Effects in ANSI Escape Codes#

Structure#

For effects and text styling, the escape codes are similar to the standard colors.

For example, the sequence \x1b[4m for underlined styling can be broken down into the following parts:

Part	`\x1b[`	`4`	`m`
Description	Starts sequence, also called the Control Sequence Introducer (CSI).	Effect on or off, respectively between 1-8 or 21-28.	Ends sequence and calls the graphics function Select Graphic Rendition (SGR).

Cheat Sheet#

Effect	On	Escape Code	Off	Escape Code	Output Example
Bold	1	`\x1b[1m`	21	`\x1b[21m`	`This is BOLD`
Dim	2	`\x1b[2m`	22	`\x1b[22m`	`This is DIMMED`
Underline	4	`\x1b[4m`	24	`\x1b[24m`	`This is UNDERLINED`
Blink	5	`\x1b[5m`	25	`\x1b[25m`	`This is BLINKING`
Reverse	7	`\x1b[7m`	27	`\x1b[27m`	`This is REVERSED`
Hide	8	`\x1b[7m`	28	`\x1b[28m`	`This is HIDDEN`

Different Color Schemes in Different Terminals

Most terminals apply different color schemes so \x1b[31m or Color.RED won't produce the exact same screen color of red. Some straight, others with an orange tint. For further reading, refer to this list of common terminals and their color schemes.

Examples#

For example, \x1b[4m is underlined text, and \x1b[24m turns off the underline effect. When wrapped in a print statement, you can write this:

Python

print("This is \x1b[1mUNDERLINED\x1b[21m text")

How it appears in the terminal:

% This is UNDERLINED text

Another example with blinking text:

Python

print("This is \x1b[5mBLINKING\x1b[25m text")

How it appears in the terminal:

% This is BLINKING text

How to Use Effects with Colorist

Instead of using raw ANSI escape codes, it's convenient to use Colorist to generate them while keeping the code readable.

Simply use the Effect class for effects and styling. For example:

Python
from colorist import Effect

print(f"This is {Effect.UNDERLINE}UNDERLINED{Effect.OFF} text")
print(f"This is {Effect.BLINK}BLINKING{Effect.BLINK} text")

How it appears in the terminal:

% This is UNDERLINED text
% This is BLINKING text