colrs 0.2.6

A simple and elegant Python library for terminal text coloring.

colrs 🎨

A Python library for creating beautiful, interactive, and powerful terminal applications with radical simplicity.

!License: MIT !PyPI version

colrs is more than just a coloring library. It's a full toolkit for building modern command-line interfaces. It takes a unique approach: instead of forcing you to learn new functions for everything, you activate it once, and your standard print and input functions become color-aware and super-powered.

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Philosophy

The core idea is absolute simplicity. Activate the magic, write your code as you normally would, and let colrs handle the complexity.

• Activate: act()
• Use print and input normally: Add colors with tags or keyword arguments.
• Build UIs: Use powerful components like loading, progress, table, menu, and Live displays.
• Deactivate: unact()

Installation

Install from PyPI using pip. colorama is the only dependency and is installed automatically.

pip install colrs

Core Concept: act() and unact()

This is the heart of the library. Wrap the interactive part of your application within act() and unact() to enable all features.

from colrs import act, unact

print("This is a normal, default print.")

# Activate the magic
act()

print("This print is now <green>super-powered</>!", color="cyan")
name = input("What's your name? ", color="yellow", inp_color="magenta")
print(f"Hello, <bold>{name}</>!")

# Deactivate to return to normal
unact()

print("And we're back to normal.")

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Features

1. Enhanced print()

Once act() is called, print() understands inline color tags and keyword arguments.

from colrs import act, unact

act()
# Keyword arguments
print("This is red.", color="red")
print("This is blue on a yellow background.", color="blue", bg_color="yellow")

# Inline tags (close with matching tag or generic </>)
print("This is a <green>green text</> using inline tags.")
print("<yellow>This is yellow with <blue>blue text</blue> inside.</yellow>")
print("<white,bg_red> White text on a red background. </>")
unact()

2. Smart input()

The patched input() can color the prompt, the user's text, and even react to what the user types with color_rules.

from colrs import act, unact

act()
# Color the prompt and the user's typing
username = input("Username: ", color="yellow", inp_color="cyan")

# Use rules to color the input *after* submission for feedback
choice = input(
    "Delete all files? (yes/no): ",
    color="cyan",
    color_rules={"yes": "red,bg_white", "no": "green"}
)
unact()

3. Loading Animations & Progress Bars

Show activity with loading() for unknown durations or prog() for loops.

from colrs import act, unact, loading, prog
import time

act()

# For tasks with a known duration
loading(duration=3, text="Syncing data...", style=7)

# For tasks with an unknown duration, use a 'with' block
with loading(text="Connecting to API...", style=2) as loader:
    time.sleep(2)
    loader.update("Downloading files...") # Update text on the fly
    time.sleep(2)

# For iterating over a sequence, use the progress bar
for item in prog(range(200), description="<cyan>Processing items...</>"):
    time.sleep(0.02)

unact()

4. Data Tables

Display data in a clean, formatted table that automatically calculates column widths and understands color tags.

from colrs import act, unact, table

act()
headers = ["ID", "User", "Status", "Last Login"]
data = [
    ["101", "Hussain", "<green>Active</>", "2023-10-27 10:00"],
    ["102", "Ali", "<yellow>Idle</>", "2023-10-27 09:15"],
    ["104", "Zainab", "<red>Banned</>", "2023-10-26 15:30"]
]
table(headers, data, border_color="cyan", header_color="white,bg_cyan")
unact()

5. Interactive Menus

Prompt users with interactive menus for single or multiple selections.

from colrs import act, unact, menu, check

act()
# Single-choice menu
action = menu(
    title="<yellow>What do you want to do?</yellow>",
    choices=["Restart Service", "View Logs", "Exit"]
)
print(f"You chose: <green>{action}</green>")

# Multi-choice checkbox menu
features = check(
    title="<cyan>Select features to install:</cyan>",
    choices=["API", "Database", "Web UI", "Docs"]
)
print(f"Installing: <green>{', '.join(features)}</green>")
unact()

6. Live Displays & Layouts

Create complex, live-updating dashboards by dividing the terminal into a grid.

from colrs import act, unact, Layout, table
import time, random

act()
layout = Layout()
layout.split_column(Layout(name="left", ratio=4), Layout(name="right", ratio=6))
layout["right"].split_row(Layout(name="header"), Layout(name="stats", ratio=3))

with layout.live(refresh_rate=1):
    layout["header"].update("<bg_magenta,white> Real-time System Dashboard </>")
    for i in range(5):
        # Update left panel with a table
        data = [["Task A", f"<green>OK</>"], ["Task B", f"<yellow>WARN</>"]]
        layout["left"].update(table(headers=["Service", "Status"], data=data, to_string=True))
        
        # Update stats panel
        cpu = random.randint(20, 90)
        layout["stats"].update(f"CPU: <cyan>{cpu}%</> | Cycle: {i+1}")
        time.sleep(1)
unact()

7. Colored Logging

Integrate with Python's standard logging module to automatically color your logs based on level.

import logging
from colrs import act, unact, LogHandler

act()
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
logger.addHandler(LogHandler()) # Just add our handler

logger.debug("This is a debug message.")
logger.info("System startup successful.")
logger.warning("Disk space is running low.")
logger.error("Failed to connect to the database.")
logger.critical("Core service has crashed!")
unact()

8. Async Support

For modern asyncio applications, colrs provides non-blocking, asynchronous versions of its live components.

import asyncio
from colrs import act, unact, aloading, aLive

async def main():
    act()
    async with aloading(text="Doing async work...", style=6):
        await asyncio.sleep(3)
    
    async with aLive() as live:
        for i in range(5):
            live.update(f"Async Counter: <green>{i}</green>")
            await asyncio.sleep(1)
    unact()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Shortcuts / Aliases

For faster coding, shorter aliases are available for many features:

Full Name	Alias
progress	prog
checkbox	check
ColorizingStreamHandler	LogHandler
ActionTagManager	ActionManager
async_loading	aloading
AsyncLive	aLive

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.