QAnsiTextViewer
ANSI Text Viewer - Qt log-viewer widget for Python
Drop-in QWidget that renders ANSI escape codes and colored terminal output:
tail logs, search and filter them, bookmark lines, and save sessions.
Works with both PySide6 (tested) and PyQt (same Qt API, no code changes).
Install
uv add qansitextviewer
# or from GitHub / local build:
uv add git+https://github.com/tanishq-kumar/QAnsiTextViewer
uv build && uv pip install dist/qansitextviewer-*.whl
# or clone + develop:
uv sync --group dev
Requires Python >=3.11, PySide6 >=6.5.0.
Quick start
from PySide6.QtWidgets import QApplication
from ansi_text_viewer import AnsiTextViewer
app = QApplication([])
viewer = AnsiTextViewer()
viewer.appendAnsiText("\x1b[31mred\x1b[0m plain\n")
viewer.highlight_search("red") # F3 / Shift+F3 navigates, Esc clears
viewer.setTheme("dark")
viewer.show()
app.exec()
Full demo app: just demo (or uv run python demo.py).
API cheatsheet
| Task | Call |
|---|---|
| Append / replace | appendAnsiText(s), setAnsiText(s) (\r = progress overwrite) |
| Non-blocking burst | appendAnsiTextAsync(s) + asyncAppendProgress / asyncAppendFinished, cancelAsyncAppends() |
| Search / filter | highlight_search(q, use_regex, match_case), next_match(), prev_match(), filter_search(q, ...) |
| Limits | setMaximumBlocks(10000), setMaxLineLength(10000) (0 = off) |
| Look | setTheme("light"|"dark"|"auto"), setMonospaceFont(), setFontSize(), setFontFamily(), useSystemFont(), setWordWrapEnabled(), setCurrentLineHighlightEnabled() |
| Appearance | Theme-following defaults; setDefaultColors(fg, bg), setColorsFollowTheme(bool), setAnsiPaletteColor(), setLogLevelColors(), setBookmarkColor(), setSearchHighlightColor() |
| Log helpers | setTimestampEnabled(), setLogLevelHighlighting(), setSyntaxHighlighting() |
| Custom highlight | add_highlight_rule(rule) with spans(text) (ansi_text_viewer.highlight) |
| Bookmarks | toggleBookmark() (or gutter click), gotoNextBookmark(), bookmarkedLines(), bookmarksChanged signal |
| Copy / export | copySelectedPlainText(), copySelectedWithAnsi(), exportToFile(path) (.txt/.html/.md) |
| Sessions | saveSession("s.json"), loadSession("s.json") |
| Shortcuts | Ctrl+F → findRequested, F3/Shift+F3, Esc (app-wide) |
Dev Commands
just test · just demo · just run · just lint · just typecheck · just docs-build — see justfile.
FAQ
PySide6 or PyQt?
PySide6 is the tested dependency. PyQt exposes the same QWidget API,
so the viewer works there too — report any gap as a bug.
Why not QPlainTextEdit + manual parsing?
That's exactly the boilerplate this widget removes: SGR/256-color/truecolor
parsing, \r progress lines, search, bookmarks, themes, and session save/load
in one typed widget.
How is this different from a terminal emulator?
Terminal emulators run interactive shells. This is a read-oriented log viewer:
append-only text, regex search/filter, bookmarks, and export to .txt/.html/.md.
1 maintainer
Metadata
1 maintainer
Release files for qansitextviewer 0.1.2
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| qansitextviewer-0.1.2.tar.gz | 66.7 kB | Details |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qansitextviewer-0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl | Python 3 | none | any | Details |
Total release size: 100.3 kB
Release files / qansitextviewer-0.1.2.tar.gz
| Download URL | qansitextviewer-0.1.2.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 66.7 kB |
| Tags | Source |
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Release files / qansitextviewer-0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl
| Download URL | qansitextviewer-0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl |
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| Size | 33.6 kB |
| Tags | Python 3 |
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