Wrapper over ANSI ESC Codes

It is a headeronly library that adds color and visual effects to text in terminals.
Currently, the library supports only Graphics Mode and colors for Foreground and Background.

Note: Some terminals may not support some of the graphic mode sequences.

Output

operator<<

The << operator is overloaded for each enumeration, so you can write like this.

std::cout << tf::TextColor::GREEN << "GREEN_TEXT";

setTextParam

For convenience, there is a setTextParam output manipulator, it accepts 1+ text parameters (they are described below).

std::cout << tf::setTextParams(tf::TextStyle::BOLD) << "BOLD_TEXT";

If you have 2 or more text parameters, always use setTextParams.

Note: if there are 2 color parameters in the parameters, then only the last one is used.
Example: tf::setTextParams(tf::TextColor::YELLOW, tf::TextColor::GREEN) the output text will be green.

reset

There is also a reset manipulator that removes all set styles.

std::cout << tf::setTextParams(tf::TextColor::YELLOW) << "YELLOW_TEXT" << tf::reset << " DEFAULT_TEXT";

Note: based on some tests, it was found out that \n is better to use after applying tf::reset.

Graphics Mode

Enable graphics mode:

  tf::TextStyle::BOLD 
  tf::TextStyle::DIM
  tf::TextStyle::ITALIC
  tf::TextStyle::UNDERLINE
  tf::TextStyle::BLINKING 
  tf::TextStyle::INVERSE
  tf::TextStyle::HIDDEN 
  tf::TextStyle::STRIKETHROUGH 

Disable graphics mode:

  tf::TextStyle::NO_BOLD
  tf::TextStyle::NO_DIM
  tf::TextStyle::NO_ITALIC
  tf::TextStyle::NO_UNDERLINE
  tf::TextStyle::NO_BLINKING
  tf::TextStyle::NO_INVERSE
  tf::TextStyle::NO_HIDDEN
  tf::TextStyle::NO_STRIKETHROUGH

Example:

std::cout << tf::setTextParams(tf::TextStyle::BOLD) << "BOLD_TEXT" << tf::reset;
std::cout << tf::TextStyle::BLINKING << "BLINKING_TEXT" << tf::TextStyle::NO_BLINKING;

Colors

Foreground colors

You can choose the same term (they have common meanings).

    tf::TextColor::BLACK
    tf::TextColor::RED
    tf::TextColor::GREEN
    tf::TextColor::YELLOW
    tf::TextColor::BLUE
    tf::TextColor::MAGENTA
    tf::TextColor::CYAN
    tf::TextColor::WHITE

Terminals that support the aixterm specification provides bright versions of the ISO colors, without the need to use the bold modifier.

    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_BLACK
    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_RED
    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_GREEN
    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_YELLOW
    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_BLUE
    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_MAGENTA
    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_CYAN
    tf::TextColor::BRIGHT_WHITE

To disable the color, use tf::textColor::DEFAULT or tf::reset for the << operator.

Example:

std::cout << tf::setTextParams(tf::TextStyle::BLACK) << "BLACK_TEXT" << tf::reset;
std::cout << tf::TextStyle::BRIGHT_GREEN << "BRIGHT_GREEN_TEXT" << tf::TextStyle::DEFAULT;

Background colors

Similarly to textColor, you can use colors for the Background.

    tf::BackgroundColor::BLACK
    tf::BackgroundColor::RED
    tf::BackgroundColor::GREEN
    tf::BackgroundColor::YELLOW
    tf::BackgroundColor::BLUE
    tf::BackgroundColor::MAGENTA
    tf::BackgroundColor::CYAN
    tf::BackgroundColor::WHITE

And bright version

    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_BLACK
    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_RED
    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_GREEN
    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_YELLOW
    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_BLUE
    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_MAGENTA
    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_CYAN
    tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_WHITE

To disable the background color, use tf::BackgroundColor::DEFAULT or tf::reset for the << operator.

Example:

std::cout << tf::setTextParams(tf::BackgroundColor::GREEN) << "TEXT_ON_GREEN_BACKGROUND" << tf::reset;
std::cout << tf::BackgroundColor::BRIGHT_MAGENTA << "TEXT_ON_BRIGHT_MAGENTA_BACKGROUND" << tf::BackgroundColor::DEFAULT;

256 colors

The terminals also support 8-bit colors (256 Colors [0-255]). The setTextParam manipulator is used for this.
To set the foreground color, the colors are defined as positive, to set the background color, the same color values are used, but negative.

Example:

std::cout << tf::setTextParams(45) << "FOR_FOREGROUND" << tf::reset;
std::cout << tf::setTextParams(-45) << "FOR_BACKGROUND" << tf::reset;

Demo

Using cmake, you can build a demo code.

mkdir build 
cd ./build
cmake ..
cmake --build . --target console_formatter