ColoredText

The cutting edge API for colored text formatting in PowerShell environment.

Install

PS> Install-Module ColoredText

Projects using ColoredText:

• Logger.
• Tree.
• Parser.
• Debug.

Features:

• Implemented with the latest powershell 5 features (Classes, Enums, etc.)
• Fully adjustable.
• Tab completion in ISE and Console.
• Unlimited chaining.
• Multithreading support with injectable host.
• Lots of syntactic sugar.
• Simplified syntax for rapid development.
• Advanced API with strong typing, inheritance and extensibility.
• Multiline support.

Disclaimer:

In order to get the most out of color highlighted modules, and enjoy their full potential,
it is highly recommended to use the ConEmu console with the Oceans16 theme!
Also, check out the other numerous themes over there, maybe you'll find one you like even better!

CLI - cprint (colored print)

Smart Tab completion:

The Simplified syntax is primarily intended for Console use, though can be easily used in the regular scripts as well.

You can use each directive for a multiple times in a row to achieve the desired visual effect!
The directives order doesn't matter, it could be:

PS>"Hello World, Let's Rock".Split().Foreach{ cprint black on rainbow $_ lpad rpad print }
PS>-Split "Hello World, Let's Rock" | % { cprint persist white on next $_ print cr}
PS>cprint blue "Some text" on red print
PS>cprint "Some text" lpad rpad blue on red cr print
PS>cprint "Hello World" red print
PS>cprint "Hello World" black on blue print "More text" darkgreen print

Most of the directives are incremental.
You can chain multiple text strings with lots of transformation in a single cprint sequence.

Command	Description
cprint	Starts the chain.
string	Some text string.
lpad	Left padding.
rpad	Right padding.
nopad	Reset paddings.
cr	Carriage return - Line break
print	Terminates the current chain, and outputs the text to console.
reset	Zeroing out the sequence to default: "white on black".
reverse	IN DEVELOPMENT Swaps background with foreground.
persist	Retrieves the previous color settings.
rainbow	Will use the next color from the previous print.
next	Will use the next color from the current state.
-PassThru	Returns ColoredText object - useful for a mixed API usage.

Notice that in console we don't need to escape the single words with quotes!

# Let's print some text
cprint white on darkgreen "hello" print

# Now if you want to print the next line with the same settings
# just use `persist`
cprint persist Hello print

# if you want to print each next word in a different color use `next`
cprint next "Hi there" print lpad next on rainbow "Let's highlight" print

# Try to enter this into console.
# The background would be different each time
cprint black on rainbow "Hello" print

# Should print "Hello World" on red background, but `reset` keyword
# will restore the last word colors to default white on black.
#
cprint black on red Hello print reset lpad World print

$chain = cprint -PassThru black "Some text" on darkmagenta lpad lpad rpad rpad
$chain.paddingCharacter = [Char]0x003

$chain.print().cr()

Escaping

• Double quote " enclosed in a single quotes could be escaped with ' "" '
• Double quote " enclosed in a double quotes could be escaped with " """" "
• Double quote " enclosed in a double quotes could be escaped with grave-accent `"

API

ColoredText Object Initialization!

using module ColoredText

$title = {
    param ($text)

    [ColoredText]$text = (Get-Culture).textInfo.toTitleCase($text)

    [Void]$text.cr().black().on().darkyellow().lpad().rpad().print().cr().cr()
}

$title.invoke('the text would be title cased')

# The text string is optional you can add/change it at any moment in time!

# Initialization Option 1 Type Conversion
[ColoredText]$text = "Hello World"

# Initialization Option 2 Type Conversion
$text = [ColoredText]"Hello World"

# Initialization Option 3 Simple Assignment
$text = New-Object ColoredText "Hello World"

# Initialization Option 4 Hash table
$text = [ColoredText]@{__text="Hello World"}


# You don't have to assign variables
# the anonymous initialization is strongly recommended

([ColoredText]"Hello World")
(New-Object ColoredText "Hello World")
([ColoredText]@{__text="Hello World"})
([ColoredText]::New('Hello World'))

# Or just initialize empty object for the future text manipulations!

([ColoredText]@{})
(New-Object ColoredText)
([ColoredText]::New())
# etc.

After you have an object, initialized with any of the aforementioned methods. This is where all the magic begins:

[ColoredText]$text = "Hello World"

# Custom color
[Void]$text.color([ConsoleColor]::Red).print().cr()

# Color by number
[Void]$text.color(1).print().cr()

$text.lpad().rpad().black().on().darkblue().print().
text('More Text').black().on().darkyellow().print().reset().
text('Special @!#$ Characters').darkmagenta().print().
text('Line break - cr (carriage return)').darkred().nopad().print().cr()