How do I print colored output to the terminal in Python?

Question

Is there any python equivalent for perl\'s

print color \'red\';
print ;
print color \'reset\';

available in python?

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Answer 1

There are a few libraries that help out here. For cmdline tools I sometimes use colorama.

e.g.

from colorama import init, Fore, Back, Style
init()

def cprint(msg, foreground = "black", background = "white"):
    fground = foreground.upper()
    bground = background.upper()
    style = getattr(Fore, fground) + getattr(Back, bground)
    print(style + msg + Style.RESET_ALL)

cprint("colorful output, wohoo", "red", "black")

But instead of using strings, you might want to use an enum and/or add a few checks. Not the prettiest solution, but works on osx/linux and windows and is easy to use.

Other threads about this topic and cross-platform support: e.g. here.