991

I had to change the console background color to white because of eye problems, but the font is gray colored and it makes the messages unreadable. How can I change it?

5
  • 4
    In the same place you already used to change the background color, you can change the other colors.
    – Dan D.
    Mar 20, 2012 at 20:44
  • 1
    I'm having the same problem. I suspect @Viclib is using windows (as am I), which is why instructions to change terminal colors are a foreign concept. The windows command prompt allows changing 2 foreground and 2 background colors. Node uses other colors which windows command prompt cannot define.
    – Greg Woods
    Apr 7, 2015 at 9:25
  • @GregWoods. the accepted answer below does work in Windows !
    – joedotnot
    Dec 15, 2018 at 15:38
  • 2
    I later discovered that my mental model for how Windows command prompt colours worked, was completely wrong. I assumed incorrectly (due to a terrible UI) that you can only change foreground, background colours. This is wrong. All 16 colours can be used by a console app, and it is vital to pick sensible colours for all 16, and to ALWAYS use colour tile 1 as background (and tile 9 for "popup background"). This was such a revelation to me, I wrote a blog post (a rare event indeed). gregwoods.co.uk/2015/04/…
    – Greg Woods
    Dec 20, 2018 at 14:29
  • @GregWoods That blog post link is dead now
    – kungfooman
    May 21, 2022 at 14:54

40 Answers 40

2127

Below you can find colors reference of text to command when running node.js application:

console.log('\x1b[36m%s\x1b[0m', 'I am cyan');  //cyan
console.log('\x1b[33m%s\x1b[0m', stringToMakeYellow);  //yellow

Note %s is where in the string (the second argument) gets injected. \x1b[0m resets the terminal color so it doesn't continue to be the chosen color anymore after this point.

Colors reference

Reset = "\x1b[0m"
Bright = "\x1b[1m"
Dim = "\x1b[2m"
Underscore = "\x1b[4m"
Blink = "\x1b[5m"
Reverse = "\x1b[7m"
Hidden = "\x1b[8m"

FgBlack = "\x1b[30m"
FgRed = "\x1b[31m"
FgGreen = "\x1b[32m"
FgYellow = "\x1b[33m"
FgBlue = "\x1b[34m"
FgMagenta = "\x1b[35m"
FgCyan = "\x1b[36m"
FgWhite = "\x1b[37m"
FgGray = "\x1b[90m"

BgBlack = "\x1b[40m"
BgRed = "\x1b[41m"
BgGreen = "\x1b[42m"
BgYellow = "\x1b[43m"
BgBlue = "\x1b[44m"
BgMagenta = "\x1b[45m"
BgCyan = "\x1b[46m"
BgWhite = "\x1b[47m"
BgGray = "\x1b[100m"

EDIT:

For example, \x1b[31m is an escape sequence that will be intercepted by your terminal and instructs it to switch to the red color. In fact, \x1b is the code for the non-printable control character escape. Escape sequences dealing only with colors and styles are also known as ANSI escape code and are standardized, so therefore they (should) work on any platform.

Wikipedia has a nice comparison of how different terminals display colors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors

13
  • 102
    I've accepted this question because it is the laziest one that works, has many colors and no dependencies. If you want simpler solution with dependencies, check @nelsonic's answer which suggests very straightforward libs.
    – MaiaVictor
    Feb 16, 2017 at 15:00
  • 10
    Where did you find this reference? What does every character in a color value mean ?
    – giorgos.nl
    May 3, 2017 at 8:55
  • 14
    @giorgos29cm → see here. Btw, add an 1; for bright colors, i.e. "\x1b[1;34m" == light blue...
    – Frank N
    Oct 24, 2017 at 13:35
  • 3
    How should I prevent these characters from showing when printing to file rather than console?
    – Sky
    Mar 29, 2018 at 20:45
  • 3
    I've taken this answer and changed it slightly to be runnable code. stackoverflow.com/a/57100519/4808079
    – Seph Reed
    Jul 18, 2019 at 18:19
490

There are multiple packages available for formatting console text in Node.js. The most popular are:

Usage:

CHALK:

const chalk = require('chalk');
console.log(chalk.red('Text in red'));

CLI-COLOR:

const clc = require('cli-color');
console.log(clc.red('Text in red'));

6
  • 1
    It even has simple lightweight support for styles! Feb 14, 2013 at 12:23
  • 2
    @devundef agree with you on adding methods to the String object. Might be worth mentioning that to the module author on GitHub. And/Or suggesting an alternative module/method with similar level of simplicity.
    – nelsonic
    Jul 11, 2013 at 6:11
  • 4
    While I agree that MattJohnson's answer (overriding the util.inpect method's default colors - see below) is better than using the Colors module, the Colors module requires zero setup and fits the needs of the vast majority of users which is simply changing color of console.log output. Sure, "messing with built-ins" is bad (agree 100%) but no deployed code should contain console.log statements, so lets be pragmatic about this. @devundef Do the extra String methods added to the prototype mess with your unit tests?
    – nelsonic
    Jan 22, 2014 at 23:54
  • 8
    Colors has that now: var colors = require('colors/safe'); and then use colors.red('left string all alone')
    – Laoujin
    Apr 29, 2015 at 20:20
  • 1
    When I require chalk I get: Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM]: require() of ES Module [omitted]\node_modules\chalk\source\index.js from [omitted].js not supported. Dec 22, 2021 at 15:53
227

If you want to change the colors directly yourself without a module try

console.log('\x1b[36m', 'sometext' ,'\x1b[0m');

First \x1b[36m to change the colors to 36 and then back to terminal color 0.

Here's a list of ANSI color codes

2
  • 2
    What about changing font style, like bold red, italic green?
    – uzay95
    Jan 29, 2016 at 9:23
  • 1
    Worked perfectly, didn't mess up with octal escape codes being prevented in strict mode.
    – Nebula
    Mar 16, 2016 at 16:04
104

This is a list of available colours (both background and foreground) in the console with some available actions (like reset, reverse, etc).

const colours = {
    reset: "\x1b[0m",
    bright: "\x1b[1m",
    dim: "\x1b[2m",
    underscore: "\x1b[4m",
    blink: "\x1b[5m",
    reverse: "\x1b[7m",
    hidden: "\x1b[8m",
    
    fg: {
        black: "\x1b[30m",
        red: "\x1b[31m",
        green: "\x1b[32m",
        yellow: "\x1b[33m",
        blue: "\x1b[34m",
        magenta: "\x1b[35m",
        cyan: "\x1b[36m",
        white: "\x1b[37m",
        gray: "\x1b[90m",
        crimson: "\x1b[38m" // Scarlet
    },
    bg: {
        black: "\x1b[40m",
        red: "\x1b[41m",
        green: "\x1b[42m",
        yellow: "\x1b[43m",
        blue: "\x1b[44m",
        magenta: "\x1b[45m",
        cyan: "\x1b[46m",
        white: "\x1b[47m",
        gray: "\x1b[100m",
        crimson: "\x1b[48m"
    }
};

Here's an example of how to use it:

console.log(colours.bg.blue, colours.fg.white, "I am a white message with a blue background", colours.reset) ; 
// Make sure that you don't forget "colours.reset" at the so that you can reset the console back to it's original colours.

Or you can install some utility modules:

npm install console-info console-warn console-error --save-dev

These modules will show something like the following to the console when you use them:

Example of the utility modules that I've mentioned.

7
  • 2
    I am using the same and works fine but for some reason Dim doesn't do anything? I want the grey color effect so thought would use white color with dim effect would result in grey color but only white color prints no dim. Any idea?
    – Angad
    Aug 1, 2018 at 11:32
  • Unfortunately, using it like this in a console creates lots of spaces.
    – Qwerty
    Mar 19, 2021 at 6:54
  • Use + instead of , in-between the colours to avoid the spaces
    – orta
    May 7, 2021 at 11:13
  • 1
    Crimson doesn't exit in console!
    – synkro
    Oct 9, 2021 at 18:03
  • 1
    Solution with npm packages (console-info console-warn console-error): don't forget to require packages in your js files (e.g. require('console-info');) Nov 16, 2022 at 15:00
79

to color your output You can use examples from there:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CustomizingBashPrompt

Also a Gist for nodeJs

For example if you want part of the text in red color, just do console.log with:

"\033[31m this will be red \033[91m and this will be normal"

Based on that I've created "colog" extension for Node.js. You can install it using:

npm install colog

Repo and npm: https://github.com/dariuszp/colog

9
  • 1
    I believe the OP does not want to print specific text in a specific color but all Terminal output to be in a different color by default, maybe even black given the white background.
    – cwoebker
    Jul 8, 2013 at 10:42
  • 16
    \033[31m works but \033[91m doesn't. For Ubuntu Terminal it should be \033[0m.
    – Redsandro
    Jan 13, 2014 at 15:49
  • 4
    And octal escapes don't appear to work: error: octal escape sequences "\033[31mServer ready @ #{app.get('port')}\033[91m" are not allowed
    – jcollum
    Feb 13, 2014 at 19:28
  • 4
    \033[0m should be used to turn the text back to normal, not \033[91m
    – mollerhoj
    Aug 18, 2014 at 14:16
  • 1
    This will cause a SyntaxError: Octal literals are not allowed in strict mode. "The issue was caused by ANSI escape code which is a string, not a number (octal literal) that starts with 0, like 0644. In my case the string was '\033[0m'. The solution was to replace it with '\u001b[0m'" - github.com/TypeStrong/ts-node/issues/90#issue-144783379 Aug 26, 2016 at 15:03
54

Color codes are as mentioned

Reset: "\x1b[0m"
Bright: "\x1b[1m"
Dim: "\x1b[2m"
Underscore: "\x1b[4m"
Blink: "\x1b[5m"
Reverse: "\x1b[7m"
Hidden: "\x1b[8m"

FgBlack: "\x1b[30m"
FgRed: "\x1b[31m"
FgGreen: "\x1b[32m"
FgYellow: "\x1b[33m"
FgBlue: "\x1b[34m"
FgMagenta: "\x1b[35m"
FgCyan: "\x1b[36m"
FgWhite: "\x1b[37m"
FgGray: "\x1b[90m"

BgBlack: "\x1b[40m"
BgRed: "\x1b[41m"
BgGreen: "\x1b[42m"
BgYellow: "\x1b[43m"
BgBlue: "\x1b[44m"
BgMagenta: "\x1b[45m"
BgCyan: "\x1b[46m"
BgWhite: "\x1b[47m"
FgGray: "\x1b[100m"

For example if you want to have a Dim, Red text with Blue background you can do it in Javascript like this:

console.log("\x1b[2m", "\x1b[31m", "\x1b[44m", "Sample Text", "\x1b[0m");

The order of the colors and effects seems to not be that important but always remember to reset the colors and effects at the end.

6
  • @Sergey blink also doesn't work for me, seems like it isn't available in Node
    – Sv443
    Dec 7, 2018 at 15:45
  • @Sv443 But it works on the screenshot :) And the question was about Node. I thought it didn't work only in Windows console. What OS do you use?
    – Serg
    Dec 7, 2018 at 16:16
  • 2
    @Sergey I am using Windows and tried in CMD and Powershell and both don't work
    – Sv443
    Dec 7, 2018 at 21:35
  • @Sergey My screenshots are from MacOS terminal application. I believe this is something that your shell application should support. If you're using windows, I would suggest try to install Cygwin and try this on bash. I'm curious to know about this too.
    – Shnd
    Dec 8, 2018 at 19:07
  • @Shnd I'm not sure whether it's the same, but I tried it on git-bash and it didn't work either.
    – Serg
    Dec 27, 2018 at 12:58
48

Emoji

You can use colors for text as others mentioned in their answers.

But you can use emojis instead! for example, you can use⚠️ for warning messages and 🛑 for error messages.

Or simply use these notebooks as a color:

📕: error message
📙: warning message
📗: ok status message
📘: action message
📓: canceled status message
📔: Or anything you like and want to recognize immediately by color

🎁 Bonus:

This method also helps you to quickly scan and find logs directly in the source code.

for example:

console.log('Bring with ❤️ to you from Mojtaba Hosseini');

Some Linux distributions default emoji font may not be colorful by default and you may want to make them colorful, first.


How to open emoji picker?

mac os: control + command + space

windows: win + .

linux: control + . or control + ;

3
  • how to install the Emoji package? Sep 16, 2020 at 12:33
  • @yehonatanyehezkel emoji as in unicode, i.e. just plain characters.
    – urbanhusky
    Sep 28, 2020 at 7:26
  • 3
    TIP: On Win10 you can press [Win] + [.] to open special emoji window :) Mar 17, 2021 at 1:03
38

Per this documentation, you can change the colors based on the data type of the output:

// you'll need the util module
var util = require('util');

// let's look at the defaults: 
util.inspect.styles

{ special: 'cyan',
  number: 'yellow',
  boolean: 'yellow',
  undefined: 'grey',
  null: 'bold',
  string: 'green',
  date: 'magenta',
  regexp: 'red' }

// what are the predefined colors?
util.inspect.colors

{ bold: [ 1, 22 ],
  italic: [ 3, 23 ],
  underline: [ 4, 24 ],
  inverse: [ 7, 27 ],
  white: [ 37, 39 ],
  grey: [ 90, 39 ],
  black: [ 30, 39 ],
  blue: [ 34, 39 ],
  cyan: [ 36, 39 ],
  green: [ 32, 39 ],
  magenta: [ 35, 39 ],
  red: [ 31, 39 ],
  yellow: [ 33, 39 ] }

These appear to be ANSI SGR escape codes, where the first number is the code to emit before the output, and the second number is the code to emit after. So if we look at the chart of ANSI SGR codes on Wikipedia, you'll see that most of these start with a number 30-37 to set the foreground color, and end in 39 to reset to the default foreground color.

So one thing I don't like is how dark some of these are. Especially dates. Go ahead and try new Date() in the console. Dark magenta on black is really hard to read. Let's change that to a light magenta instead.

// first define a new color
util.inspect.colors.lightmagenta = [95,39];

// now assign it to the output for date types
util.inspect.styles.date = 'lightmagenta';

Now when you try new Date(), the output is much more readable.

If you'd like to set colors automatically when launching node, create a script that launches the repl, like this:

// set your colors however desired
var util = require('util');
util.inspect.colors.lightmagenta = [95,39];
util.inspect.styles.date = 'lightmagenta';

// start the repl    
require('repl').start({});

Save this file (for example, init.js), then run node.exe init.js. It will set the colors and launch the node.js command prompt.

(Thanks to loganfsmyth in this answer for the repl idea.)

1
  • This should be the accepted answer. The other ones with the ansi codes are a only a hack.
    – Boiethios
    Nov 30, 2021 at 15:17
36

I found this answer above (https://stackoverflow.com/a/41407246/4808079) very useful, but incomplete. If you only ever wanted to color something once, I guess it'd be fine, but I think sharing it in a runnable functional form is much more applicable to real life use cases.

const Color = {
  Reset: "\x1b[0m",
  Bright: "\x1b[1m",
  Dim: "\x1b[2m",
  Underscore: "\x1b[4m",
  Blink: "\x1b[5m",
  Reverse: "\x1b[7m",
  Hidden: "\x1b[8m",
  
  FgBlack: "\x1b[30m",
  FgRed: "\x1b[31m",
  FgGreen: "\x1b[32m",
  FgYellow: "\x1b[33m",
  FgBlue: "\x1b[34m",
  FgMagenta: "\x1b[35m",
  FgCyan: "\x1b[36m",
  FgWhite: "\x1b[37m",
  FgGray: "\x1b[90m",
  
  BgBlack: "\x1b[40m",
  BgRed: "\x1b[41m",
  BgGreen: "\x1b[42m",
  BgYellow: "\x1b[43m",
  BgBlue: "\x1b[44m",
  BgMagenta: "\x1b[45m",
  BgCyan: "\x1b[46m",
  BgWhite: "\x1b[47m"
  BgGray: "\x1b[100m",
}

function colorString(color, string) {
  return `${color}${string}${Color.Reset}`;
}

function colorLog(color, ...args) {
  console.log(...args.map(
   (it) => typeof it === "string" ? colorString(color, string) : it
  ));
}

Use it like this:

colorLog(Color.FgYellow, "Some Yellow text to console log", { someObj: true });

console.log([
  colorString(Color.FgRed, "red"),
  colorString(Color.FgGreen, "green"),
  colorString(Color.FgBlue, "blue"),
].join(", "));
0
33

If you want to keep it SIMPLE without using any external module / learn new APIs / hacking the core console functions:

const LCERROR = '\x1b[31m%s\x1b[0m'; //red
const LCWARN = '\x1b[33m%s\x1b[0m'; //yellow
const LCINFO = '\x1b[36m%s\x1b[0m'; //cyan
const LCSUCCESS = '\x1b[32m%s\x1b[0m'; //green

const logger = class {
  static error(message, ...optionalParams) { console.error(LCERROR, message, ...optionalParams) }
  static warn(message, ...optionalParams) { console.warn(LCWARN, message, ...optionalParams) }
  static info(message, ...optionalParams) { console.info(LCINFO, message, ...optionalParams) }
  static success(message, ...optionalParams) { console.info(LCSUCCESS, message, ...optionalParams) }
}

// then instead (as presented in the accepted answer)
// console.error(LCERROR, 'Error message in red.');
// you write:

logger.error('Error message in red.');

// or with multiple parameters (only the message will be red):

logger.error('Error message in red.', 1, false, null, {someKey: 'whatever'});

// or use backticks (template literal) instead multiple params:

logger.error(`This will be red as ${foo} and ${bar} too.`);

Now you can use your logger in the same way as you would with console. There's no new API to remember... Normally you would put it into a module (logger.js) and export the class to be able to use it everywhere in your app as const logger = require('./logger');

30

A handy one-liner I wrote for npm scripts that can't have dependencies:

const { r, g, b, w, c, m, y, k } = [
  ['r', 1], ['g', 2], ['b', 4], ['w', 7],
  ['c', 6], ['m', 5], ['y', 3], ['k', 0],
].reduce((cols, col) => ({
  ...cols,  [col[0]]: f => `\x1b[3${col[1]}m${f}\x1b[0m`
}), {})

console.log(`${g('I')} love ${r('Italy')}`)

r,g,b,w,c,m,y,k stands for red, green, blue, white, cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

1
  • 1
    FYI: gray is \x1b[90m${f}\x1b[0m Dec 21, 2022 at 15:48
24

This library by Sindre Sorhus is the best at the moment:

chalk

  • Highly performant
  • Doesn't extend String.prototype
  • Expressive API
  • Ability to nest styles
  • Clean and focused
  • Auto-detects color support
  • Actively maintained
  • Used by 5500+ modules
2
  • 6
    yeah but its another dependency May 10, 2018 at 12:28
  • Don't use this library if you're using jest/ts-jest because compilation raises some annoying to debug issues. You'll end up add all sorts of weird and wonderful adjustments to your config file due to ansi and dynamic imports. IMHO create an abstraction and use a dependency free version. Sep 3, 2022 at 9:46
13

No libraries no complications just simple:

console.log(red('Error!'));

function red(s) {
    return '\033[31m' + s;
}
3
  • 3
    It isn't simple when you find out that it doesn't work with objects the way console handles them, and that it doesn't respect the console stream types or TTY support, which creates further problems. It is just a hack that will bring lots of problems down the road.
    – vitaly-t
    Aug 17, 2017 at 9:45
  • That's what JSON.stringify is for May 10, 2018 at 12:29
  • @wayofthefuture "it doesn't work with objects the way console handles them" means we can expand and collapse the object. Feb 17, 2021 at 0:39
12

For a popular alternative to colors that doesn't mess with the built-in methods of the String object, I recommend checking out cli-color.

Includes both colors and chainable styles such as bold, italic, and underline.

For a comparison of various modules in this category, see here.

10

I overloaded the console methods.

var colors={
Reset: "\x1b[0m",
Red: "\x1b[31m",
Green: "\x1b[32m",
Yellow: "\x1b[33m"
};

var infoLog = console.info;
var logLog = console.log;
var errorLog = console.error;
var warnLog = console.warn;

console.info= function(args)
{
    var copyArgs = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
    copyArgs.unshift(colors.Green);
    copyArgs.push(colors.Reset);
    infoLog.apply(null,copyArgs);
};

console.warn= function(args)
{
    var copyArgs = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
    copyArgs.unshift(colors.Yellow);
    copyArgs.push(colors.Reset);
    warnLog.apply(null,copyArgs);
};
console.error= function(args)
{
    var copyArgs = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
    copyArgs.unshift(colors.Red);
    copyArgs.push(colors.Reset);
    errorLog.apply(null,copyArgs);
};

// examples
console.info("Numeros",1,2,3);
console.warn("pares",2,4,6);
console.error("reiniciandooo");

The output is.

enter image description here

2
  • This doesn't work with the formatting syntax. Example: console.info('Hello %s', 'World!') is supposed to display Hello World!, and not Hello %s World!.
    – vitaly-t
    Aug 17, 2017 at 9:56
  • @vitaly-t try this: it should work.
    – Serg
    Oct 5, 2018 at 17:19
9

I don't want any dependency for this and only these worked for me on OS X. All other samples from answers here gave me Octal literal errors.

Reset = "\x1b[0m"
Bright = "\x1b[1m"
Dim = "\x1b[2m"
Underscore = "\x1b[4m"
Blink = "\x1b[5m"
Reverse = "\x1b[7m"
Hidden = "\x1b[8m"

FgBlack = "\x1b[30m"
FgRed = "\x1b[31m"
FgGreen = "\x1b[32m"
FgYellow = "\x1b[33m"
FgBlue = "\x1b[34m"
FgMagenta = "\x1b[35m"
FgCyan = "\x1b[36m"
FgWhite = "\x1b[37m"
FgGray = "\x1b[90m"

BgBlack = "\x1b[40m"
BgRed = "\x1b[41m"
BgGreen = "\x1b[42m"
BgYellow = "\x1b[43m"
BgBlue = "\x1b[44m"
BgMagenta = "\x1b[45m"
BgCyan = "\x1b[46m"
BgWhite = "\x1b[47m"
BgGray = "\x1b[100m"

source: https://coderwall.com/p/yphywg/printing-colorful-text-in-terminal-when-run-node-js-script

8

Came across this question, and wanted to use some colors on stdout without any dependencies. This combines some of the other great answers here.

Here's what I've got. (Requires node v4 or greater)

// colors.js
const util = require('util')

function colorize (color, text) {
  const codes = util.inspect.colors[color]
  return `\x1b[${codes[0]}m${text}\x1b[${codes[1]}m`
}

function colors () {
  let returnValue = {}
  Object.keys(util.inspect.colors).forEach((color) => {
    returnValue[color] = (text) => colorize(color, text)
  })
  return returnValue
}

module.exports = colors()

Just require the file, then use it like so:

const colors = require('./colors')
console.log(colors.green("I'm green!"))

The predefinied color codes are available here

1
  • 1
    won't work correctly when redirected into a log file, for example.
    – vitaly-t
    Jul 23, 2016 at 2:52
8

There are two ways to look at changing colors for a Node.js console today.

One is through general-purpose libraries that can decorate a text string with color tags, which you then output through the standard console.log.

The top libraries for that today:

And the other way - patching the existing console methods. One such library - manakin lets you automatically set standard colors for all your console methods (log, warn, error and info).

One significant difference from the generic color libraries - it can set colors either globally or locally, while keeping consistent syntax and output format for every Node.js console method, which you then use without having to specify the colors, as they are all set automatically.

I had to change the console background color to white because of eye problems, but the font is gray colored and it makes the messages unreadable. How can I change it?

Specifically for your problem, here's the simplest solution:

var con = require('manakin').global;
con.log.color = 30; // Use black color for console.log

It will set black color for every console.log call in your application. See more color codes.

Default colors as used by manakin:

enter image description here

8

You can create a coloring.ts file and put a set of the following functions in it.

export let bright = (input: any) => '\x1b[1m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let dim = (input: any) => '\x1b[2m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let underscore = (input: any) => '\x1b[4m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let blink = (input: any) => '\x1b[5m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let reverse = (input: any) => '\x1b[7m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let hidden = (input: any) => '\x1b[8m' + input + '\x1b[0m'

export let black = (input: any) => '\x1b[30m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let red = (input: any) => '\x1b[31m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let green = (input: any) => '\x1b[32m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let yellow = (input: any) => '\x1b[33m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let blue = (input: any) => '\x1b[34m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let magenta = (input: any) => '\x1b[35m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let cyan = (input: any) => '\x1b[36m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let white = (input: any) => '\x1b[37m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let gray = (input: any) => '\x1b[90m' + input + '\x1b[0m'

export let bgBlack = (input: any) => '\x1b[40m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgRed = (input: any) => '\x1b[41m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgGreen = (input: any) => '\x1b[42m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgYellow = (input: any) => '\x1b[43m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgBlue = (input: any) => '\x1b[44m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgMagenta = (input: any) => '\x1b[45m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgCyan = (input: any) => '\x1b[46m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgWhite = (input: any) => '\x1b[47m' + input + '\x1b[0m'
export let bgGray = (input: any) => '\x1b[100m' + input + '\x1b[0m'

Then you can use them as follows:

console.log(`${blue('42')}:${yellow('00')}:${magenta('07')}`)

coloring example

7

paint-console

Simple colorable log. Support inspect objects and single line update This package just repaint console.

install

npm install paint-console

usage

require('paint-console');

console.info('console.info();');
console.warn('console.warn();');
console.error('console.error();');
console.log('console.log();');

demo

1
  • Exactly what I needed for a basic script. Thanks Jan 29, 2021 at 21:33
7

This somewhat depends on what platform you are on. The most common way to do this is by printing ANSI escape sequences. For a simple example, here's some python code from the blender build scripts:

// This is a object for use ANSI escape to color the text in the terminal
const bColors = {
    HEADER    : '\033[95m',
    OKBLUE    : '\033[94m',
    OKGREEN   : '\033[92m',
    WARNING   : '\033[93m',
    FAIL      : '\033[91m',
    ENDC      : '\033[0m', 
    BOLD      : '\033[1m',   
    UNDERLINE : '\033[4m'
}

To use code like this, you can do something like

console.log(`${bColors.WARNING} My name is sami ${bColors.ENDC}`)
2
6
var colorSet = {
    Reset: "\x1b[0m",
    Red: "\x1b[31m",
    Green: "\x1b[32m",
    Yellow: "\x1b[33m",
    Blue: "\x1b[34m",
    Magenta: "\x1b[35m"
};

var funcNames = ["info", "log", "warn", "error"];
var colors = [colorSet.Green, colorSet.Blue, colorSet.Yellow, colorSet.Red];

for (var i = 0; i < funcNames.length; i++) {
    let funcName = funcNames[i];
    let color = colors[i];
    let oldFunc = console[funcName];
    console[funcName] = function () {
        var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments);
        if (args.length) {
            args = [color + args[0]].concat(args.slice(1), colorSet.Reset);
        }
        oldFunc.apply(null, args);
    };
}

// Test:
console.info("Info is green.");
console.log("Log is blue.");
console.warn("Warn is orange.");
console.error("Error is red.");
console.info("--------------------");
console.info("Formatting works as well. The number = %d", 123);
6

logger/index.js

const colors = {
    Reset : "\x1b[0m",
    Bright : "\x1b[1m",
    Dim : "\x1b[2m",
    Underscore : "\x1b[4m",
    Blink : "\x1b[5m",
    Reverse : "\x1b[7m",
    Hidden : "\x1b[8m",

    FgBlack : "\x1b[30m",
    FgRed : "\x1b[31m",
    FgGreen : "\x1b[32m",
    FgYellow : "\x1b[33m",
    FgBlue : "\x1b[34m",
    FgMagenta : "\x1b[35m",
    FgCyan : "\x1b[36m",
    FgWhite : "\x1b[37m",

    BgBlack : "\x1b[40m",
    BgRed : "\x1b[41m",
    BgGreen : "\x1b[42m",
    BgYellow : "\x1b[43m",
    BgBlue : "\x1b[44m",
    BgMagenta : "\x1b[45m",
    BgCyan : "\x1b[46m",
    BgWhite : "\x1b[47m",
};

module.exports = () => {
    Object.keys(colors).forEach(key => {
        console['log' + key] = (strg) => {
            if(typeof strg === 'object') strg = JSON.stringify(strg, null, 4);
            return console.log(colors[key]+strg+'\x1b[0m');
        }
    });
}

app.js

require('./logger')();

Then use it like:

console.logBgGreen(" grüner Hintergrund ")
4

Coolors

It's pretty good for use or extend. You can use simply:

var coolors = require('coolors');
console.log(coolors('My cool console log', 'red'));

Or with config:

var coolors = require('coolors');
console.log(coolors('My cool console log', {
   text: 'yellow',
   background: 'red',
   bold: true,
   underline: true,
   inverse: true,
   strikethrough: true
}));

And seems really funny to extend:

var coolors = require('coolors');
function rainbowLog(msg){
    var colorsText = coolors.availableStyles().text;
    var rainbowColors = colorsText.splice(3);
    var lengthRainbowColors = rainbowColors.length;
    var msgInLetters = msg.split('');
    var rainbowEndText = '';
    var i = 0;
    msgInLetters.forEach(function(letter){
        if(letter != ' '){
            if(i === lengthRainbowColors) i = 0;
            rainbowEndText += coolors(letter, rainbowColors[i]);
            i++;
        }else{
            rainbowEndText += ' ';
        }
    });
    return rainbowEndText;
}
coolors.addPlugin('rainbow', rainbowLog);
console.log(coolorsExtended('This its a creative example extending core with a cool rainbown style', 'rainbown'));

View Coolors module

1
  • this won't work in Node.js correctly when redirected into a log file, for example.
    – vitaly-t
    Jul 23, 2016 at 2:56
4

I created my own module, StyleMe. I made it so I can do much with little typing. Example:

var StyleMe = require('styleme');
StyleMe.extend() // extend the string prototype

console.log("gre{Hello} blu{world}!".styleMe()) // Logs hello world! with 'hello' being green, and 'world' being blue with '!' being normal.

It can also be nested:

console.log("This is normal red{this is red blu{this is blue} back to red}".styleMe())

Or, if you dont want to extend the string prototype, you can just any of the 3 other options:

console.log(styleme.red("a string"))
console.log("Hello, this is yellow text".yellow().end())
console.log(styleme.style("some text","red,bbl"))
4

You can also use colorworks.

Usage:

var cw = require('colorworks').create();
console.info(cw.compile('[[red|Red message with a [[yellow|yellow]] word.]]'));

To make life easier, you can also make a function with it.

function say(msg) {
  console.info(cw.compile(msg));
}

Now you can do:

say(`[[yellow|Time spent: [[green|${time}]]ms.]]`);
4

I've made a file in my snippets directory called styles.js, and I think it might help anybody who wants to import a single file.

It's a small modification to the styles.js file of color.js and has helped me a lot.

Here's the file's contents:

// Original: https://github.com/Marak/colors.js/blob/master/lib/styles.js

const styleCodes = {
    // Reset all styles.
    reset: [0, 0],
    
    // Text styles.
    bold: [1, 22],
    dim: [2, 22],
    italic: [3, 23],
    underline: [4, 24],
    inverse: [7, 27],
    hidden: [8, 28],
    strikethrough: [9, 29],
    
    // Foregound classic colours.
    fgBlack: [30, 39],
    fgRed: [31, 39],
    fgGreen: [32, 39],
    fgYellow: [33, 39],
    fgBlue: [34, 39],
    fgMagenta: [35, 39],
    fgCyan: [36, 39],
    fgWhite: [37, 39],
    fgGray: [90, 39],
    
    // Foreground bright colours.
    fgBrightRed: [91, 39],
    fgBrightGreen: [92, 39],
    fgBrightYellow: [93, 39],
    fgBrightBlue: [94, 39],
    fgBrightMagenta: [95, 39],
    fgBrightCyan: [96, 39],
    fgBrightWhite: [97, 39],

    // Background basic colours.
    bgBlack: [40, 49],
    bgRed: [41, 49],
    bgGreen: [42, 49],
    bgYellow: [43, 49],
    bgBlue: [44, 49],
    bgMagenta: [45, 49],
    bgCyan: [46, 49],
    bgWhite: [47, 49],
    bgGray: [100, 49],
    bgGrey: [100, 49],
    
    // Background bright colours.
    bgBrightRed: [101, 49],
    bgBrightGreen: [102, 49],
    bgBrightYellow: [103, 49],
    bgBrightBlue: [104, 49],
    bgBrightMagenta: [105, 49],
    bgBrightCyan: [106, 49],
    bgBrightWhite: [107, 49],
};

// This object will contain the string representation for all style codes.
const styles = {};

// Loop over all the style codes and assign them to the `styles` object.
// 
// The a `styleCode` in the `styleCodes` object consists of two numbers:
// Index 0: The opening style code (In HTML this can be the opening <b> tag).
// Index 1: The closing style code (In HTML this can be the closing </b> tag).
for (let styleCode of Object.keys(styleCodes)) {
    styles[styleCode] = {
        open: `\x1B[${styleCodes[styleCode][0]}m`,
        close: `\x1B[${styleCodes[styleCode][1]}m`,
    };
}

module.exports = styles;

It's actually quite simple to use.

const styles = require("/path/to/styles.js");

// Let's say we've got an error:
const errorOpen = styles.bold.open + styles.bgRed.open + styles.fgWhite.open;
const errorClose = styles.reset.close; // Close everything
console.log(errorOpen, "ERROR", errorClose, ": Missing semicolon at line 9.");
4

2024

You can use the powerful, tiny and fast ansis Node.js lib.

Using named import of colors you can colorize the text in the console output very simply:

import { red, green, black, inverse, reset } from 'ansis';

console.log(green`Hello ${inverse`ANSI`} World!`);
console.log(black.bgYellow`Warning:${reset.cyan` /path/to/file.js`} ${red`not found!`}`);

Output:

enter image description here

The example how to use ANSI 256 colors:

import ansis from 'ansis';

// foreground color
ansis.ansi(96).bold('bold Bright Cyan');

// background color
ansis.bgAnsi(105)('Bright Magenta');

The pre-defined set of 256 colors. enter image description here

The example how to use truecolor, supports for both HEX and RGB format:

import ansis from 'ansis';

// foreground color
ansis.hex('#E0115F').bold('bold Ruby');
ansis.hex('#96C')('Amethyst');
ansis.rgb(224, 17, 95).italic.underline('italic underline Ruby');

// background color
ansis.bgHex('#E0115F')('Ruby');
ansis.bgHex('#96C')('Amethyst');
ansis.bgRgb(224, 17, 95)('Ruby');
0
3

My solution for Typescript

const betterLogColors = {
    bright: '\x1b[1m',
    dim: '\x1b[2m',
    underscore: '\x1b[4m',
    blink: '\x1b[5m',
    reverse: '\x1b[7m',
    hidden: '\x1b[8m',

    black: '\x1b[30m',
    red: '\x1b[31m',
    green: '\x1b[32m',
    yellow: '\x1b[33m',
    blue: '\x1b[34m',
    magenta: '\x1b[35m',
    cyan: '\x1b[36m',
    white: '\x1b[37m',
    gray: '\x1b[90m',

    bgBlack: '\x1b[40m',
    bgRed: '\x1b[41m',
    bgGreen: '\x1b[42m',
    bgYellow: '\x1b[43m',
    bgBlue: '\x1b[44m',
    bgMagenta: '\x1b[45m',
    bgCyan: '\x1b[46m',
    bgWhite: '\x1b[47m',
    bgGray: '\x1b[100m',
}

type ArgSet = [...[keyof typeof betterLogColors, ...any]];

export function ColorLog(...argSets: [string] | ArgSet[]) {
    if (!Array.isArray(argSets[0]))
        return console.log(betterLogColors.bgGreen + '>>' + betterLogColors.bgBlack + argSets[0] + '\x1b[0m')

    console.log(...argSets.map(([color, ...oput]) => betterLogColors[color as keyof typeof betterLogColors] +
        oput.map(t => {
            if (!t || ['bigint', 'boolean', 'number', 'string'].includes(typeof t)) {
                return t;
            } else {
                return JSON.stringify(t, undefined, 1)
            }
        })
        + '\x1b[0m'))
}

Sample Use:

ColorLog(['red', 'this is'], ['green', 'a test'], ['bgRed', ['with', 'an', 'array']])

Quick implementation

ColorLog('Quick simple value')

enter image description here

2

2017:

Simple way, adding time color to the message, you don't need to change your code, use keep your console.log('msg') or console.err('error')

var clc = require("cli-color");
var mapping = {
  log: clc.blue,
  warn: clc.yellow,
  error: clc.red
};

["log", "warn", "error"].forEach(function(method) {
  var oldMethod = console[method].bind(console);
  console[method] = function() {
    oldMethod.apply(
      console,
      [mapping[method](new Date().toISOString())]
      .concat(arguments)
    );
  };
});

enter image description here

0

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