Colorizing text in the console with C++

ANSI escape color codes :

Name            FG  BG
Black           30  40
Red             31  41
Green           32  42
Yellow          33  43
Blue            34  44
Magenta         35  45
Cyan            36  46
White           37  47
Bright Black    90  100
Bright Red      91  101
Bright Green    92  102
Bright Yellow   93  103
Bright Blue     94  104
Bright Magenta  95  105
Bright Cyan     96  106
Bright White    97  107

Sample code for C/C++ :

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main(int argc, char ** argv){
    
    printf("\n");
    printf("\x1B[31mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[32mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[33mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[34mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[35mTexting\033[0m\n");
    
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[37mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[93mTexting\033[0m\n");
    
    printf("\033[3;42;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;43;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;44;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;104;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;100;30mTexting\033[0m\n");

    printf("\033[3;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[2;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[1;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\t\t");
    printf("\n");

    return 0;
}

GCC :

g++ cpp_interactive_terminal.cpp -o cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi
chmod +x cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi
./cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi

Add a little Color to your Console Text

  HANDLE hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
  // you can loop k higher to see more color choices
  for(int k = 1; k < 255; k++)
  {
    // pick the colorattribute k you want
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, k);
    cout << k << " I want to be nice today!" << endl;
  }

Character Attributes Here is how the "k" value be interpreted.

I've found header-only open-source C++ library working on multiple platforms: https://github.com/imfl/color-console

Color Console:

A lightweight header-only C++ library to bring colors to your Windows console with a very-easy-to-use API that frees you from the burden of setting and resetting screen colors every time you make a call.

#include "../include/color.hpp"
#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::cout << dye::aqua("Hello, World!") << std::endl;
    return 0; } 

You are seeing Hello, World! in aqua.

Why Use It?

No need to reset: most solutions on the market work like manipulators, which constantly require you to reset the screen color after you set it. While this traditional approach is also offered in this library in the hue namespace ...

tabulate:

If You want not only to change colors but print text in more readable form (e.g. in form of tabular) it is also https://github.com/p-ranav/tabulate which can change colors and draw tables in console.

tabulate is a header-only library. Just add include/ to your include_directories and you should be good to go. A single header file version is also available in single_include/. NOTE Tabulate supports >=C++11.

Standard C++ has no notion of 'colors'. So what you are asking depends on the operating system.

For Windows, you can check out the SetConsoleTextAttribute function.

On *nix, you have to use the ANSI escape sequences.