color.py

Purpose

Display text in various foreground/background colors.

Syntax

usage: color.py [-h] [--test] [-r] [-b BACKGROUND_COLOR] [-p] [-v] [color] [text ...]

Print text in the specified color

positional arguments:
  color                 Choose a foreground color: default, black, darkred, darkgreen, darkyellow, darkblue, darkmagenta, darkcyan, lightgray, darkgray, red, green,
                        orange, blue, magenta, cyan, white
  text                  Text to display

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --test                Test all colors
  -r, --reset           Reset a console to default color only
  -b BACKGROUND_COLOR, --background-color BACKGROUND_COLOR
                        Choose a background color: default, black, darkred, darkgreen, darkyellow, darkblue, darkmagenta, darkcyan, lightgray, darkgray, red, green,
                        orange, yellow, blue, magenta, purple, cyan, white
  -p, --persist         Set a console to the specified color
  -v, --verbose         Enable debugging

Positional arguments

| Argument | Description | Default | |———-|———————————-|——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-| | color | The foreground color. Choices: <ul><li>black</li><li>blue</li><li>cyan</li><li>darkblue</li><li>darkcyan</li><li>darkgray</li><li>darkgreen</li><li>darkmagenta</li><li>darkred</li><li>darkyellow</li><li>default</li><li>green</li><li>lightgray</li><li>magenta</li><li>orange</li><li>purple</li><li>red</li><li>white</li><li>yellow</li></ul> | None, the foreground color is required | | text | Text to display | If not specified, the script will read text from stdin. Either text must be specified or stdin must be directed - the script will not read text directly from the terminal |

Options

| Option | Description | Default | |———————-|———————————————————————-|————————————————————| | --test | Displays sample colors | The default is to print custom text in the specified color | | --reset | Reset the foreground/background colors o the default | The default is to print custom text in the specified color | | --background-color | Specifies the background color | The default is use the current background color | | --presist | Sets foreground/background colors permanently until changed or reset | The default is to print custom text in the specified color | | -v | Enable verbose debugging | Debugging is not enabled |

Examples

--test

Note: The background is white so the white text doesn’t appear!

Text from command line

Text from command line

Background color

Note: I’m not crazy about the lingering background color when the prompt returns. It doesn’t seem to linger long… at least you don’t have to use --reset!

--persist and --reset options

As a class

The class could be used by another script - in fact, that’s how the --color option of the banner does just that!

Note: It helps when color.py is in the same directory as the script using the class. I often do that as a symbolic link:

$ ln -s ~/bin/color.py .
$

Notes

• I typically use the script without the .py extension through the use of a very simple alias in my ~/.bashrc bash login script:

  alias color=color.py
  

• The color names are pretty flexible:
  • A color such as lightgrey can be expressed as light-grey, light gray (that’s not a typo!), or even its shortest abbreviation such as lightg
  • Ambiguous colors result in an error:

    $ date | color b
    usage: color.py [-h] [--test] [-r] [-b BACKGROUND_COLOR] [-p] [-v] [color] [text ...]
    color.py: error: argument color: 'b' is ambiguous: black, blue
    $
    

• yellow and purple are technically not supported and that pisses me off. To me, orange and magenta are close enough (respectively) so I’m making them equivalent.