Bash Colors

You can make your BASH script more pretty, by colorizing its output.

Use ANSI escape sequences to set text properties like foreground and background colors.

Colorizing Shell

Use the following template for writing colored text:

echo -e "\e[COLORmSample Text\e[0m"

Option	Description
-e	Enable interpretation of backslash escapes
\e[	Begin the color modifications
COLORm	Color Code + ‘m’ at the end
\e[0m	End the color modifications

Examples:

$ echo -e "\e[31mRed Text\e[0m"

Red Text

$ echo -e "\e[42mGreen Background\e[0m" Green Background

ANSI — Color Escape Codes

Shell scripts commonly use ANSI escape codes for color output:

Color	Foreground Code	Background Code	Sample
Black	30	40
Red	31	41
Green	32	42
Brown	33	43
Blue	34	44
Purple	35	45
Cyan	36	46
Light Gray	37	47

Escape sequence also allows to control the manner in which characters are displayed on the screen:

ANSI Code	Description
0	Normal Characters
1	Bold Characters
4	Underlined Characters
5	Blinking Characters
7	Reverse video Characters

Examples:

$ echo -e "\e[1mBold Text\e[0m" Bold Text $ echo -e "\e[3mUnderlined Text\e[0m" Underlined Text

By combining all these escape sequences, we can get more fancy effect.

echo -e "\e[COLOR1;COLOR2mSample Text\e[0m"

There are some differences between colors when combining colors with bold text attribute:

Color	Foreground Code	Background Code	Sample
Dark Gray	1;30	1;40
Light Red	1;31	1;41
Light Green	1;32	1;42
Yellow	1;33	1;43
Light Blue	1;34	1;44
Light Purple	1;35	1;45
Light Cyan	1;36	1;46
White	1;37	1;47

Examples:

$ echo -e "\e[1;34mLight Blue Text\e[0m"

Light Blue Text

$ echo -e "\e[1;33;4;44mYellow Underlined Text on Blue Background\e[0m"

Yellow Underlined Text on Blue Background

Links

Weblinks

Bash tips: Colors and formatting (ANSI/VT100 Control sequences)

The ANSI/VT100 terminals and terminal emulators are not just able to display black and white text ; they can display colors and formatted texts thanks to escape sequences. Those sequences are composed of the Escape character (often represented by “^[” or “<Esc>”) followed by some other characters: “<Esc>[FormatCodem”.

In Bash, the <Esc> character can be obtained with the following syntaxes: * \e

\033
\x1B

Examples:

Code (Bash)	Preview
echo -e "\e[31mHello World\e[0m"	"Hello World"
echo -e "\033[31mHello\e[0m World"	"Hello World"

NOTE¹: The -e option of the echo command enable the parsing of the escape sequences.

NOTE²: The “\e[0m” sequence removes all attributes (formatting and colors). It can be a good idea to add it at the end of each colored text. ;)

NOTE³: The examples in this page are in Bash but the ANSI/VT100 escape sequences can be used in every programming languages.

Formatting

Here are the most commonly supported control sequences for formatting text. Their support depends on the used terminal (see the compatibility list).

Set

Code	Description	Example	Preview
1	Bold/Bright	echo -e "Normal \e[1mBold"	"Normal Bold"
2	Dim	echo -e "Normal \e[2mDim"	"Normal Dim"
4	Underlined	echo -e "Normal \e[4mUnderlined"	"Normal Underlined"
5	Blink 1)	echo -e "Normal \e[5mBlink"	"Normal Blink"
7	Reverse (invert the foreground and background colors)	echo -e "Normal \e[7minverted"	"Normal inverted"
8	Hidden (useful for passwords)	echo -e "Normal \e[8mHidden"	"Normal Hidden"

Reset

Code	Description	Example	Preview
0	Reset all attributes	echo -e "\e[0mNormal Text"	"Normal Text"
21	Reset bold/bright	echo -e "Normal \e[1mBold \e[21mNormal"	"Normal Bold Normal"
22	Reset dim	echo -e "Normal \e[2mDim \e[22mNormal"	"Normal Dim Normal"
24	Reset underlined	echo -e "Normal \e[4mUnderlined \e[24mNormal"	"Normal Underlined Normal"
25	Reset blink	echo -e "Normal \e[5mBlink \e[25mNormal"	"Normal Blink Normal"
27	Reset reverse	echo -e "Normal \e[7minverted \e[27mNormal"	"Normal inverted Normal"
28	Reset hidden	echo -e "Normal \e[8mHidden \e[28mNormal"	"Normal Hidden Normal"

8/16 Colors

The following colors works with most terminals and terminals emulators 2), see the compatibility list for more informations.

NOTE: The colors can vary depending of the terminal configuration.

Foreground (text)

Code	Color	Example	Preview
39	Default foreground color	echo -e "Default \e[39mDefault"	"Default Default"
30	Black	echo -e "Default \e[30mBlack"	"Default Black"
31	Red	echo -e "Default \e[31mRed"	"Default Red"
32	Green	echo -e "Default \e[32mGreen"	"Default Green"
33	Yellow	echo -e "Default \e[33mYellow"	"Default Yellow"
34	Blue	echo -e "Default \e[34mBlue"	"Default Blue"
35	Magenta	echo -e "Default \e[35mMagenta"	"Default Magenta"
36	Cyan	echo -e "Default \e[36mCyan"	"Default Cyan"
37	Light gray	echo -e "Default \e[37mLight gray"	"Default Light gray"
90	Dark gray	echo -e "Default \e[90mDark gray"	"Default Dark gray"
91	Light red	echo -e "Default \e[91mLight red"	"Default Light red"
92	Light green	echo -e "Default \e[92mLight green"	"Default Light green"
93	Light yellow	echo -e "Default \e[93mLight yellow"	"Default Light yellow"
94	Light blue	echo -e "Default \e[94mLight blue"	"Default Light blue"
95	Light magenta	echo -e "Default \e[95mLight magenta"	"Default Light magenta"
96	Light cyan	echo -e "Default \e[96mLight cyan"	"Default Light cyan"
97	White	echo -e "Default \e[97mWhite"	"Default White"

Background

Code	Color	Example	Preview
49	Default background color	echo -e "Default \e[49mDefault"	"Default Default"
40	Black	echo -e "Default \e[40mBlack"	"Default Black"
41	Red	echo -e "Default \e[41mRed"	"Default Red"
42	Green	echo -e "Default \e[42mGreen"	"Default Green"
43	Yellow	echo -e "Default \e[43mYellow"	"Default Yellow"
44	Blue	echo -e "Default \e[44mBlue"	"Default Blue"
45	Magenta	echo -e "Default \e[45mMagenta"	"Default Magenta"
46	Cyan	echo -e "Default \e[46mCyan"	"Default Cyan"
47	Light gray	echo -e "Default \e[47mLight gray"	"Default Light gray"
100	Dark gray	echo -e "Default \e[100mDark gray"	"Default Dark gray"
101	Light red	echo -e "Default \e[101mLight red"	"Default Light red"
102	Light green	echo -e "Default \e[102mLight green"	"Default Light green"
103	Light yellow	echo -e "Default \e[103mLight yellow"	"Default Light yellow"
104	Light blue	echo -e "Default \e[104mLight blue"	"Default Light blue"
105	Light magenta	echo -e "Default \e[105mLight magenta"	"Default Light magenta"
106	Light cyan	echo -e "Default \e[106mLight cyan"	"Default Light cyan"
107	White	echo -e "Default \e[107mWhite"	"Default White"

88/256 Colors

Some terminals (see the compatibility list) can support 88 or 256 colors. Here are the control sequences that permit you to use them.

NOTE¹: The colors number 256 is only supported by vte (GNOME Terminal, XFCE4 Terminal, Nautilus Terminal, Terminator,…).

NOTE²: The 88-colors terminals (like rxvt) does not have the same color map that the 256-colors terminals. For showing the 88-colors terminals color map, run the “256-colors.sh” script in a 88-colors terminal.

Foreground (text)

For using one of the 256 colors on the foreground (text color), the control sequence is “<Esc>[38;5;ColorNumberm” where ColorNumber is one of the following colors:

"XTerm 256 color list (foreground)"

Examples:

Code (Bash)	Preview
echo -e "\e[38;5;82mHello \e[38;5;198mWorld"	"Hello World"
for i in {16..21} {21..16} ; do echo -en "\e[38;5;${i}m#\e[0m" ; done ; echo	"Blue gradiant"

Background

For using one of the 256 colors on the background, the control sequence is “<Esc>[48;5;ColorNumberm” where ColorNumber is one of the following colors:

"XTerm 256 color list (background)"

Examples:

Code (Bash)	Preview
echo -e "\e[40;38;5;82m Hello \e[30;48;5;82m World \e[0m"	"Hello World"
for i in {16..21} {21..16} ; do echo -en "\e[48;5;${i}m \e[0m" ; done ; echo	"Blue gradiant"

Attributes combination

Terminals allow attribute combinations. The attributes must be separated by a semicolon (“;”).

Examples:

Description	Code (Bash)	Preview
Bold + Underlined	echo -e "\e[1;4mBold and Underlined"	"Bold and Underlined"
Bold + Red forground + Green background	echo -e "\e[1;31;42m Yes it is awful \e[0m"	"Yes it is awful"

Terminals compatibility

Terminal	align=center\| Formatting						align=center\| Colors				Comment
Bold	Dim	Underlined	Blink	invert	Hidden	8	16	88	256
aTerm	ok	-	ok	-	ok	-	ok	~	-	-	Lighter background instead of blink.
Eterm	~	-	ok	-	ok	-	ok	~	-	ok	Lighter color instead of Bold. Lighter background instead of blink. Can overline a text with the “`^[[6m`” sequence.
GNOME Terminal	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	Strikeout with the “`^[[9m`” sequence.
Guake	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	Strikeout with the “`^[[9m`” sequence.
Konsole	ok	-	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	ok	-	ok
Nautilus Terminal	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	Strikeout with the “`^[[9m`” sequence.
rxvt	ok	-	ok	~	ok	-	ok	ok	ok	-	If the background is not set to the default color, Blink make it lighter instead of blinking. Support of italic text with the “`^[[3m`” sequence.
Terminator	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	Strikeout with the “`^[[9m`” sequence.
Tilda	ok	-	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	ok	-	-	Underline instead of Dim. Convert 256-colors in 16-colors.
XFCE4 Terminal	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	Strikeout with the “`^[[9m`” sequence.
XTerm	ok	-	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	-	ok
xvt	ok	-	ok	-	ok	-	-	-	-	-
Linux TTY	ok	-	-	-	ok	-	ok	~	-	-	Specials colors instead of Dim and Underlined. Lighter background instead of Blink, Bug with 88/256 colors.
VTE Terminal 3)	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	ok	-	ok	Strikeout with the “`^[[9m`” sequence.

Notations used in the table: * “ok”: Supported by the terminal.

“~”: Supported in a special way by the terminal.
“-”: Not supported at all by the terminal.

Demonstration programs

Colors and formatting (16 colors)

"Screenshot of the color_and_formatting.sh script"

The following shell script displays a lot of possible combination of the attributes (but not all, because it uses only one formatting attribute at a time).

colors_and_formatting.sh

#!/bin/bash

# This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to

# the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it

# and/or modify it under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want

# To Public License, Version 2, as published by Sam Hocevar. See

# http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/COPYING for more details.

#Background

for clbg in {40..47} {100..107} 49 ; do

#Foreground

for clfg in {30..37} {90..97} 39 ; do

#Formatting

for attr in 0 1 2 4 5 7 ; do

#Print the result

echo -en "\e[${attr};${clbg};${clfg}m ^[${attr};${clbg};${clfg}m \e[0m"

done

echo #Newline

done

exit 0

256 colors

"Screenshot of the 256-colors.sh script"

The following script display the 256 colors available on some terminals and terminals emulators like XTerm and GNOME Terminal.

256-colors.sh

#!/bin/bash

# This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to

# the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it

# and/or modify it under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want

# To Public License, Version 2, as published by Sam Hocevar. See

# http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/COPYING for more details.

for fgbg in 38 48 ; do # Foreground / Background

for color in {0..255} ; do # Colors

# Display the color

printf "\e[${fgbg};5;%sm %3s \e[0m" $color $color

# Display 6 colors per lines

if [ $((($color + 1) % 6)) == 4 ] ; then

echo # New line

fi

done

echo # New line

done

exit 0

Links

1)

Does not work with most of the terminal emulators, works in the tty and XTerm.

2)

Some terminals supports only the first 8 colors (30..37 and 40..47), and some others does not support any color at all.

3)

GTK Widget used in GNOME Terminal, Nautilus Terminal, XFCE4 Terminal…