List of ANSI color escape sequences

Question

On most terminals it is possible to colorize output using the \033 ANSI escape sequence.

I'm looking for a list of all supported colors and options (like bright and blinking).

As there are probably differences between the terminals supporting them, I'm mainly interested in sequences supported by xterm-compatible terminals.

Answer 1

When you write a ANSI escape code \033[<color>m, replace the <color> with any of the color codes below. For instance, \033[31m would be red text color:

Color	Example	Text	Background	Bright Text	Bright Background
Black		30	40	90	100
Red		31	41	91	101
Green		32	42	92	102
Yellow		33	43	93	103
Blue		34	44	94	104
Magenta		35	45	95	105
Cyan		36	46	96	106
White		37	47	97	107
Default		39	49	99	109

This is a condensed version of a full table you can find here.

Also, remember to use \033[0m every time you want to revert back to the default terminal text style. Otherwise, any color or styling may spill over and into other terminal messages.

For effects, the codes are:

Effect	On	Off	Example
Bold	1	21
Dim	2	22
Underline	4	24
Blink	5	25
Reverse	7	27
Hide	8	28

I recommend these articles to explore further:

• https://notes.burke.libbey.me/ansi-escape-codes/
• https://www.lihaoyi.com/post/BuildyourownCommandLinewithANSIescapecodes.html

PS: In full disclosure, I'm the author of the Colorist package. Colorist is lightweight and makes it easy to print colorful text in many terminals. Simply install the package with pip install colorist and type:

from colorist import Color

print(f"Only {Color.CYAN}this part{Color.OFF} is in colour")

Moreover, Colorist also supports color defined as RGB, HSL or Hex if your terminal supports advanced ANSI colors:

from colorist import ColorRGB, BgColorRGB

dusty_pink = ColorRGB(194, 145, 164)
bg_steel_blue = BgColorRGB(70, 130, 180)

print(f"I want to use {dusty_pink}dusty pink{dusty_pink.OFF} and {bg_steel_blue}steel blue{bg_steel_blue.OFF} colors inside this paragraph")

from colorist import ColorHSL, BgColorHSL

mustard_green = ColorHSL(60, 56, 43)
bg_steel_gray = BgColorHSL(190, 2, 49)

print(f"I want to use {mustard_green}mustard green{mustard_green.OFF} and {bg_steel_gray}steel blue{bg_steel_gray.OFF} colors inside this paragraph")

from colorist import ColorHex, BgColorHex

watermelon_red = ColorHex("#ff5733")
bg_mint_green = BgColorHex("#99ff99")

print(f"I want to use {watermelon_red}watermelon pink{watermelon_red.OFF} and {bg_mint_green}mint green{bg_mint_green.OFF} colors inside this paragraph")

More options with Colorist:

Answer 2

The ANSI escape sequences you're looking for are the Select Graphic Rendition subset. All of these have the form

\033[XXXm

where XXX is a series of semicolon-separated parameters.

To say, make text red, bold, and underlined (we'll discuss many other options below) in C you might write:

printf("\033[31;1;4mHello\033[0m");

In C++ you'd use

std::cout<<"\033[31;1;4mHello\033[0m";

In Python3 you'd use

print("\033[31;1;4mHello\033[0m")

and in Bash you'd use

echo -e "\033[31;1;4mHello\033[0m"

where the first part makes the text red (31), bold (1), underlined (4) and the last part clears all this (0).

As described in the table below, there are a large number of text properties you can set, such as boldness, font, underlining, &c.

Font Effects

Code	Effect	Note
0	Reset / Normal	all attributes off
1	Bold or increased intensity
2	Faint (decreased intensity)	Not widely supported.
3	Italic	Not widely supported. Sometimes treated as inverse.
4	Underline
5	Slow Blink	less than 150 per minute
6	Rapid Blink	MS-DOS ANSI.SYS; 150+ per minute; not widely supported
7	[[reverse video]]	swap foreground and background colors
8	Conceal	Not widely supported.
9	Crossed-out	Characters legible, but marked for deletion. Not widely supported.
10	Primary(default) font
11–19	Alternate font	Select alternate font n-10
20	Fraktur	hardly ever supported
21	Bold off or Double Underline	Bold off not widely supported; double underline hardly ever supported.
22	Normal color or intensity	Neither bold nor faint
23	Not italic, not Fraktur
24	Underline off	Not singly or doubly underlined
25	Blink off
27	Inverse off
28	Reveal	conceal off
29	Not crossed out
30–37	Set foreground color	See color table below
38	Set foreground color	Next arguments are 5;<n> or 2;<r>;<g>;<b>, see below
39	Default foreground color	implementation defined (according to standard)
40–47	Set background color	See color table below
48	Set background color	Next arguments are 5;<n> or 2;<r>;<g>;<b>, see below
49	Default background color	implementation defined (according to standard)
51	Framed
52	Encircled
53	Overlined
54	Not framed or encircled
55	Not overlined
60	ideogram underline	hardly ever supported
61	ideogram double underline	hardly ever supported
62	ideogram overline	hardly ever supported
63	ideogram double overline	hardly ever supported
64	ideogram stress marking	hardly ever supported
65	ideogram attributes off	reset the effects of all of 60-64
90–97	Set bright foreground color	aixterm (not in standard)
100–107	Set bright background color	aixterm (not in standard)

2-bit Colours

You've got this already!

4-bit Colours

The standards implementing terminal colours began with limited (4-bit) options. The table below lists the RGB values of the background and foreground colours used for these by a variety of terminal emulators:

Using the above, you can make red text on a green background (but why?) using:

\033[31;42m

11 Colours (An Interlude)

In their book "Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution", Brent Berlin and Paul Kay used data collected from twenty different languages from a range of language families to identify eleven possible basic color categories: white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, and gray.

Berlin and Kay found that, in languages with fewer than the maximum eleven color categories, the colors followed a specific evolutionary pattern. This pattern is as follows:

1. All languages contain terms for black (cool colours) and white (bright colours).
2. If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both).
4. If a language contains five terms, then it contains terms for both green and yellow.
5. If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for blue.
6. If a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown.
7. If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains terms for purple, pink, orange or gray.

This may be why story Beowulf only contains the colours black, white, and red. Homer's Odyssey contains black almost 200 times and white about 100 times. Red appears 15 times, while yellow and green appear only 10 times. (More information here)

Differences between languages are also interesting: note the profusion of distinct colour words used by English vs. Chinese. However, digging deeper into these languages shows that each uses colour in distinct ways. (More information)

Generally speaking, the naming, use, and grouping of colours in human languages is fascinating. Now, back to the show.

8-bit (256) colours

Technology advanced, and tables of 256 pre-selected colours became available, as shown below.

Using these above, you can make pink text like so:

\033[38;5;206m     #That is, \033[38;5;<FG COLOR>m

And make an early-morning blue background using

\033[48;5;57m      #That is, \033[48;5;<BG COLOR>m

And, of course, you can combine these:

\033[38;5;206;48;5;57m

The 8-bit colours are arranged like so:

Range	Description
0x00-0x07	standard colors (same as the 4-bit colours)
0x08-0x0F	high intensity colors
0x10-0xE7	6 × 6 × 6 cube (216 colors): 16 + 36 × r + 6 × g + b (0 ≤ r, g, b ≤ 5)
0xE8-0xFF	grayscale from black to white in 24 steps

ALL THE COLOURS

Now we are living in the future, and the full RGB spectrum is available using:

\033[38;2;<r>;<g>;<b>m     #Select RGB foreground color
\033[48;2;<r>;<g>;<b>m     #Select RGB background color

So you can put pinkish text on a brownish background using

\033[38;2;255;82;197;48;2;155;106;0mHello

Support for "true color" terminals is listed here.

Much of the above is drawn from the Wikipedia page "ANSI escape code".

A Handy Script to Remind Yourself

Since I'm often in the position of trying to remember what colours are what, I have a handy script called: ~/bin/ansi_colours:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

for i in range(30, 37 + 1):
    print("\033[%dm%d\t\t\033[%dm%d" % (i, i, i + 60, i + 60))

print("\033[39m\\033[49m                 - Reset color")
print("\\033[2K                          - Clear Line")
print("\\033[<L>;<C>H or \\033[<L>;<C>f  - Put the cursor at line L and column C.")
print("\\033[<N>A                        - Move the cursor up N lines")
print("\\033[<N>B                        - Move the cursor down N lines")
print("\\033[<N>C                        - Move the cursor forward N columns")
print("\\033[<N>D                        - Move the cursor backward N columns\n")
print("\\033[2J                          - Clear the screen, move to (0,0)")
print("\\033[K                           - Erase to end of line")
print("\\033[s                           - Save cursor position")
print("\\033[u                           - Restore cursor position\n")
print("\\033[4m                          - Underline on")
print("\\033[24m                         - Underline off\n")
print("\\033[1m                          - Bold on")
print("\\033[21m                         - Bold off")

This prints

Answer 3

How about:

ECMA-48 - Control Functions for Coded Character Sets, 5th edition (June 1991) - A standard defining the color control codes, that is apparently supported also by xterm.

SGR 38 and 48 were originally reserved by ECMA-48, but were fleshed out a few years later in a joint ITU, IEC, and ISO standard, which comes in several parts and which (amongst a whole lot of other things) documents the SGR 38/48 control sequences for direct colour and indexed colour:

• Information technology — Open Document Architecture (ODA) and interchange format: Document structures. T.412. International Telecommunication Union.
• Information technology — Open Document Architecture (ODA) and interchange format: Character content architectures. T.416. International Telecommunication Union.
• Information technology— Open Document Architecture (ODA) and Interchange Format: Character content architectures. ISO/IEC 8613-6:1994. International Organization for Standardization.

There's a column for xterm in this table on the Wikipedia page for ANSI escape codes

Answer 4

If you're using TCC shell (and this only requires modifying a line or two to work with CMD, since i use %@CHAR, which is TCC-specific), here's a handy script that lets you test most ansi via convenient environment variables. Here's my results with Windows Terminal, which supports a lot, but not all, of this, including double-height and wide lines:

rem ANSI: Initialization 
        rem set up basic beginning of all ansi codes
            set ESCAPE=%@CHAR[27]
            set ANSI_ESCAPE=%@CHAR[27][
                set ANSIESCAPE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%

rem ANSI: special stuff: reset
            set ANSI_RESET=%ANSI_ESCAPE%0m
                set ANSIRESET=%ANSI_RESET%

rem ANSI: special stuff: position save/restore
            set ANSI_POSITION_SAVE=%ESCAPE%7%ANSI_ESCAPE%s                  %+ REM we do this the DEC way, then the SCO way
            set ANSI_POSITION_RESTORE=%ESCAPE%8%ANSI_ESCAPE%u               %+ REM we do this the DEC way, then the SCO way
                set ANSI_SAVE_POSITION=%ANSI_POSITION_SAVE%                
                set ANSI_RESTORE_POSITION=%ANSI_POSITION_RESTORE%          
            set ANSI_POSITION_REQUEST=%ANSI_ESCAPE%6n                       %+ REM request cursor position (reports as ESC[#;#R)
                set ANSI_REQUEST_POSITION=%ANSI_POSITION_REQUEST%

rem ANSI: position movement
        rem To Home
            set ANSI_HOME=%ANSI_ESCAPE%H                                    %+ REM moves cursor to home position (0, 0)
                set ANSI_MOVE_HOME=%ANSI_HOME%
                set ANSI_MOVE_TO_HOME=%ANSI_HOME%

        rem To a specific position
            function ANSI_MOVE_TO_POS1=`%@CHAR[27][%1;%2H`                  %+ rem moves cursor to line #, column #\_____ both work
            function ANSI_MOVE_TO_POS2=`%@CHAR[27][%1;%2f`                  %+ rem moves cursor to line #, column #/
                function ANSI_MOVE_POS=`%@CHAR[27][%1;%2H`                  %+ rem alias
                function ANSI_MOVE=`%@CHAR[27][%1;%2H`                      %+ rem alias
            function ANSI_MOVE_TO_COL=`%@CHAR[27][%1G`                      %+ rem moves cursor to column #
            function ANSI_MOVE_TO_ROW=`%@CHAR[27][%1H`                      %+ rem unfortunately does not preserve column position! not possible! cursor request ansi code return value cannot be captured

        rem Up/Down/Left/Right
            set ANSI_MOVE_UP_1=%ESCAPE%M                                    %+ rem moves cursor one line up, scrolling if needed
                set ANSI_MOVE_UP_ONE=%ANSI_MOVE_UP_1%                       %+ rem alias
            function ANSI_MOVE_UP=`%@CHAR[27][%1A`                          %+ rem moves cursor up # lines
                function ANSI_UP=`%@CHAR[27][%1A`                           %+ rem alias
            function ANSI_MOVE_DOWN=`%@CHAR[27][%1B`                        %+ rem moves cursor down # lines
                function ANSI_DOWN=`%@CHAR[27][%1B`                         %+ rem alias
            function ANSI_MOVE_RIGHT=`%@CHAR[27][%1C`                       %+ rem moves cursor right # columns
                function ANSI_RIGHT=`%@CHAR[27][%1C`                        %+ rem alias
            function ANSI_MOVE_LEFT=`%@CHAR[27][%1D`                        %+ rem moves cursor left # columns
                function ANSI_LEFT=`%@CHAR[27][%1D`                         %+ rem alias

        rem Line-based
            function ANSI_MOVE_LINES_DOWN=`%@CHAR[27][%1E`                  %+ rem moves cursor to beginning of next line, # lines down
            function ANSI_MOVE_LINES_UP=`%@CHAR[27][%1F`                    %+ rem moves cursor to beginning of previous line, # lines up




rem ANIS: colors 
        rem custom rgb colors
             set ANSI_RGB_PREFIX=%ANSI_ESCAPE%38;2;
             set ANSI_RGB_SUFFIX=m
             function ANSI_RGB=`%@CHAR[27][38;2;%1;%2;%3m`
                 function ANSI_FG=`%@CHAR[27][38;2;%1;%2;%3m`               %+ rem alias
                 function ANSI_RGB_FG=`%@CHAR[27][38;2;%1;%2;%3m`           %+ rem alias
                 function ANSI_FG_RGB=`%@CHAR[27][38;2;%1;%2;%3m`           %+ rem alias
             function ANSI_RGB_BG=`%@CHAR[27][48;2;%1;%2;%3m`               
                 function ANSI_BG=`%@CHAR[27][48;2;%1;%2;%3m`               %+ rem alias
                 function ANSI_BG_RGB=`%@CHAR[27][48;2;%1;%2;%3m`           %+ rem alias

        rem Foreground Colors
            set ANSI_BLACK=%ANSI_ESCAPE%30m
            set ANSI_RED=%ANSI_ESCAPE%31m
            set ANSI_GREEN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%32m
            set ANSI_YELLOW=%ANSI_ESCAPE%33m
            set ANSI_BLUE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%34m
            set ANSI_MAGENTA=%ANSI_ESCAPE%35m
            set ANSI_CYAN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%36m
            set ANSI_WHITE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%37m
            set ANSI_GRAY=%ANSI_ESCAPE%90m
            set ANSI_GREY=%ANSI_ESCAPE%90m
            set ANSI_BRIGHT_RED=%ANSI_ESCAPE%91m
            set ANSI_BRIGHT_GREEN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%92m
            set ANSI_BRIGHT_YELLOW=%ANSI_ESCAPE%93m
            set ANSI_BRIGHT_BLUE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%94m
            set ANSI_BRIGHT_MAGENTA=%ANSI_ESCAPE%95m
            set ANSI_BRIGHT_CYAN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%96m
            set ANSI_BRIGHT_WHITE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%97m
        rem Background Colors
            set ANSI_BLACKGROUND_BLACK=%@ANSI_BG[0,0,0]
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BLACK_NON_EXPERIMENTAL=%ANSI_ESCAPE%40m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_RED=%ANSI_ESCAPE%41m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_GREEN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%42m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_YELLOW=%ANSI_ESCAPE%43m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BLUE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%44m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_MAGENTA=%ANSI_ESCAPE%45m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_CYAN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%46m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_WHITE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%47m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_GREY=%ANSI_ESCAPE%100m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_GRAY=%ANSI_ESCAPE%100m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BRIGHT_RED=%ANSI_ESCAPE%101m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BRIGHT_GREEN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%102m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BRIGHT_YELLOW=%ANSI_ESCAPE%103m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BRIGHT_BLUE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%104m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BRIGHT_MAGENTA=%ANSI_ESCAPE%105m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BRIGHT_CYAN=%ANSI_ESCAPE%106m
            set ANSI_BACKGROUND_BRIGHT_WHITE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%107m


REM As of Windows Terminal we can now actually display italic characters
            REM 0m=reset, 1m=bold, 2m=faint, 3m=italic, 4m=underline, 5m=blink slow, 6m=blink fast, 7m=reverse, 8m=conceal, 9m=strikethrough
            set ANSI_BOLD=%ANSI_ESCAPE%1m
            set ANSI_BOLD_ON=%ANSI_BOLD%
            set ANSI_BOLD_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%22m
            set      BOLD_ON=%ANSI_BOLD_ON%
            set      BOLD_OFF=%ANSI_BOLD_OFF%
            set      BOLD=%BOLD_ON%

            set ANSI_FAINT=%ANSI_ESCAPE%2m
            set ANSI_FAINT_ON=%ANSI_FAINT%
            set ANSI_FAINT_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%22m
            set      FAINT_ON=%ANSI_FAINT_ON%
            set      FAINT_OFF=%ANSI_FAINT_OFF%
            set      FAINT=%FAINT_ON%

            set ANSI_ITALICS=%ANSI_ESCAPE%3m
            set ANSI_ITALICS_ON=%ANSI_ITALICS%
            set ANSI_ITALICS_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%23m
            set      ITALICS_ON=%ANSI_ITALICS_ON%
            set      ITALICS_OFF=%ANSI_ITALICS_OFF%
            set      ITALICS=%ITALICS_ON%

            set ANSI_UNDERLINE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%4m
            set ANSI_UNDERLINE_ON=%ANSI_UNDERLINE%
            set ANSI_UNDERLINE_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%24m
            set      UNDERLINE_ON=%ANSI_UNDERLINE_ON%
            set      UNDERLINE_OFF=%ANSI_UNDERLINE_OFF%
            set      UNDERLINE=%UNDERLINE_ON%

            set ANSI_OVERLINE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%53m
            set ANSI_OVERLINE_ON=%ANSI_OVERLINE%
            set ANSI_OVERLINE_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%55m
            set      OVERLINE_ON=%ANSI_OVERLINE_ON%
            set      OVERLINE_OFF=%ANSI_OVERLINE_OFF%
            set      OVERLINE=%OVERLINE_ON%

            set ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%21m
            set ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_ON=%ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE%
            set ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%24m
            set      DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_ON=%ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_ON%
            set      DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_OFF=%ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_OFF%
            set      DOUBLE_UNDERLINE=%DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_ON%

                set ANSI_UNDERLINE_DOUBLE=%ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE%
                set ANSI_UNDERLINE_DOUBLE_ON=%ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_ON%
                set ANSI_UNDERLINE_DOUBLE_OFF=%ANSI_DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_OFF%
                set      UNDERLINE_DOUBLE_ON=%DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_ON%
                set      UNDERLINE_DOUBLE_OFF=%DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_OFF%
                set      UNDERLINE_DOUBLE=%DOUBLE_UNDERLINE%


            set ANSI_BLINK_SLOW=%ANSI_ESCAPE%5m
            set ANSI_BLINK_SLOW_ON=%ANSI_BLINK_SLOW%
            set ANSI_BLINK_SLOW_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%25m
            set      BLINK_SLOW_ON=%ANSI_BLINK_SLOW_ON%
            set      BLINK_SLOW_OFF=%ANSI_BLINK_SLOW_OFF%
            set      BLINK_SLOW=%BLINK_SLOW_ON%

            set ANSI_BLINK_FAST=%ANSI_ESCAPE%6m
            set ANSI_BLINK_FAST_ON=%ANSI_BLINK_FAST%
            set ANSI_BLINK_FAST_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%25m
            set      BLINK_FAST_ON=%ANSI_BLINK_FAST_ON%
            set      BLINK_FAST_OFF=%ANSI_BLINK_FAST_OFF%
            set      BLINK_FAST=%BLINK_FAST_ON%

            set ANSI_BLINK=%ANSI_BLINK_FAST%
            set ANSI_BLINK_ON=%ANSI_BLINK_FAST_ON%
            set ANSI_BLINK_OFF=%ANSI_BLINK_FAST_OFF%
            set      BLINK_ON=%ANSI_BLINK_ON%
            set      BLINK_OFF=%ANSI_BLINK_OFF%
            set      BLINK=%BLINK_ON%

            set ANSI_REVERSE=%ANSI_ESCAPE%7m
            set ANSI_REVERSE_ON=%ANSI_REVERSE%
            set ANSI_REVERSE_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%27m
            set      REVERSE_ON=%ANSI_REVERSE_ON%
            set      REVERSE_OFF=%ANSI_REVERSE_OFF%
            set      REVERSE=%REVERSE_ON%

            set ANSI_CONCEAL=%ANSI_ESCAPE%8m
            set ANSI_CONCEAL_ON=%ANSI_CONCEAL%
            set ANSI_CONCEAL_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%28m
            set      CONCEAL_ON=%ANSI_CONCEAL_ON%
            set      CONCEAL_OFF=%ANSI_CONCEAL_OFF%
            set      CONCEAL=%CONCEAL_ON%

            set ANSI_STRIKETHROUGH=%ANSI_ESCAPE%9m
            set ANSI_STRIKETHROUGH_ON=%ANSI_STRIKETHROUGH%
            set ANSI_STRIKETHROUGH_OFF=%ANSI_ESCAPE%29m
            set      STRIKETHROUGH_ON=%ANSI_STRIKETHROUGH_ON%
            set      STRIKETHROUGH_OFF=%ANSI_STRIKETHROUGH_OFF%
            set      STRIKETHROUGH=%STRIKETHROUGH_ON%
                set OVERSTRIKE_ON=%STRIKETHROUGH_ON%
                set OVERSTRIKE_OFF=%STRIKETHROUGH_OFF%
                set OVERSTRIKE=%OVERSTRIKE_ON%


REM wow it even supports the vt100 2-line-tall text!
            set BIG_TEXT_LINE_1=%ESCAPE%#3
            set BIG_TEXT_LINE_2=%ESCAPE%#4
            set WIDE=%ESCAPE%#6
                set WIDE_ON=%WIDE%
                set WIDELINE=%WIDE%
                set WIDE_LINE=%WIDE%
                set WIDE_OFF=%ESCAPE%#5
            set BIG_TOP=%BIG_TEXT_LINE_1%
            set BIG_TOP_ON=%BIG_TOP%
            set BIG_BOT=%BIG_TEXT_LINE_2%
            set BIG_BOT_ON=%BIG_BOT%
            set BIG_BOTTOM=%BIG_BOT%
            set BIG_BOTTOM_ON=%BIG_BOTTOM%
            REM this is a guess:
            set BIG_TEXT_END=%ESCAPE%#0
            set BIG_OFF=%BIG_TEXT_END%
            set BIG_TOP_OFF=%BIG_OFF%
            set BIG_BOT_OFF=%BIG_OFF%


REM test strings that demonstrate all this ANSI functionality
        set ANSI_TEST_STRING=concealed:'%CONCEAL%conceal%CONCEAL_off%' %ANSI_RED%R%ANSI_ORANGE%O%ANSI_YELLOW%Y%ANSI_GREEN%G%ANSI_CYAN%C%ANSI_BLUE%B%ANSI_MAGENTA%V%ANSI_WHITE% Hello, world. %BOLD%Bold!%BOLD_OFF% %FAINT%Faint%FAINT_OFF% %ITALICS%Italics%ITALIC_OFF% %UNDERLINE%underline%UNDERLINE_OFF% %OVERLINE%overline%OVERLINE_OFF% %DOUBLE_UNDERLINE%double_underline%DOUBLE_UNDERLINE_OFF% %REVERSE%reverse%REVERSE_OFF% %BLINK_SLOW%blink_slow%BLINK_SLOW_OFF% [non-blinking] %BLINK_FAST%blink_fast%BLINK_FAST_OFF% [non-blinking] %blink%blink_default%blink_off% [non-blinking] %STRIKETHROUGH%strikethrough%STRIKETHROUGH_OFF%
        set ANSI_TEST_STRING_2=%BIG_TEXT_LINE_1%big% %ANSI_RESET% Normal One
        set ANSI_TEST_STRING_3=%BIG_TEXT_LINE_2%big% %ANSI_RESET% Normal Two
        set ANSI_TEST_STRING_4=%WIDE_LINE%A wide line!

if "%1" eq "test" (
    echo %ANSI_TEST_STRING%
    echo %ANSI_TEST_STRING_2%
    echo %ANSI_TEST_STRING_3%
    echo %ANSI_TEST_STRING_4%
)



REM unrelated to colors, but nice-to-have variables:
        set QUOTE=%@CHAR[34]  
        set TAB=%CHAR[9]
        set NEWLINE=%@CHAR[12]%@CHAR[13]

Answer 5

Here is some code that shows all escape sequences that have to do with color. You might need to get the actual escape character in order for the code to work.

@echo off
:top
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
pause > nul
goto top

Answer 6

It's related absolutely to your terminal. VTE doesn't support blink, If you use gnome-terminal, tilda, guake, terminator, xfce4-terminal and so on according to VTE, you won't have blink.
If you use or want to use blink on VTE, you have to use xterm.
You can use infocmp command with terminal name:

#infocmp vt100
#infocmp xterm
#infocmp vte

For example :

# infocmp vte
#   Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/share/terminfo/v/vte
vte|VTE aka GNOME Terminal,
    am, bce, mir, msgr, xenl,
    colors#8, cols#80, it#8, lines#24, ncv#16, pairs#64,
    acsc=``aaffggiijjkkllmmnnooppqqrrssttuuvvwwxxyyzz{{||}}~~,
    bel=^G, bold=\E[1m, civis=\E[?25l, clear=\E[H\E[2J,
    cnorm=\E[?25h, cr=^M, csr=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dr,
    cub=\E[%p1%dD, cub1=^H, cud=\E[%p1%dB, cud1=^J,
    cuf=\E[%p1%dC, cuf1=\E[C, cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH,
    cuu=\E[%p1%dA, cuu1=\E[A, dch=\E[%p1%dP, dch1=\E[P,
    dim=\E[2m, dl=\E[%p1%dM, dl1=\E[M, ech=\E[%p1%dX, ed=\E[J,
    el=\E[K, enacs=\E)0, home=\E[H, hpa=\E[%i%p1%dG, ht=^I,
    hts=\EH, il=\E[%p1%dL, il1=\E[L, ind=^J, invis=\E[8m,
    is2=\E[m\E[?7h\E[4l\E>\E7\E[r\E[?1;3;4;6l\E8,
    kDC=\E[3;2~, kEND=\E[1;2F, kHOM=\E[1;2H, kIC=\E[2;2~,
    kLFT=\E[1;2D, kNXT=\E[6;2~, kPRV=\E[5;2~, kRIT=\E[1;2C,
    kb2=\E[E, kbs=\177, kcbt=\E[Z, kcub1=\EOD, kcud1=\EOB,
    kcuf1=\EOC, kcuu1=\EOA, kdch1=\E[3~, kend=\EOF, kf1=\EOP,
    kf10=\E[21~, kf11=\E[23~, kf12=\E[24~, kf13=\E[1;2P,
    kf14=\E[1;2Q, kf15=\E[1;2R, kf16=\E[1;2S, kf17=\E[15;2~,
    kf18=\E[17;2~, kf19=\E[18;2~, kf2=\EOQ, kf20=\E[19;2~,
    kf21=\E[20;2~, kf22=\E[21;2~, kf23=\E[23;2~,
    kf24=\E[24;2~, kf25=\E[1;5P, kf26=\E[1;5Q, kf27=\E[1;5R,
    kf28=\E[1;5S, kf29=\E[15;5~, kf3=\EOR, kf30=\E[17;5~,
    kf31=\E[18;5~, kf32=\E[19;5~, kf33=\E[20;5~,
    kf34=\E[21;5~, kf35=\E[23;5~, kf36=\E[24;5~,
    kf37=\E[1;6P, kf38=\E[1;6Q, kf39=\E[1;6R, kf4=\EOS,
    kf40=\E[1;6S, kf41=\E[15;6~, kf42=\E[17;6~,
    kf43=\E[18;6~, kf44=\E[19;6~, kf45=\E[20;6~,
    kf46=\E[21;6~, kf47=\E[23;6~, kf48=\E[24;6~,
    kf49=\E[1;3P, kf5=\E[15~, kf50=\E[1;3Q, kf51=\E[1;3R,
    kf52=\E[1;3S, kf53=\E[15;3~, kf54=\E[17;3~,
    kf55=\E[18;3~, kf56=\E[19;3~, kf57=\E[20;3~,
    kf58=\E[21;3~, kf59=\E[23;3~, kf6=\E[17~, kf60=\E[24;3~,
    kf61=\E[1;4P, kf62=\E[1;4Q, kf63=\E[1;4R, kf7=\E[18~,
    kf8=\E[19~, kf9=\E[20~, kfnd=\E[1~, khome=\EOH,
    kich1=\E[2~, kind=\E[1;2B, kmous=\E[M, knp=\E[6~,
    kpp=\E[5~, kri=\E[1;2A, kslt=\E[4~, meml=\El, memu=\Em,
    op=\E[39;49m, rc=\E8, rev=\E[7m, ri=\EM, ritm=\E[23m,
    rmacs=^O, rmam=\E[?7l, rmcup=\E[2J\E[?47l\E8, rmir=\E[4l,
    rmkx=\E[?1l\E>, rmso=\E[m, rmul=\E[m, rs1=\Ec,
    rs2=\E7\E[r\E8\E[m\E[?7h\E[!p\E[?1;3;4;6l\E[4l\E>\E[?1000l\E[?25h,
    sc=\E7, setab=\E[4%p1%dm, setaf=\E[3%p1%dm,
    sgr=\E[0%?%p6%t;1%;%?%p2%t;4%;%?%p5%t;2%;%?%p7%t;8%;%?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;m%?%p9%t\016%e\017%;,
    sgr0=\E[0m\017, sitm=\E[3m, smacs=^N, smam=\E[?7h,
    smcup=\E7\E[?47h, smir=\E[4h, smkx=\E[?1h\E=, smso=\E[7m,
    smul=\E[4m, tbc=\E[3g, u6=\E[%i%d;%dR, u7=\E[6n,
    u8=\E[?%[;0123456789]c, u9=\E[c, vpa=\E[%i%p1%dd,

Answer 7

For these who don't get proper results other than mentioned languages, if you're using C# to print a text into console(terminal) window you should replace "\033" with "\x1b". In Visual Basic it would be Chrw(27).