Color my text

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FAQ > How do I... (Level 2) > Color my text

This item was added on: 2003/03/22

This is a highly system dependent question. Using DOS, or a compiler with the textcolor function, you can use something like this:


#include <stdio.h> 
#include <conio.h> 

int main ( void )
{
  textcolor ( MAGENTA );
  cprintf ( "This is a test\n" );

  return 0;
}

The different color codes are


0   BLACK
1   BLUE
2   GREEN
3   CYAN
4   RED
5   MAGENTA
6   BROWN
7   LIGHTGRAY
8   DARKGRAY
9   LIGHTBLUE
10  LIGHTGREEN
11  LIGHTCYAN
12  LIGHTRED
13  LIGHTMAGENTA
14  YELLOW
15  WHITE

On Windows systems a Win32 API approach should be preferred:


#include <stdio.h> 
#include <windows.h> 

int main ( void )
{
  HANDLE h = GetStdHandle ( STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE );
  WORD wOldColorAttrs;
  CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbiInfo; 
  
  /*
   * First save the current color information
   */
  GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(h, &csbiInfo);
  wOldColorAttrs = csbiInfo.wAttributes; 
  
  /*
   * Set the new color information
   */
  SetConsoleTextAttribute ( h, FOREGROUND_RED | FOREGROUND_INTENSITY );
  
  printf ( "This is a test\n" );

  /*
   * Restore the original colors
   */
  SetConsoleTextAttribute ( h, wOldColorAttrs);
  return 0;
}

The color constants are


FOREGROUND_BLUE
FOREGROUND_GREEN
FOREGROUND_RED
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY

On systems that support curses, that approach can be used as well:


#include <curses.h> 

int main ( void )
{
  initscr();

  if ( start_color() == OK ) {
    init_pair ( 1, COLOR_RED, COLOR_BLACK );

    attron ( COLOR_PAIR ( 1 ) );
    addstr ( "This is a test" );

    getch();
  }

  endwin();

  return 0;
}

The color constants for curses are


COLOR_BLACK
COLOR_RED
COLOR_GREEN
COLOR_YELLOW
COLOR_BLUE
COLOR_MAGENTA
COLOR_CYAN
COLOR_WHITE

Credit: Prelude

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