How to change text or background color in a Windows console application

Question

Which C++ function changes text or background color (MS Visual studio)? For example cout<<\"This text\"; how to make \"This text\" red color.

Answer 1

Colour isn't a C++ thing, but a property of your terminal. If your terminal speaks ANSI (e.g. any Linux terminal, or DOS or Windows NT if you add DEVICE=C:\DOS\ansi.sys to your config.sys, or later Windows if you call the shell with cmd.exe /kansicon), then you can try the following gimmick:

#define ANSI_COLOR_RED     "\x1b[31m"
#define ANSI_COLOR_GREEN   "\x1b[32m"
#define ANSI_COLOR_YELLOW  "\x1b[33m"
#define ANSI_COLOR_BLUE    "\x1b[34m"
#define ANSI_COLOR_MAGENTA "\x1b[35m"
#define ANSI_COLOR_CYAN    "\x1b[36m"

#define ANSI_COLOR_BRIGHT  "\x1b[1m"
#define ANSI_COLOR_RESET   "\x1b[0m"


std::cout << ANSI_COLOR_RED "Hello World\n" ANSI_COLOR_RESET;

Wikipedia has a list of ANSI escape sequences.