pixy

pixy is a Python library for adding colour and style to terminal text.

• Getting Started
  • Installation
  • Usage
• Documentation
• Examples
• Tests
• License

Terminal output can be styled using ANSII escape code. pixy provides a simple to use yet comprehensive wrapper, abstracting away the complexities.

pixy supports:

• 3-bit, 4-bit and 8-bit colour;
• 24-bit true colour RGB;
• changing the foreground and background colour;
• text decorators e.g. blink, underline, bold, italic, strike-through;
• custom fonts for compliant terminals;
• custom ANSII codes for development on non-spec-compliant terminals.

Getting Started

Installation

pixy can be installed using pip.

$ python3 -m pip install pixy

Usage

pixy lets you style text straight out of the box.

import pixy

# Print "Hello World" in red.
print(pixy.red("Hello World"))

It provides the flexibility to format text as you wish.

import pixy

# Create a string "Hello" with bold text and blue background.
s1 = pixy.pring("Hello", pixy.decorators.bold + pixy.background.blue)

# Concatenate the two strings, giving everything a red background (the
# red background won't be applied to "Hello" because we've already
# given it a blue background!)
print(pixy.pring(s1 + " World. Lorem ipsum dolor...", pixy.background.red))

Documentation

Not all terminals support all ANSII escape codes. Please check the terminal you are testing on supports the features you are using before opening an issue.

Helpers

You can create a string of a certain colour using the helper functions below:

• pixy.black(text)
• pixy.red(text)
• pixy.green(text)
• pixy.yellow(text)
• pixy.blue(text)
• pixy.magenta(text)
• pixy.cyan(text)
• pixy.white(text)

Example

import pixy

# Print "Hello World" in red.
print(pixy.red("Hello World"))

pixy.pring(text, style)

pixy.pring allows you to generate a string with any of the styles documented below. You can use more than one style by adding them together.

• text - the text to apply the style to.
• style - the style to apply to the text.

Example

import pixy

# Print "Hello World" with green text and white background.
print(pixy.pring(
	"Hello World",
	pixy.foreground.green + pixy.background.white
))

pixy.foreground, pixy.background

pixy.foreground and pixy.background contain the variables: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white.

Using the pixy.foreground variant of the colour will apply the colour to the foreground and the pixy.background variant will apply it to the background.

These colours are known as the 3-bit colours and almost all terminals support them. Most terminals also let you make them bright by adding the pixy.decorators.bold style.

Example

import pixy

# Print "Hello World" with green text.
print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.foreground.green))

pixy.decorators

Decorators let you apply other styles to the text.

Decorator	Description	Support
pixy.decorators.bold	Bold/bright
pixy.decorators.faint	Faint/dimmed
pixy.decorators.italic	Italicised
pixy.decorators.underline	Underlined
pixy.decorators.slow_blink	Slow blink (less than 150 per minute)
pixy.decorators.rapid_blink	Rapid blink (150+ per minute)	Not widely supported
pixy.decorators.invert	Swap foreground and background colours
pixy.decorators.conceal	Hide	Not widely supported
pixy.decorators.strike	Strike-through
pixy.decorators.fraktur	Fraktur	Rarely supported
pixy.decorators.double_underline	Double underline
pixy.decorators.framed		Not widely supported
pixy.decorators.encircled		Not widely supported
pixy.decorators.overlined	Overlined

(Descriptions adapted from Wikipedia)

Example

import pixy

# "Hello World" underlined.
print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.decorators.underline))

pixy.ExtendedColour(code, background=False)

With pixy.ExtendedColour you can select from a pre-defined selection of 256 colours.

• code - corresponds to a colour code found here.

• background - boolean value indicating if this is a background or foreground colour.

Example

import pixy

# Print "Hello World" in violet.
print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.ExtendedColour(99)))

# Print "Hello World" with a violet background.
print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.ExtendedColour(99, True)))

pixy.TrueColour(red, green, blue, background=False)

With pixy.TrueColour you can create an RGB colour.

• red - value between 0 and 255 indicating the intensity of the red component.

• green - value between 0 and 255 indicating the intensity of the green component.

• blue - value between 0 and 255 indicating the intensity of the blue component.

• background - boolean value indicating if this is a background or foreground colour.

Example

import pixy

# Print "Hello World" in violet.
print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.TrueColour(238, 130, 238)))

# Print "Hello World" with a violet background.
print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.TrueColour(238, 130, 238, True)))

pixy.Font(code)

Allows you to change the font used. Most terminals do not support this.

• code - a number between 0 and 8 corresponding to a font.

Example

import pixy

print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.Font(3)))

pixy.EscapeSequence(...)

pixy.EscapeSequence can be used in instances that you want to defined your own ANSII escape sequence.

pixy.EscapeSequence takes a variable number of arguments - each argument should be an ANSII code.

Example

import pixy

# Bright blue using ANSII code 94 supported by some terminals
print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.EscapeSequence(94)))

Examples

Blinking Text

import pixy

print(pixy.pring("Hello World", pixy.decorators.slow_blink))

Concatenation

import pixy

# "Hello" in red.
s1 = pixy.pring("Hello", pixy.foreground.red)

# " World" in blue.
s2 = pixy.pring(" World", pixy.foreground.blue)

# Concatenate the strings, add a white background and make
# them bold.
s3 = pixy.pring(s1 + s2, pixy.background.white + pixy.decorators.bold)

print(s3)

Colour shades

import pixy

for i in range(0, 0xFF, 3): 
    colour = pixy.TrueColour(i, 0, 0, background=True)
    print(pixy.pring(" ", colour), end="")

print()

for i in range(0, 0xFF, 3): 
    colour = pixy.TrueColour(0, i, 0, background=True)
    print(pixy.pring(" ", colour), end="")

print()

for i in range(0, 0xFF, 3): 
    colour = pixy.TrueColour(0, 0, i, background=True)
    print(pixy.pring(" ", colour), end="")

print()

Colour gradient

import pixy

def gradient(colour_a, colour_b):
    
    output = []

    for i in range(0, 100, 2): 

        p = i / 100 

        output.append((
            int(colour_a[0] + p * (colour_b[0] - colour_a[0])),
            int(colour_a[1] + p * (colour_b[1] - colour_a[1])),
            int(colour_a[2] + p * (colour_b[2] - colour_a[2]))
        ))

    return output

red_to_green = gradient((255, 0, 0), (0, 255, 0)) 
green_to_blue = gradient((0, 255, 0), (0, 0, 255))
blue_to_red = gradient((0, 0, 255), (255, 0, 0)) 

for colour in red_to_green:
    print(pixy.pring(" ", pixy.TrueColour(*colour, background=True)), end="")

print()

for colour in green_to_blue:
    print(pixy.pring(" ", pixy.TrueColour(*colour, background=True)), end="")

print()

for colour in blue_to_red:
    print(pixy.pring(" ", pixy.TrueColour(*colour, background=True)), end="")

print()

License

pixy is licensed under the MIT license.