colored_messages

A minimal, dependency-free Python library for printing color-formatted messages in Linux/macOS terminals using ANSI escape codes.

Features

• Four ready-made print helpers — print_error, print_warning, print_info, print_success — each with a colored [Tag] prefix, usable with zero configuration.
• Low-level building blocks — term_color for full control over every ANSI attribute (bold, dim, italic, underline, highlight, reverse, color).
• Named color shortcuts — red(), green(), yellow(), blue(), bold() for quick inline formatting.
• No dependencies — only the Python standard library is required.

Installation

pip install colored-messages

Quick start

from colored_messages import print_error, print_warning, print_info, print_success

print_info("Loading configuration…")
print_success("Server started on port 8080")
print_warning("Disk usage above 80 %")
print_error("Connection refused")

Terminal output:

[Info]    Loading configuration…
[OK]      Server started on port 8080
[Warning] Disk usage above 80 %
[Error]   Connection refused          ← printed to stderr

Each tag is rendered in its matching color (blue / green / yellow / red). print_error writes to sys.stderr; the other three write to sys.stdout.

API reference

Print helpers

custom_print

Print any message with a fully custom tag:

from colored_messages import custom_print, TermColors

custom_print("Starting backup…", TermColors.CYAN, "Backup", bold=True)
# → [Backup] Starting backup…

Additional keyword arguments are forwarded to print() (e.g. file=, end=, flush=).

Named color shortcuts

from colored_messages import red, green, yellow, blue, bold

print(f"Status: {green('OK')}")
print(f"Level:  {red('CRITICAL', bold=True)}")
print(f"Title:  {bold('Important notice')}")

Each shortcut accepts an optional bold=True keyword argument.

term_color — full control

from colored_messages import term_color, TermColors

s = term_color(
    "hello",
    color=TermColors.PURPLE,
    bold=True,
    underline=True,
    italic=True,
)
print(s)

Supported attributes:

bold — preserve surrounding color

from colored_messages import bold, term_color, TermColors

# The bold wrapper uses SGR 22 (normal intensity) instead of SGR 0 (full
# reset), so an outer color is not disturbed:
msg = term_color(f"prefix: {bold('important')} suffix", TermColors.BLUE)
print(msg)

TermColors

from colored_messages import TermColors

TermColors.GRAY    # 0
TermColors.RED     # 1
TermColors.GREEN   # 2
TermColors.YELLOW  # 3
TermColors.BLUE    # 4
TermColors.PURPLE  # 5
TermColors.CYAN    # 6
TermColors.WHITE   # 7

TermColors is an IntEnum, so its members can be used directly as integers.

Development

This project uses uv and just.

# Run linter, type checker, and test suite
just test

Individual commands:

uv run ruff check --fix .   # lint & auto-fix
uv run mypy .               # type checking
uv run pytest tests         # unit tests

License

MIT