# Change console forground to Red or Green **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 5, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258 "2009-08-05T20:25:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/1 "2009-08-05T20:25:35Z")
Hi All, I’m looking for a way to change a Window’s console foreground color in Ruby. I have a script that outputs passes and fails and I would like to know how to change the text to green or red specfically. I don’t even mind hard coding the console color code values (escape sequences), since those are the only two colors I’m planning on using. Any help would be appreciated… ---
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/2 "2009-08-05T21:37:34Z")
2009/8/5 Laup-Dawg [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > You might be able to do that with the ruby curses extension but on windows you cannot change the console colors by simply printing some escape sequences. If you do not insist on using console it should be simple to get this functionality in a win32 application, tk, HTML + browser, … HTH Michal ---
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/3 "2009-08-05T21:44:00Z")
2009/8/5 Laup-Dawg [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > […] > I’m looking for a way to change a Window’s console foreground color in > Ruby. I have a script that outputs passes and fails and I would like > to know how to change the text to green or red specfically. > […] Hello, if you want complex text user interface functionality, you can use Curses. If you just want to color some of the output, the term-ansicolor gem may be handy – try something like this: require ‘term/ansicolor’ puts 'The test ’ + Term::ANSIColor.red(‘failed’) cu, Thomas ---
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/4 "2009-08-05T22:16:47Z")
On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Laup-Dawg[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Windows cmd.exe doesn’t support ANSI escape sequences out of the box. But the win32console gem will do the trick. gem in win32console ---
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/5 "2009-08-06T19:25:50Z")
On Aug 5, 12:43 pm, Thomas C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > 2009/8/5 Laup-Dawg [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > > […] >  require ‘term/ansicolor’ >  puts 'The test ’ + Term::ANSIColor.red(‘failed’) > […] > Hi Thomas, thanks for your quick reply. After installing the term-ansicolor gem, I copied and pasted your code sample. This is what I saw in the window’s command window after running the script. “The test ←[31mFailed←[0m” The foreground color didn’t change to red, it remained the default. Am I missing something obvious? Thanks again for your replies! Adam > When C++ is your hammer, every problem looks like your thumb. > haha…that’s a great quote ---
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/6 "2009-08-06T19:58:03Z")
2009/8/6 Laup-Dawg [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > […] > This is what I saw in the window’s command window after running the > script. > > “The test ←[31mFailed←[0m” > > The foreground color didn’t change to red, it remained the default. > […] Hello, as Gordon T. already mentioned in this thread, the Windows console doesn’t support ANSI escape sequences natively and that the win32console gem could be useful to emulate such functionality. The output you see includes the uninterpreted escape sequences verbatim – so it actually looks “right” in a certain sense 😉 I faintly remember that in the DOS and Windows 95 days you also had the option to load a driver that globally taught the console to display ANSI escapes, but I have no idea whether something similar is still available for modern Windows systems. I haven’t touched a Windows box in ages, so I don’t have any hands-on experience in this area. cu, Thomas ---
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/7 "2009-08-07T04:35:59Z")
Thank you everyone for your responses. Just for the record, so someone looking for a similar solution can find it, I used the following code: require ‘win32console’ require ‘term/ansicolor’ include Win32::Console::ANSI include Term::ANSIColor puts red puts “hello, red world” # or you can modify the string class itself class String include Term::ANSIColor end puts “hello, blue world”.blue (Ruby, Windows Vista 64bit, cmd.exe) Adam ---
**Author:** ![b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/8dc957/32.png) [@b1gtuna](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/b1gtuna)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/change-console-forground-to-red-or-green/173258/8 "2009-08-06T23:53:56Z")
2009/8/6 Thomas C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > Hello, > still available for modern Windows systems. I haven’t touched a > Windows box in ages, so I don’t have any hands-on experience in this > area. My hands-on experience suggests that this driver still exists but is useless. It somehow interprets the output of echo commands (and not ruby scripts) and works in [command.com](http://command.com) (and not in cmd.exe). That’s why I suggest using a different windows-native method rather than escape sequences. Of course, you can also install mingw with its terminal emulation and you could possibly get colours in there. But it’s no longer windows console any more than a tk application. The curses extension for windows should also have colours. IIRC it is possible to set colours using some Windows console API which is probably what win32console and pdcurses does. HTH Michal