ansis

ANSI Styling

The Node.js library for formatting text in terminal with ANSI colors & styles

---

The ansis use the SGR (Select Graphic Rendition) codes defined in the ECMA-48 standard.

Why yet one lib?
Fastest, small, full standard ANSI colors & styles, truecolor, chainable, nestable, template literals.
See comparison of most popular ANSI colors libraries and benchmark.

Features

• supports both ESM and CommonJS
• up to x3.5 faster than chalk, see benchmarks
• dist code is 3 KB only
• standard API compatible with many popular ANSI color libraries like chalk
• named import of styles & colors import { red, blue, bold } from 'ansis/colors'
• supports chained red.bold('text') syntax
• supports nested template literals red`A ${cyan`B`} A`
• ANSI 256 colors and Truecolor (RGB, HEX)
• supports extending of base colors with named custom truecolor
• auto detects color support
• supports the environment variables NO_COLOR FORCE_COLOR and flags --no-color --color
• supports removing ANSI color codes from string (strip ANSI codes)
• TypeScript friendly
• zero dependency

Install

npm install ansis

Usage

import { black, red, cyan, inverse, reset } from 'ansis/colors'; // named import
import ansis from 'ansis'; // ESM
const ansis = require('ansis'); // CommonJS

console.log(ansis.green`Hello ${inverse`ANSI`} World!`);
console.log(black.bgYellow`Warning:${reset.cyan` /path/to/file.js`} ${red`not found!`}`);

Output:

Named import

You can import named colors, styles and functions. All imported colors and styles are chainable.

Note

Imported code is not treeshakeable.
Don't worry, full functional code is 3KB only.

import { red, green, blue, yellow, hex, bold, italic } from 'ansis/colors';

red.bold('text');
italic.underline.cyan('text');
hex('#FF75D1').bgCyan.bold('text');

Chained syntax

import ansis from 'ansis';
import { red, bold, underline } from 'ansis/colors';

// with namespace
ansis.red('text');
ansis.cyan.italic('text');
ansis.blau.underline.bold('text');

// with named import
red.italic.bold('text');
bold.italic.red('text');
underline.yellowBright('text');

Nested syntax

import { red, bold, italic, underline } from 'ansis/colors';

white(`MakBookPro, ${cyan.bold(`RAM:`)} 64 GB`);
white(`MakBookPro, ${cyan.bold(`RAM:`)} 64 GB | ${green.bold(`GPU:`)} 32 cores`);

Template literals

"Killer feature"

Template literals allow to be complex template more readable and shortly.
None of the existing libraries (chalk, kleur, colorette, colors.js etc.) support nested template strings.
This does it only one library - ansis. Use it and enjoy!

// import used standard styles, colors and functions
import { red, green, greenBright, cyan, cyanBright, bold, italic, hex } from 'ansis/colors';

// define custom colors
const pink = hex('#FF75D1');
const orange = hex('#FFAB40');

// template string
red`text`;
pink`text`;
orange`text`;

// chained
bold.cyan`text`;
italic.yellowBright`text`;
hex('#FF75D1').bgYellow.bold`text`;

// nested
white`MakBookPro, ${cyan.bold`RAM:`} 64 GB`;
white`MakBookPro, ${cyan.bold`RAM:`} 64 GB | ${green.bold`GPU:`} 32 cores`;
white`MakBookPro, ${cyan.bold`RAM: ${cyanBright`64`} GB`} | ${green.bold`GPU: ${greenBright`32`} cores`}`;

Base colors and styles

Foreground colors	Background colors	Styles
black	bgBlack	dim (aliasfaint)
red	bgRed	bold
green	bgGreen	italic
yellow	bgYellow	underline
blue	bgBlue	strikethrough (alias strike)
magenta	bgMagenta	doubleUnderline (not widely supported)
cyan	bgCyan	overline (not widely supported)
white	bgWhite	frame (not widely supported)
gray (alias grey)	bgGray	encircle (not widely supported)
blackBright	bgBlackBright	inverse
redBright	bgRedBright	visible
greenBright	bgGreenBright	hidden
yellowBright	bgYellowBright	reset
blueBright	bgBlueBright
magentaBright	bgMagentaBright
cyanBright	bgCyanBright
whiteBright	bgWhiteBright

Extend base colors

Defaults, the imported ansis instance contains base styles and colors. To extends base colors with custom color names for truecolor use the ansis.extend() method.

import ansis from 'ansis';

// extend base colors
ansis.extend({
  pink: '#FF75D1',
  orange: '#FFAB40',
});

// the custom colors are available under namespace `ansis`
ansis.pink('text');
ansis.orange('text');

Usage example with TypeScript:

import ansis, { AnsiColorsExtend } from 'ansis';

// extend base colors
ansis.extend({
  pink: '#FF75D1',
  orange: '#FFAB40',
});

const write = (style: AnsiColorsExtend<'pink' | 'orange'>, message: string) => {
  console.log(ansis[style](message));
}

write('red', 'message'); // base color OK
write('pink', 'message'); // extended color OK
write('orange', 'message'); // extended color OK
write('unknown', 'message'); // TypeScript Error

ANSI 256 colors

The pre-defined set of 256 colors.

Code range	Description
0 - 7	standard colors
8 - 15	bright colors
16 - 231	6 × 6 × 6 cube (216 colors)
232 - 255	grayscale from black to white in 24 steps

Foreground function: .ansi(code) has aliases .ansi256(code) and .fg(code)
Background function: .bgAnsi(code) has aliases .ansi256(code) and .bg(code)

See ANSI color codes.

// foreground color
ansis.ansi(96).bold('bold Bright Cyan');
ansis.ansi256(96).bold('bold Bright Cyan'); // `ansi256` is the alias for `ansi`
ansis.fg(96).bold('bold Bright Cyan'); // `fg` is the short alias for `ansi`

// background color
ansis.bgAnsi(105)('Bright Magenta');
ansis.bgAnsi256(105)('Bright Magenta'); // `bgAnsi256` is the alias for `bgAnsi`
ansis.bg(105)('Bright Magenta'); // `bg` is the short alias for `bgAnsi`

The ansi256() and bgAnsi256() methods are implemented for compatibility with the chalk API.

Truecolor

Foreground: hex rgb
Background: bgHex bgRgb

// foreground color
ansis.hex('#E0115F').bold('bold Ruby');
ansis.hex('#96C')('Amethyst');
ansis.rgb(224, 17, 95).italic.underline('italic underline Ruby');

// background color
ansis.bgHex('#E0115F')('Ruby');
ansis.bgHex('#96C')('Amethyst');
ansis.bgRgb(224, 17, 95)('Ruby');

Shortcuts / Themes

Define your own themes:

const theme = {
  error: ansis.red.bold,
  info: ansis.cyan.italic,
  warning: ansis.black.bgYellowBright,
  ruby: ansis.hex('#E0115F'),
};

theme.error('error');
theme.info('info');
theme.warning('warning');
theme.ruby('Ruby color');

Low level usage

You can use the open and close properties for each style.

const myStyle = ansis.bold.italic.black.bgHex('#ABCDEF');
console.log(`Hello ${myStyle.open}ANSI${myStyle.close} World!`);

New lines

Supports correct style break at the end of line.

ansis.bgGreen(`\nAnsis\nNew Line\nNext New Line\n`);

Strip ANSI codes

The Ansis class contains one method strip() to remove all ANSI codes from string.

import ansis from 'ansis';

const ansiString = ansis.green(`Hello ${ansis.inverse('ANSI')} World!`);
const string = ansis.strip(ansiString);

The variable string will contain the pure string Hello ANSI World!.

CLI

Defaults, the output in terminal console is colored and output in a file is uncolored.

Environment variables

example.js

import ansis from 'ansis';

console.log(ansis.red`COLOR`);

$ node example.js           #=> color
$ node example.js > log.txt #=> no color

To force disable or enable colored output use environment variables NO_COLOR and FORCE_COLOR.

$ NO_COLOR=1 node example.js              #=> force disable colors
$ FORCE_COLOR=0 node example.js           #=> force disable colors
$ FORCE_COLOR=1 node example.js > log.txt #=> force enable colors

Note

The NO_COLOR variable should be presents with any not empty value. The value is not important, see standard description by NO_COLOR.
NO_COLOR=1 NO_COLOR=true disable colors

The FORCE_COLOR variable should be presents with one of values:
FORCE_COLOR=0 force disable colors
FORCE_COLOR=1 force enable colors

Arguments for executable script

If you have an executable script.
example.js

#!/usr/bin/env node
import ansis from 'ansis';

console.log(ansis.red`COLOR`);

Use arguments --no-color or --color=false to disable colors and --color to enable ones.

$ ./example.js                        #=> color
$ ./example.js --no-color             #=> no color
$ ./example.js --color=false          #=> no color

$ ./example.js > log.txt              #=> no color
$ ./example.js --color > log.txt      #=> color
$ ./example.js --color=true > log.txt #=> color

Comparison of most popular libraries

Library	Naming of base colors	Chained syntax	Nested template strings	New Line	ANSI 256 colors methods	Truecolor methods	Supports CLI params
colors.js code size 18.1KB	non-standard, e.g. brightRed (16 colors) ❌ named import	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌	only FORCE_COLOR --no-color --color
colorette code size 3.3KB	standard (16 colors) ✅ named import	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	NO_COLOR FORCE_COLOR --no-color --color
picocolors code size 2.6KB	standard (8 colors) ❌ named import	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	NO_COLOR FORCE_COLOR --no-color --color
cli-color	standard (16 colors) ❌ named import	✅	❌	❌	xterm(n)	❌	only NO_COLOR
colors-cli code size 8.6KB	non-standard, e.g. red_bbt (16 colors) ❌ named import	✅	❌	✅	x<n>	❌	only --no-color --color
ansi-colors code size 5.8KB	standard (16 colors) ❌ named import	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌	only FORCE_COLOR
kleur code size 2.7KB	standard (8 colors) ✅ named import	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	only NO_COLOR FORCE_COLOR
chalk code size 15KB	standard (16 colors) ❌ named import	✅	❌	✅	ansi256(n) bgAnsi256(n)	hex() rgb()	NO_COLOR FORCE_COLOR --no-color --color
ansis code size 3.2KB	standard (16 colors) ✅ named import	✅	✅	✅	ansi256(n) bgAnsi256(n) fg(n) bg(n)	hex() rgb()	NO_COLOR FORCE_COLOR --no-color --color

Note

Code size
The size of distributed code that will be loaded via require or import into your app. It's not a package size.

Named import
import { red, green, blue } from 'lib';
or
import { red, green, blue } from 'lib/colors';

Chained syntax
lib.red.bold('text')

Nested template strings
lib.red`text ${lib.cyan`nested`} text`

New line
Correct break styles at end-of-line.

lib.bgGreen(`First Line
Next Line`);

Show ANSI demo

git clone https://github.com/webdiscus/ansis.git
cd ./ansis
npm i
npm run demo

Benchmark

Setup

git clone https://github.com/webdiscus/ansis.git
cd ./ansis/bench
npm i

Run benchmark

npm run bench

Tested on

MacBook Pro 16" M1 Max 64GB
macOS Monterey 12.1
Node.js v16.13.1
Terminal iTerm2

Colorette bench

The benchmark used in colorette.

c.red(`${c.bold(`${c.cyan(`${c.yellow('yellow')}cyan`)}`)}red`);

  colors.js           1,158,572 ops/sec
  colorette           4,572,582 ops/sec
  picocolors          3,841,124 ops/sec
  cli-color             470,320 ops/sec
  colors-cli            109,811 ops/sec
  ansi-colors         1,265,615 ops/sec
  kleur/colors        2,281,415 ops/sec
  kleur               2,228,639 ops/sec
  chalk               2,287,146 ops/sec
+ ansis               2,669,734 ops/sec

Base colors

const colors = ['black', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'magenta', 'cyan', 'white'];
colors.forEach((color) => c[color]('foo'));

  colors.js             640,101 ops/sec
  colorette           1,874,506 ops/sec
  picocolors          8,265,628 ops/sec
  cli-color             305,690 ops/sec
  colors-cli            104,962 ops/sec
  ansi-colors         1,010,628 ops/sec
  kleur/colors        2,074,111 ops/sec
  kleur               5,455,121 ops/sec
  chalk               4,428,884 ops/sec
+ ansis               6,197,754 ops/sec

Chained styles

colors.forEach((color) => c[color].bold.underline.italic('foo'));

  colors.js             138,219 ops/sec
  colorette     (not supported)
  picocolors    (not supported)
  cli-color             144,837 ops/sec
  colors-cli             52,732 ops/sec
  ansi-colors           158,921 ops/sec
  kleur/colors  (not supported)
  kleur                 514,035 ops/sec
  chalk               1,234,573 ops/sec
+ ansis               5,515,868 ops/sec

Nested calls

colors.forEach((color) => c[color](c.bold(c.underline(c.italic('foo')))));

  colors.js             166,425 ops/sec
  colorette             695,350 ops/sec
  picocolors            942,592 ops/sec
  cli-color              65,561 ops/sec
  colors-cli             13,800 ops/sec
  ansi-colors           260,316 ops/sec
  kleur/colors          561,111 ops/sec
  kleur                 648,195 ops/sec
  chalk                 497,292 ops/sec
+ ansis                 558,575 ops/sec

Nested styles

c.red(`a red ${c.white('white')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.cyan('cyan')} red ${c.black('black')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.green('green')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.yellow('yellow')} red ${c.blue('blue')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.magenta('magenta')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.green('green')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.magenta('magenta')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.cyan('cyan')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.yellow('yellow')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red('red')} red ${c.red(
  'red')} red ${c.red('red')} message`);

  colors.js              89,633 ops/sec
  colorette             243,139 ops/sec
  picocolors            243,975 ops/sec
  cli-color              41,657 ops/sec
  colors-cli             14,264 ops/sec
  ansi-colors           121,451 ops/sec
  kleur/colors          234,132 ops/sec
  kleur                 221,446 ops/sec
  chalk                 189,960 ops/sec
+ ansis                 211,868 ops/sec

Deep nested styles

c.green(
  `green ${c.cyan(
    `cyan ${c.red(
      `red ${c.yellow(
        `yellow ${c.blue(
          `blue ${c.magenta(
            `magenta ${c.underline(
              `underline ${c.italic(`italic`)} underline`
            )} magenta`
          )} blue`
        )} yellow`
      )} red`
    )} cyan`
  )} green`
);

  colors.js             451,592 ops/sec
  colorette           1,131,757 ops/sec
  picocolors          1,002,649 ops/sec
  cli-color             213,441 ops/sec
  colors-cli             40,340 ops/sec
  ansi-colors           362,733 ops/sec
  kleur/colors          478,547 ops/sec
  kleur                 464,004 ops/sec
  chalk                 565,965 ops/sec
+ ansis                 882,220 ops/sec

HEX colors

Only two libraries support truecolors methods: ansis and chalk

c.hex('#FBA')('foo');

  colors.js             (not supported)
  colorette             (not supported)
  picocolors            (not supported)
  cli-color             (not supported)
  colors-cli            (not supported)
  ansi-colors           (not supported)
  kleur/colors          (not supported)
  kleur                 (not supported)
  chalk               2,891,684 ops/sec
+ ansis               4,944,572 ops/sec

Testing

npm run test will run the unit and integration tests.
npm run test:coverage will run the tests with coverage.

Also See

Most popular ANSI libraries for Node.js:

• colors.js
• colorette
• picocolors
• cli-color
• colors-cli
• ansi-colors
• kleur
• chalk

License

ISC

Changelog

1.5.3 (2022-09-14)

• fix: set correct aliases for bgAnsi and fg methods by named export
• chore: refactor examples
• docs: update readme