https://github.com/l1asis/pyansistring
A Python library for string color styling using ANSI escape sequences.
https://github.com/l1asis/pyansistring
ansi ansi-colors ansi-escape ansi-escape-code ansi-escape-sequence cli color colored-text colorize console debugging logging python rich-text string-formatting terminal terminal-colors text-formatting text-styling tui
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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A Python library for string color styling using ANSI escape sequences.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/l1asis/pyansistring
- Owner: l1asis
- License: mit
- Created: 2025-10-18T18:36:43.000Z (7 months ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-03-28T08:34:38.000Z (about 2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-03-28T13:05:26.940Z (about 2 months ago)
- Topics: ansi, ansi-colors, ansi-escape, ansi-escape-code, ansi-escape-sequence, cli, color, colored-text, colorize, console, debugging, logging, python, rich-text, string-formatting, terminal, terminal-colors, text-formatting, text-styling, tui
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 630 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 14
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# pyansistring
[](https://github.com/l1asis/pyansistring/actions)
[](https://pypi.org/project/pyansistring/)
[](https://pypi.org/project/pyansistring/)
[](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
[](https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff)
ANSI-aware string formatting for Python CLIs.
`pyansistring` gives you a string type that keeps styling attached while you keep using familiar string operations. You can color text, apply SGR attributes, generate gradients, color ASCII art, and export styled output to SVG.
## Why pyansistring
- Keeps styling aligned with text during common string operations.
- Supports 4-bit, 8-bit, and 24-bit (truecolor) foreground/background/underline colors.
- Works well for CLI tools, logs, dashboards, and terminal UX.
- Includes practical APIs for gradients, ASCII art coloring, and SVG export.
## Features
- **ANSIString class** that subclasses Python `str`.
- **Style-preserving operations** for concatenation, slicing, splitting, joining, replacing, stripping, case transforms, and formatting (f-strings, `.format()`).
- **SGR styling and attributes:** bold, dim, italic, underline, strikethrough, invert, and advanced underline modes (single, double, curly, dotted, dashed).
- **Color channels:** 4-bit ANSI, 8-bit palette, and 24-bit RGB for foreground, background, and underlines.
- **Targeting modes:** apply to full strings, slice ranges, or word matches (case-sensitive or insensitive).
- **Gradient engine:** RGB or HSL interpolation, coordinate-based gradients for multiline text, and out-of-bounds handling.
- **SVG export:** render text or path modes with per-character coloring and optional custom fonts.
- **Art registries:** built-in ASCII art, load from TOML, custom color generators, and an optional cowsay adapter.
- **ANSI parsing:** convert raw ANSI-encoded strings back into `ANSIString` instances with styles intact.
- **Large constants base:** extensive predefined color constants and palettes, plus SGR/regex helpers for easy access.
- **Terminal-oriented formatting controls:** supports modern and compatibility SGR formatting modes to improve behavior across ANSI-capable terminals.
- **Performance-minded internals:** cached line-start indexing, style object caching, and change-tracked re-rendering to reduce repeated work.
- **Comprehensive test suite** covering edge cases around string operations, style preservation, gradient calculations, and terminal rendering.
## Requirements
- Python 3.11+
## Installation
Install the base package:
```bash
pip install pyansistring
```
Install extras when needed:
```bash
pip install pyansistring[img] # For SVG export (installs fontTools)
pip install pyansistring[adapter-cowsay] # For the cowsay adapter
pip install pyansistring[adapters] # All adapters
pip install pyansistring[all] # Install everything
```
## Quick Start
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString, Foreground, Background, SGR
text = (
ANSIString("Hello, World!")
.fg_4b(Foreground.YELLOW)
.bg_4b(Background.BLUE)
.style(SGR.BOLD)
)
print(text)
```
## Usage Examples
The examples below are generated by [examples/generate_usage_svg.py](examples/generate_usage_svg.py).
### Unstyled text
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString
print(ANSIString("Hello, World!"))
```
### Whole-string styling
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString, Foreground, Background, SGR
print(
ANSIString("Hello, World!")
.fg_4b(Foreground.YELLOW)
.bg_4b(Background.BLUE)
.style(SGR.BOLD)
)
```
### Style by slice
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString, Foreground, Background, SGR
print(
ANSIString("Hello, World!")
.fg_4b(Foreground.YELLOW, (0, 5), (7, 12))
.bg_4b(Background.BLUE, (7, 12))
.style(SGR.BOLD, (7, 12))
)
```
### Style by words
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString, Foreground, Background, SGR
print(
ANSIString("Hello, World!")
.fg_4b_words(Foreground.YELLOW, "Hello", "World")
.bg_4b_words(Background.BLUE, "World")
.style_words(SGR.BOLD, "Hello", "World")
)
```
### SGR attributes
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString, SGR
print(ANSIString("Hello, World!").style(SGR.BOLD).style(SGR.UNDERLINE))
```
### 4-bit, 8-bit, and 24-bit colors
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString, Foreground, Background
print(ANSIString("Hello, World!").fg_4b(Foreground.YELLOW).bg_4b(Background.BLUE))
print(ANSIString("Hello, World!").fg_8b(11).bg_8b(4).ul_8b(74))
print(ANSIString("Hello, World!").fg_24b(255, 255, 0).bg_24b(0, 0, 238).ul_24b(135, 175, 215))
```
### Underline modes
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString, UnderlineMode
print(
ANSIString("Hello, World!")
.bg_24b(255, 255, 255)
.ul_24b(255, 0, 0)
.style(UnderlineMode.DOUBLE)
)
```
### Rainbow
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString
print(ANSIString("Hello, World! This is rainbow text!").rainbow(fg=True))
```
### Gradient APIs
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString
print(
ANSIString("Hello, World! This is gradient text!")
.gradient([(84, 161, 255), (233, 200, 216)], fg=True)
)
print(
ANSIString("Hello, colorful gradient world!")
.gradient_words([(255, 99, 71), (255, 215, 0)], "Hello", "world", case_sensitive=False, fg=True)
)
print(
ANSIString("HELLO\nworld")
.gradient_coordinates(
[(255, 0, 120), (0, 200, 255)],
(1, 1),
(2, 1),
(3, 1),
(4, 1),
(5, 1),
index_base=1,
fg=True,
)
)
```
### ArtRegistry and custom generators
```python
from pyansistring import (
ArtRegistry,
ColorGeneratorContext,
register_color_generator,
unregister_color_generator,
)
def zigzag_generator(context: ColorGeneratorContext) -> list[tuple[int, int, int]]:
palette = [
(84, 161, 255),
(255, 99, 71),
(255, 215, 0),
(120, 220, 160),
]
return [palette[i % len(palette)] for i in range(max(2, context["step_count"]))]
register_color_generator("zigzag_readme_v1", zigzag_generator)
try:
registry = ArtRegistry()
registry.register(
"ZIGZAG",
" /\\/\\/\\/\\\n \\/\\/\\/\\/",
colorings=(
{
"mode": "gradient",
"colors": {
"generator": "zigzag_readme_v1",
"mode": "seeded",
"seed": 42,
},
"skip_whitespace": True,
"fg": True,
},
),
)
print(registry.get_colored_art("ZIGZAG"))
finally:
unregister_color_generator("zigzag_readme_v1")
```
### Parse ANSI text back into ANSIString
```python
from pyansistring import ANSIString
raw = "\x1b[31mError\x1b[0m: file not found"
parsed = ANSIString.from_ansi(raw)
print(parsed.plain_text)
print(parsed)
```
### Export ANSIString to SVG
```python
from fontTools.ttLib import TTFont
from pyansistring import ANSIString, SGR
font = TTFont("path/to/font.ttf")
styled = ANSIString("SVG output").style(SGR.BOLD).fg_24b(90, 170, 255)
svg_code = styled.to_svg(
font=font,
font_size_px=16,
convert_text_to_path=False,
)
```
For a complete terminal tour, run [examples/showcase.py](examples/showcase.py).
For a focused ArtRegistry walkthrough, run [examples/art_registry_demo.py](examples/art_registry_demo.py).
## Contributing
Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are **greatly appreciated**.
1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (`git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature`)
3. Commit your Changes (`git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature'`)
4. Push to the Branch (`git push origin feature/AmazingFeature`)
5. Open a Pull Request
## License
Distributed under the MIT License. See `LICENSE` for more information.