How to echo with different colors in the Windows command line [closed]
Solution 1:
I wanted to to print one single line in a different color.
Use ANSI Escape Sequences.
Windows before 10 - no native support for ANSI colors on the console
For Windows version below 10, the Windows command console doesn't support output coloring by default. You could install either Cmder, ConEmu, ANSICON or Mintty (used by default in GitBash and Cygwin) to add coloring support to your Windows command console.
Windows 10 - Command Line Colors
Starting from Windows 10 the Windows console support ANSI Escape Sequences and some colors by default. The feature shipped with the Threshold 2 Update in Nov 2015.
MSDN Documentation
Update (05-2019): The ColorTool enables you to change the color scheme of the console. It's part of the Microsoft Terminal project.
Demo
Batch Command
The win10colors.cmd was written by Michele Locati:
The text below is stripped of special characters and will not work. You must copy it from here.
@echo off
cls
echo [101;93m STYLES [0m
echo ^<ESC^>[0m [0mReset[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[1m [1mBold[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[4m [4mUnderline[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[7m [7mInverse[0m
echo.
echo [101;93m NORMAL FOREGROUND COLORS [0m
echo ^<ESC^>[30m [30mBlack[0m (black)
echo ^<ESC^>[31m [31mRed[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[32m [32mGreen[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[33m [33mYellow[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[34m [34mBlue[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[35m [35mMagenta[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[36m [36mCyan[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[37m [37mWhite[0m
echo.
echo [101;93m NORMAL BACKGROUND COLORS [0m
echo ^<ESC^>[40m [40mBlack[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[41m [41mRed[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[42m [42mGreen[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[43m [43mYellow[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[44m [44mBlue[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[45m [45mMagenta[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[46m [46mCyan[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[47m [47mWhite[0m (white)
echo.
echo [101;93m STRONG FOREGROUND COLORS [0m
echo ^<ESC^>[90m [90mWhite[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[91m [91mRed[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[92m [92mGreen[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[93m [93mYellow[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[94m [94mBlue[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[95m [95mMagenta[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[96m [96mCyan[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[97m [97mWhite[0m
echo.
echo [101;93m STRONG BACKGROUND COLORS [0m
echo ^<ESC^>[100m [100mBlack[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[101m [101mRed[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[102m [102mGreen[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[103m [103mYellow[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[104m [104mBlue[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[105m [105mMagenta[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[106m [106mCyan[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[107m [107mWhite[0m
echo.
echo [101;93m COMBINATIONS [0m
echo ^<ESC^>[31m [31mred foreground color[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[7m [7minverse foreground ^<-^> background[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[7;31m [7;31minverse red foreground color[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[7m and nested ^<ESC^>[31m [7mbefore [31mnested[0m
echo ^<ESC^>[31m and nested ^<ESC^>[7m [31mbefore [7mnested[0m
Solution 2:
This is a self-compiled bat/.net hybrid (should be saved as .BAT) that can be used on any system that have installed .net framework (it's a rare thing to see an windows without .NET framework even for the oldest XP/2003 installations) . It uses jscript.net compiler to create an exe capable to print strings with different background/foreground color only for the current line.
@if (@X)==(@Y) @end /* JScript comment
@echo off
setlocal
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%v in ('dir /b /s /a:-d /o:-n "%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\*jsc.exe"') do (
set "jsc=%%v"
)
if not exist "%~n0.exe" (
"%jsc%" /nologo /out:"%~n0.exe" "%~dpsfnx0"
)
%~n0.exe %*
endlocal & exit /b %errorlevel%
*/
import System;
var arguments:String[] = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
var newLine = false;
var output = "";
var foregroundColor = Console.ForegroundColor;
var backgroundColor = Console.BackgroundColor;
var evaluate = false;
var currentBackground=Console.BackgroundColor;
var currentForeground=Console.ForegroundColor;
//http://stackoverflow.com/a/24294348/388389
var jsEscapes = {
'n': '\n',
'r': '\r',
't': '\t',
'f': '\f',
'v': '\v',
'b': '\b'
};
function decodeJsEscape(_, hex0, hex1, octal, other) {
var hex = hex0 || hex1;
if (hex) { return String.fromCharCode(parseInt(hex, 16)); }
if (octal) { return String.fromCharCode(parseInt(octal, 8)); }
return jsEscapes[other] || other;
}
function decodeJsString(s) {
return s.replace(
// Matches an escape sequence with UTF-16 in group 1, single byte hex in group 2,
// octal in group 3, and arbitrary other single-character escapes in group 4.
/\\(?:u([0-9A-Fa-f]{4})|x([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})|([0-3][0-7]{0,2}|[4-7][0-7]?)|(.))/g,
decodeJsEscape);
}
function printHelp( ) {
print( arguments[0] + " -s string [-f foreground] [-b background] [-n] [-e]" );
print( " " );
print( " string String to be printed" );
print( " foreground Foreground color - a " );
print( " number between 0 and 15." );
print( " background Background color - a " );
print( " number between 0 and 15." );
print( " -n Indicates if a new line should" );
print( " be written at the end of the ");
print( " string(by default - no)." );
print( " -e Evaluates special character " );
print( " sequences like \\n\\b\\r and etc ");
print( "" );
print( "Colors :" );
for ( var c = 0 ; c < 16 ; c++ ) {
Console.BackgroundColor = c;
Console.Write( " " );
Console.BackgroundColor=currentBackground;
Console.Write( "-"+c );
Console.WriteLine( "" );
}
Console.BackgroundColor=currentBackground;
}
function errorChecker( e:Error ) {
if ( e.message == "Input string was not in a correct format." ) {
print( "the color parameters should be numbers between 0 and 15" );
Environment.Exit( 1 );
} else if (e.message == "Index was outside the bounds of the array.") {
print( "invalid arguments" );
Environment.Exit( 2 );
} else {
print ( "Error Message: " + e.message );
print ( "Error Code: " + ( e.number & 0xFFFF ) );
print ( "Error Name: " + e.name );
Environment.Exit( 666 );
}
}
function numberChecker( i:Int32 ){
if( i > 15 || i < 0 ) {
print("the color parameters should be numbers between 0 and 15");
Environment.Exit(1);
}
}
if ( arguments.length == 1 || arguments[1].toLowerCase() == "-help" || arguments[1].toLowerCase() == "-help" ) {
printHelp();
Environment.Exit(0);
}
for (var arg = 1; arg <= arguments.length-1; arg++ ) {
if ( arguments[arg].toLowerCase() == "-n" ) {
newLine=true;
}
if ( arguments[arg].toLowerCase() == "-e" ) {
evaluate=true;
}
if ( arguments[arg].toLowerCase() == "-s" ) {
output=arguments[arg+1];
}
if ( arguments[arg].toLowerCase() == "-b" ) {
try {
backgroundColor=Int32.Parse( arguments[arg+1] );
} catch(e) {
errorChecker(e);
}
}
if ( arguments[arg].toLowerCase() == "-f" ) {
try {
foregroundColor=Int32.Parse(arguments[arg+1]);
} catch(e) {
errorChecker(e);
}
}
}
Console.BackgroundColor = backgroundColor ;
Console.ForegroundColor = foregroundColor ;
if ( evaluate ) {
output=decodeJsString(output);
}
if ( newLine ) {
Console.WriteLine(output);
} else {
Console.Write(output);
}
Console.BackgroundColor = currentBackground;
Console.ForegroundColor = currentForeground;
Here's the help message:
Example:
coloroutput.bat -s "aa\nbb\n\u0025cc" -b 10 -f 3 -n -e
You can also find this script here.
You can also check carlos' color function -> http://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4453