Colorizing text in the console with C++

Question

Add a little Color to your Console Text

  HANDLE hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
  // you can loop k higher to see more color choices
  for(int k = 1; k < 255; k++)
  {
    // pick the colorattribute k you want
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, k);
    cout << k << " I want to be nice today!" << endl;
  }

Character Attributes Here is how the "k" value be interpreted.

ANSI escape color codes :

Name            FG  BG
Black           30  40
Red             31  41
Green           32  42
Yellow          33  43
Blue            34  44
Magenta         35  45
Cyan            36  46
White           37  47
Bright Black    90  100
Bright Red      91  101
Bright Green    92  102
Bright Yellow   93  103
Bright Blue     94  104
Bright Magenta  95  105
Bright Cyan     96  106
Bright White    97  107

Sample code for C/C++ :

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main(int argc, char ** argv){
    
    printf("\n");
    printf("\x1B[31mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[32mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[33mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[34mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[35mTexting\033[0m\n");
    
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[36mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[37mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\x1B[93mTexting\033[0m\n");
    
    printf("\033[3;42;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;43;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;44;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;104;30mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[3;100;30mTexting\033[0m\n");

    printf("\033[3;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[2;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\033[1;47;35mTexting\033[0m\t\t");
    printf("\t\t");
    printf("\n");

    return 0;
}

GCC :

g++ cpp_interactive_terminal.cpp -o cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi
chmod +x cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi
./cpp_interactive_terminal.cgi

Standard C++ has no notion of 'colors'. So what you are asking depends on the operating system.

For Windows, you can check out the SetConsoleTextAttribute function.

On *nix, you have to use the ANSI escape sequences.

You can write methods and call like this

---

HANDLE  hConsole;
hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
int col=12;

// color your text in Windows console mode
// colors are 0=black 1=blue 2=green and so on to 15=white  
// colorattribute = foreground + background * 16
// to get red text on yellow use 4 + 14*16 = 228
// light red on yellow would be 12 + 14*16 = 236

FlushConsoleInputBuffer(hConsole);
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, col);

cout << "Color Text";

SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, 15); //set back to black background and white text