gradient-string

What is gradient-string?

The gradient-string npm package allows you to create colorful gradients in your terminal output. It supports multiple gradient styles and can be used to enhance the visual appeal of CLI applications.

What are gradient-string's main functionalities?

Basic Gradient

This feature allows you to apply a basic gradient to a string. The example uses the 'rainbow' gradient to colorize the text 'Hello, World!'.

const gradient = require('gradient-string');
console.log(gradient.rainbow('Hello, World!'));

Custom Gradient

This feature allows you to create a custom gradient by specifying an array of colors. The example creates a gradient from red to green to blue and applies it to the text 'Custom Gradient!'.

const gradient = require('gradient-string');
const customGradient = gradient(['#FF0000', '#00FF00', '#0000FF']);
console.log(customGradient('Custom Gradient!'));

Multiline Gradient

This feature allows you to apply a gradient to multiline text. The example uses a gradient from cyan to pink and applies it to the text 'Multiline Gradient!'.

const gradient = require('gradient-string');
const multiline = gradient('cyan', 'pink');
console.log(multiline.multiline('Multiline
Gradient!'));

Animation

This feature allows you to create animated gradient text. The example animates the text 'Animating...' with a rainbow gradient.

const gradient = require('gradient-string');
const { animateString } = require('gradient-string');
const animation = animateString('Animating...', { gradient: 'rainbow' });
setInterval(() => console.log(animation()), 100);

Other packages similar to gradient-string

chalk

Chalk is a popular package for styling terminal strings. While it does not support gradients, it offers a wide range of colors and styles for text formatting. It is more focused on providing a robust API for text styling rather than gradient effects.

cli-color

CLI-Color is another package for styling terminal output. Similar to Chalk, it does not support gradients but offers extensive options for text coloring and styling. It is known for its simplicity and ease of use.

colorette

Colorette is a lightweight and fast library for terminal string styling. It does not support gradients but provides a minimalistic API for coloring text. It is designed to be a smaller and faster alternative to Chalk.

README

gradient-string

Beautiful color gradients in terminal output

Install

$ npm i gradient-string

Usage

import gradient from 'gradient-string';

console.log(gradient(['cyan', 'pink'])('Hello world!'));

Initialize a gradient

// Provide an array of colors
const coolGradient = gradient(['#FF0000', '#00FF00', '#0000FF']);

The colors are parsed with TinyColor, multiple formats are accepted.

const coolGradient = gradient([
  tinycolor('#FFBB65'), // tinycolor object
  { r: 0, g: 255, b: 0 }, // RGB object
  { h: 240, s: 1, v: 1, a: 1 }, // HSVa object
  'rgb(120, 120, 0)', // RGB CSS string
  'gold', // named color
]);

Use a gradient

const coolString = coolGradient('This is a fancy string!');
console.log(coolString);

Built-in gradients

Usage

import { rainbow, pastel } from 'gradient-string';

// Use the pastel built-in gradient
console.log(pastel('I love gradient-string!'));

// Use the rainbow built-in gradient
console.log(rainbow('It is so pretty! 🌈'));

Available built-in gradients

Multi line gradients

In some cases, you may want to apply the same horizontal gradient on each line of a long text (or a piece of ASCII art).

You can use the multiline() method of a gradient to ensure that the colors are vertically aligned.

import gradient, { rainbow } from 'gradient-string';

// Use the same gradient on every line
const duck = gradient(['green', 'yellow']).multiline(`
  __
<(o )___
 ( ._> /
   ---
`);
console.log(duck);

// Works with aliases
rainbow.multiline('Multi line\nstring');

// Works with advanced options (read below)
gradient(['cyan', 'pink'], { interpolation: 'hsv' }).multiline('Multi line\nstring');

Advanced gradients

There are also more advanced options for gradient customization, such as custom color stops, or choice of color interpolation

Custom color stops

By default, the gradient color stops are distributed equidistantly.

You can specify the position of each color stop (between 0 and 1), using the following syntax:

let coolGradient = gradient([
  { color: '#d8e0de', pos: 0 },
  { color: '#255B53', pos: 0.8 },
  { color: '#000000', pos: 1 },
]);

Color interpolation

When creating a gradient, you can provide a second parameter to choose how the colors will be generated.

Here is the full gradient API:

gradient([colors], options?)(text)

colors

Type: Array<Color>
Colors of the gradient. Multiple formats are accepted.

text

Type: String
String you want to color.

options

Type: Object (optional)

interpolation

Type: string
The gradient can be generated using RGB or HSV interpolation. HSV usually produces brighter colors. interpolation can be set to rgb for RGB interpolation, orhsv for HSV interpolation.
Defaults to rgb. Case-insensitive

hsvSpin

Type: string
Used only in the case of HSV interpolation.
Because hue can be considered as a circle, there are two ways to go from a color to another color.
hsvSpin can be either short or long, depending on if you want to take the shortest or the longest way between two colors.
Defaults to short. Case-insensitive

Example

Code

const str = '■'.repeat(48);

// Standard RGB gradient
const standardRGBGradient = gradient(['red', 'green']);

// Short HSV gradient: red -> yellow -> green
const shortHSVGradient = gradient(['red', 'green'], { interpolation: 'hsv' });

// Long HSV gradient: red -> magenta -> blue -> cyan -> green
const longHSVGradient = gradient(['red', 'green'], { interpolation: 'hsv', hsvSpin: 'long' });

console.log(standardRGBGradient(str));
console.log(shortHSVGradient(str));
console.log(longHSVGradient(str));

Result

Dependencies

• chalk - Output colored text to terminal
• tinygradient - Generate gradients

Who uses gradient-string?

• Shopify in Shopify CLI
• Microsoft in @lage-run/reporters
• Tencent in Cloudbase Framework
• Fireship in this YouTube video, where he shows how he built javascript-millionaire
• Turoborepo in @turbo/workspaces and @turbo/codemod
• Magic UI in Magic UI CLI
• Myself in chalk-animation, the animated version of gradient-string
• Sindre Sorhus in ink-gradient, the Ink version of gradient-string
• And more..., who downloaded gradient-string times!

License

MIT © Boris K