How to echo with different colors in the Windows command line

Question

I know that the color bf command sets the colors of the whole command line window but I wanted to to print one single line in a different color.

Answer 1

Put the following lines into a file called ColourText.bas on your desktop.

Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports Microsoft.Win32

Public Module MyApplication  
Public Declare Function GetStdHandle Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetStdHandle" (ByVal nStdHandle As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SetConsoleTextAttribute Lib "kernel32" Alias "SetConsoleTextAttribute" (ByVal hConsoleOutput As Long, ByVal wAttributes As Long) As Long
Public Const STD_ERROR_HANDLE = -12&
Public Const STD_INPUT_HANDLE = -10&
Public Const STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE = -11&

Sub Main()
    Dim hOut as Long
    Dim Ret as Long
    Dim Colour As Long
    Dim Colour1 As Long
    Dim Text As String
    hOut  = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE)
    Colour = CLng("&h" & Split(Command(), " ")(0))
    Colour1 = Clng("&h" & Split(Command(), " ")(1))
    Text = Mid(Command(), 7)
    Ret = SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut,  Colour)
    Console.Out.WriteLine(text)
    Ret = SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut, Colour1)
End Sub
End Module

Save it and type the following in a command prompt.

"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\vbc.exe" /target:exe /out:"%userprofile%\desktop\ColourText.exe" "%userprofile%\desktop\ColourText.bas" /verbose

A file called ColourText.exe will appear on your desktop. Move it to the Windows folder.

To use you must use two character codes to set colour eg 01 not 1.

ColourText ColourOfText ColourOfTextWhenFinished Text

EG To set blue on white by not passing any text, then red on white text, finishing with blue on grey.

ColourText F1 F1
ColourText F2 71 This is green on white

or

ColourText F1 F1
cls
ColourText F4 F4
Echo Hello
Echo Hello today
ColourText F1 F1

Also the CLS command becomes interesting. Color command without parameters resets all colours to startup colours.

To get the colour code add the following numbers together. Use Calculator in programmers mode. These are hex numbers. They can be added together eg Red + Blue + FG Intensity = 13 = D. As 10+ wasn't used the background will be black. Colour codes MUST be two characters, eg 08 not 8.

FOREGROUND_RED = &H4     '  text color contains red.
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY = &H8     '  text color is intensified.
FOREGROUND_GREEN = &H2     '  text color contains green.
FOREGROUND_BLUE = &H1     '  text color contains blue.
BACKGROUND_BLUE = &H10    '  background color contains blue.
BACKGROUND_GREEN = &H20    '  background color contains green.
BACKGROUND_INTENSITY = &H80    '  background color is intensified.
BACKGROUND_RED = &H40    '  background color contains red.