So in the search of finding a simple solution for printing colored text in python, it took me some time to dig up. Most solutions people have done were using curses or some modules. My ultimate intention has always been to cut down on the dependency on the 3rd party modules.
I think the ANSI Color Codes would be good enough for my requirements to print colored text on an ANSI compliant terminal.
The ANSI Terminal Specification gives programs the ability to change the
text color or background color.
An ansi code begins with the ESC character [^ (ascii 27) followed by a
number (or 2 or more separated by a semicolon) and a letter.
In the case of colour codes, the trailing letter is " m “…
So as an example, we have ESC[31m … this will change the foreground colour to red.
The codes are as follows:
For Foreground Colors _
1m - Hicolour (bold) mode
4m - Underline (doesn’t seem to work)
5m - BLINK!!
8m - Hidden (same colour as bg)
30m - Black
31m - Red
32m - Green
33m - Yellow
34m - Blue
35m - Magenta
36m - Cyan
37m - White_
For Background Colors
_40m - Change Background to Black
41m - Red
42m - Green
43m - Yellow
44m - Blue
45m - Magenta
46m - Cyan
47m - White
_
7m - Change to Black text on a White bg
0m - Turn off all attributes.
Now for example, say I wanted blinking, yellow text on a magenta background… I’d type ESC[45;33;5m
This isn’t a complete list of features provided by the ANSI Codes. There are many more….