Crate flower_pot 

Constants and simple functions for invoking ANSI control codes used for text-styling in terminals (including color codes). No support for cursor movement or any other control codes.

This crate provides constant bindings for text-styling ANSI control codes like BOLD (bound to the string \x1b[1m) and GREEN (bound to \x1b[32m):

use flower_pot::*;

println!("{GREEN}ok{RESET}");           // prints a green "ok"
println!("{BOLD}{RED}error!{RESET}");   // prints a bold, red "error!"
println!("{BLUE_BG}cloud{RESET}");      // prints white text on a blue background

Note that you must print the RESET code after the end of the text you want styled, or else all text printed to the terminal after that point will also be styled that way, including text outputted by other programs.

It also provides functions to invoke the 8-bit color palette. This code prints text in “palette-color #237” (often a shade of grey) with a background color of “palette-color #214” (often a shade of orange):

use flower_pot::*;

println!("{}{}example text{RESET}", color_256(237), color_256_bg(214));

And it provides functions that invoke truecolor functionality for terminals that support it. This code prints text in RGB color [127, 45, 68] with a background color of RGB color [0, 255, 255]:

use flower_pot::*;

println!("{}{}example text{RESET}", truecolor(127, 45, 68), truecolor_bg(0, 255, 255));

The functions color_256, color_256_bg, truecolor, and truecolor_bg all return Strings.

Note that not all terminals support all of the codes defined in this library. The basic workflow of ANSI control codes is that a program outputs sequences of special characters describing what it wants (such as “make the following text bold” or “make the following text green”) to stdout, and then the terminal that the program is running in decides what to do with those characters. The codes themselves are reasonably well-standardized, but not every terminal understands all of them. Some terminals might ignore some codes, or might do weird things when you use them (such as displaying the text following the code incorrectly). This is a feature of the ANSI control code ecosystem, and not something a library can fix.

Once you’ve outputted a control code, all text that follows it will be styled in the manner requested. If you want to go back to unstyled text, output the RESET code or one of the more specific style-resetting codes such as NOT_UNDERLINED.

The list of control codes is taken from the Wikipedia page on ANSI control codes. Codes which are not widely supported (as reported by Wikipedia) are marked as such below.

The named colors covered by ANSI control codes are BLACK, RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, MAGENTA, CYAN, and WHITE, and these are available as foreground and background colors, along with “bright” versions which are also available as foreground and background colors. If you want shades of gray, you can try 8-bit colors in the range of 232 (darkest grey) to 255 (lightest grey) or use truecolor. Among the text-styling codes, I find BOLD, DIM, ITALIC, UNDERLINE, and RESET to be the most commonly useful.

Constants

ALT_FONT_1

Switch to alternative font #1.

ALT_FONT_2

Switch to alternative font #2.

ALT_FONT_3

Switch to alternative font #3.

ALT_FONT_4

Switch to alternative font #4.

ALT_FONT_5

Switch to alternative font #5.

ALT_FONT_6

Switch to alternative font #6.

ALT_FONT_7

Switch to alternative font #7.

ALT_FONT_8

Switch to alternative font #8.

ALT_FONT_9

Switch to alternative font #9.

BLACK

Set forground color to black for the following text.

BLACK_BG

Set background color to black for the following text.

BLUE

Set foreground color to blue for the following text.

BLUE_BG

Set background color to blue for the following text.

BOLD

Make the following text bold.

BRIGHT_BLACK

Set the foreground color to bright black for the following text.

BRIGHT_BLACK_BG

Set the background color to bright black for the following text.

BRIGHT_BLUE

Set the foreground color to bright blue for the following text.

BRIGHT_BLUE_BG

Set the background color to bright blue for the following text.

BRIGHT_CYAN

Set the foreground color to bright cyan for the following text.

BRIGHT_CYAN_BG

Set the background color to bright cyan for the following text.

BRIGHT_GREEN

Set the foreground color to bright green for the following text.

BRIGHT_GREEN_BG

Set the background color to bright green for the following text.

BRIGHT_MAGENTA

Set the foreground color to bright magenta for the following text.

BRIGHT_MAGENTA_BG

Set the background color to bright magenta for the following text.

BRIGHT_RED

Set the foreground color to bright red for the following text.

BRIGHT_RED_BG

Set the background color to bright red for the following text.

BRIGHT_WHITE

Set the foreground color to bright white for the following text.

BRIGHT_WHITE_BG

Set the background color to bright white for the following text.

BRIGHT_YELLOW

Set the foreground color to bright yellow for the following text.

BRIGHT_YELLOW_BG

Set the background color to bright yellow for the following text.

CYAN

Set foreground color to cyan for the following text.

CYAN_BG

Set background color to cyan for the following text.

DEFAULT

Return to the default foreground color for the following text.

DEFAULT_BG

Return to the default background color for the following text.

DEFAULT_FONT

Switch to the default font.

DIM

Make the following text dim.

DOUBLE_UNDERLINE

Double-underline the following text. WARNING: this constant contains the exact same control code as the constant NOT_BOLD, because different terminals interpret the code to mean different things. If you use either constant, be aware that your text may be rendered differently by different terminals.

ENCIRCLED

Encircle the following text.

FRAKTUR

Switch to Fraktur font. Rarely supported according to Wikipedia.

FRAMED

Frame the following text.

GREEN

Set foreground color to green for the following text.

GREEN_BG

Set background color to green for the following text.

HIDDEN

Hide the following text. Not widely supported according to Wikipedia.

INVERTED

Swap the current foreground color and current background color for the following text.

ITALIC

Make the following text italic.

MAGENTA

Set foreground color to magenta for the following text.

MAGENTA_BG

Set background color to magenta for the following text.

NEITHER_BOLD_NOR_ITALIC

Make the following text neither bold nor italic.

NEITHER_FRAMED_NOR_ENCIRCLED

Make the following text neither framed nor encircled.

NORMAL_INTENSITY

Return to ordinary intensity (neither bold nor dim) for the following text.

NOT_BLINKING

Make the following text not blink.

NOT_BOLD

Make the following text not bold. WARNING: this constant contains the exact same control code as the constant DOUBLE_UNDERLINE, because different terminals interpret the code to mean different things. If you use either constant, be aware that your text may be rendered differently by different terminals.

NOT_HIDDEN

Make the following text not hidden.

NOT_INVERTED

Unswap the foreground and background colors for the following text.

NOT_OVERLINED

Make the following text not overlined.

NOT_STRIKETHROUGH

Make the following text not strikethrough.

NOT_UNDERLINED

Make the following text not underlined.

NO_PROPORTIONAL_SPACING

Return to a non-proportionally spaced font for the following text. Rarely meaningful because the PROPORTIONAL_SPACING control code is rarely supported to begin with.

OVERLINE

Add an overline to the following text.

PROPORTIONAL_SPACING

Use a font with proportional spacing (i.e., a non-monospace font) for the following text. Rarely supported according to Wikipedia.

RAPID_BLINK

Make the following text blink quickly. Not widely supported according to Wikipedia.

RED

Set foreground color to red for the following text.

RED_BG

Set background color to red for the following text.

RESET

Unset all styles and return to default text formatting.

SLOW_BLINK

Make the following text blink slowly.

STRIKETHROUGH

Make the following text strikethrough. Not supported in Terminal.app according to Wikipedia.

UNDERLINE

Underline the following text.

WHITE

Set foreground color to white for the following text.

WHITE_BG

Set background color to white for the following text.

YELLOW

Set foreground color to yellow for the following text.

YELLOW_BG

Set background color to yellow for the following text.

Functions

color_256

Set the foreground color for the following text to the nth color in the 256-color palette. Commonly, the set of 256 available colors consists of the 8 named foreground colors, the 8 bright versions of these colors, a 6×6×6 RGB cube (for a total of 216 colors distributed evenly across RGB-space), and then a scale of 24 shades of gray. Different terminals may differ in what colors they provide here.

color_256_bg

Set the background color for the following text to the nth color in the 256-color palette. Commonly, the set of 256 available colors consists of the 8 named background colors, the 8 bright versions of these colors, a 6×6×6 RGB cube (for a total of 216 colors distributed evenly across RGB-space), and then a scale of 24 shades of gray. Different terminals may differ in what colors they provide here.

truecolor

Set the foreground color to the RGB value (r, g, b). Not supported on all terminals. Terminals which do support this feature are called “truecolor terminals”.

truecolor_bg

Set the background color to the RGB value (r, g, b). Not supported on all terminals. Terminals which do support this feature are called “truecolor terminals”.