@spacingbat3/kolor

A simple Node.js/ESM module to add kolors to your terminal output!

Kolor is a Polish word that means colour / color.

Usage:

Note

Recently, @spacingbat3/kolor has dropped CJS syntax in favour of ESM-only support and loading. It also introduced the experimental __kolorTTY global you might use for now as a fallback mechanism of determining whenever kolor should colorize strings in non-Node.js-compatible runtimes.

ESM / TypeScript:

1. Importing selected group of functions (colors or modifiers[*]):

import {colors, modifiers} from "@spacingbat3/kolor"

// Because errors should be red :)
console.error(colors.red("ERROR: Something went wrong!"))

// Modifiers are grouped by `safe` and `other`:
console.log(modifiers.safe.bold("Definitely important text."))

2. Importing default object as colors that contains all method packed in one object (except other modifiers, they're in unsafe object).

import colors from "@spacingbat3/kolor"

// Now, syntax is similar to the one in `colors/safe` module.
console.warn(colors.bold("==> "+colors.brightYellow("Warning:"))+" Something happened!")

FAQ

Why I started to develop it?

In general, I made this module as an answer to colors library sabotage. I decided to neither thrust colors not any alternatives to it, when I only need some of its features.

You can of course use this library as well in your project, if you want to. As of concerns of me not being trustworthy, I don't really care that much. Especially I should point out this software is not "corporate-grade", so in case of the global failures, the blame lies on the user – as I disclaim any responsibility for what this software might do, whenever intentionally or not, as specified in the license that should be distributed with this software. Of course, my will is to fix bugs and maintain the software, but I'm not offering any personal help, fixes, patching nor any service you'd expect from software used in commercial software.

Why not just use chalk or fork of colors?

This project has a different philosophy that both of these projects. It doesn't aim to provide any kind of complex features that are not related to ANSI escape codes nor it aims to be complex in any way – while it aims to be a generic solution strictly based on EcmaScript standard and only using Node's APIs when necessary without strong dependence on them, it's goal is to be a rather simple library, with very limited feature set to what I find necessary, hence being more opinionated.

One of the key differences (at least from colors) is that kolor separates some ANSI escape codes that are not working on all platforms, which you may find useful if you aim for your code to offer cross-platform experience.

Since v3.2.0 it also provides the type definitions for transforming the literal types, which makes TypeScript to accurately predict all combinations of types for the library and overall improves the type accuracy (not just for literals).

Legal

This project is licensed under the ISC license, which should be distributed with this project. Not distributing it with this library might be against the license – please read the license for further information.