Is is possible to format the output of a python program on the command line?

is it possible, for example, to make the text that appears as output on the command line appear in a certain colour using python?

Yes. But the answer depends on your platform. In windows you can use the command-line COLOR command. Here's how:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>COLOR /?
Sets the default console foreground and background colors.

COLOR [attr]

  attr        Specifies color attribute of console output

Color attributes are specified by TWO hex digits -- the first
corresponds to the background; the second the foreground.  Each digit
can be any of the following values:

    0 = Black       8 = Gray
    1 = Blue        9 = Light Blue
    2 = Green       A = Light Green
    3 = Aqua        B = Light Aqua
    4 = Red         C = Light Red
    5 = Purple      D = Light Purple
    6 = Yellow      E = Light Yellow
    7 = White       F = Bright White

If no argument is given, this command restores the color to what it was
when CMD.EXE started.  This value either comes from the current console
window, the /T command line switch or from the DefaultColor registry
value.

The COLOR command sets ERRORLEVEL to 1 if an attempt is made to execute
the COLOR command with a foreground and background color that are the
same.

Example: "COLOR fc" produces light red on bright white

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>COLOR 52

I used COLOR 52 to set the background to Purple with the foreground (text) to Green (ugliest combo I could think of?)

To do this in Python simply use os.system('COLOR 52') . If you're looking for greater resolution you'll need to look into curses; however that's not readily available for Windows. You could instead create your own highly-stylized GUI with something like wxPython or GTK

thanks.. I'll try that.

Thanks this works great!

Any command line commands can be passes with python, not only the color. For example cls to clear the screen.