Batch Color per line

Question

In batch, can you have different colors per line. For example if you had a batch file say \"Hello\" \"How are you?\"

Could you have \"Hello\" in blue and \"How are y

Answer 1

The Batch file below create COLORMSG.COM file (rename it as you wish) that show a message with color this way: colormsg color "Message".

@echo off
(
echo e100
echo 0F B6 0E 80 00 E3 4F BF 81 00 B0 20 FC F3 AE 74
echo e110
echo 45 E3 43 8A 45 FF E8 43 00 80 3D 20 74 0E C0 E0
echo e120
echo 04 8A E0 8A 05 E8 34 00 0A C4 47 49 E3 28 32 E4
echo e130
echo 50 B0 22 F2 AE 75 1F E3 1D 8B F7 8B D1 F2 AE 75
echo e140
echo 01 41 2B D1 74 10 8B CA 5B B0 20 B4 09 CD 10 AC
echo e150
echo B4 0E CD 10 E2 F9 32 C0 B4 4C CD 21 3C 61 72 02
echo e160
echo 2C 20 3C 41 72 02 2C 07 2C 30 C3
echo rcx
echo 6b
echo w
echo q
) | debug colormsg.com > nul

After the message the cursor is not moved to new line, so several messages may be shown in the same line. To give colors in an easier way, you may use these definitions:

set Black=0&       set Gray=8
set Blue=1&        set LightBlue=9
set Green=2&       set LightGreen=A
set Aqua=3&        set LightAqua=B
set Red=4&         set LightRed=C
set Purple=5&      set LightPurple=D
set Yellow=6&      set LightYellow=E
set White=7&       set BrightWhite=F

For example:

colormsg %Yellow% "Message in yellow  "
colormsg %Blue%%BrightWhite% "Bright white text over blue background"

This is a larger example:

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set i=0
for %%c in (Blk Blu Grn Aqu Red Pur Yel Whi) do (
    set color[!i!]=%%c
    set /A i+=1
)
for /L %%j in (0,1,7) do (
    set color[!i!]=L!color[%%j]:~0,-1!
    set /A i+=1
)    
cls
echo/
echo           BACKGROUND / FOREGROUND COMBINATIONS OF AVAILABLE SCREEN COLORS
echo/
echo/
colormsg 7 "ForeGrnd:"
for /L %%i in (0,1,15) do colormsg 7 " !color[%%i]!"
echo/
echo BackGrnd
set i=0
for /L %%b in (0,1,9) do call :ShowLine %%b
for %%b in (A B C D E F) do call :ShowLine %%b
echo/
goto :eof

:ShowLine
colormsg 7 "   !color[%i%]!   "
set /A i+=1
for /L %%f in (0,1,9) do colormsg %1%%f " %1%%f "
for %%f in (A B C D E F) do colormsg %1%%f " %1%%f "
echo/

Hey Gareth, here is a bonus for you! The following Batch file create TEXTPOS.COM file (rename it as you wish) that move the cursor to any line and column this way: textpos line col:

@echo off
(
echo e100
echo 0F B6 0E 80 00 E3 2D BF 81 00 B0 20 FC F3 AE 74
echo e110
echo 23 E3 21 8D 75 FF E8 45 00 3C 20 75 3B 86 F2 E8
echo e120
echo 3C 00 86 F2 3C 20 74 04 3C 0D 75 2C 32 FF B4 02
echo e130
echo CD 10 EB 24 32 FF B4 03 CD 10 8A C6 8A CA E8 38
echo e140
echo 00 B2 20 B4 02 CD 21 8A C1 E8 2D 00 B2 0D B4 02
echo e150
echo CD 21 B2 0A B4 02 CD 21 32 C0 B4 4C CD 21 32 E4
echo e160
echo AC 3C 20 74 FB 3C 30 72 0D 3C 39 77 09 2C 30 D5
echo e170
echo 0A 8A E0 AC EB EF 8A F4 C3 D4 0A 05 30 30 8B D0
echo e180
echo 80 FC 30 74 08 86 D6 B4 02 CD 21 8A D6 B4 02 CD
echo e190
echo 21 C3
echo rcx
echo 92
echo w
echo q
) | debug textpos.com > nul

For example:

textpos 0 0
colormsg %Red% "Red message at top left corner of the screen"
textpos 10 40
colormsg %Blue%%LightYellow% "This message start in line 10 column 40"

EDIT

I slightly modified TEXTPOS program so it display the current cursor position if it is executed with no parameters; this feature allows to store the cursor position in a variable this way: textpos > pipe.txt & set /P pos=< pipe.txt (because textpos | set /P pos= have an error and does not work).

If a color message is shown with the same value for background and foreground colors, the text will not be visible in the screen; this feature allows to enter a password. For example, this is getpassword.bat file:

@echo off
set password=
for /L %%i in (1,1,%1) do set password=!password!x
colormsg 7 "Enter password: "
textpos > pipe.txt & set /P passpos=< pipe.txt
colormsg 77 "%password%"
textpos %passpos%
set password=
for /L %%i in (1,1,%1) do (
    getakey
    set password=!password!!errorlevel!
    colormsg 7F "*"
)

Previous Batch file allows to read a password with the number of characters given in the parameter, for example: call getpassword 8; entered characters are changed by its ASCII code, so the password have a rudimentary encryption. For example, to check if the entered password was "Pass":

call getpassword 4
if %password% == 8097115115 goto right_password

I provided the GETAKEY.COM program in a previous question, but here is it again:

@echo off
(
echo e100
echo B4 08 CD 21 B4 4C CD 21
echo rcx
echo 8
echo w
echo q
) | debug getakey.com > nul