color.py.md

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: black blue cyan darkblue darkcyan darkgray darkgreen darkmagenta darkred darkyellow default green lightgray magenta orange purple red white yellow	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.