(' ').green(s)
print(warnmsg('The roof is on fire again.'))