adding color in text

[severman]

hi all
could any 1 knows how to add color to printf?
i mean that i want to write a sentence with color in it.
thanx!

[Narue]

There's no portable way to do this. What compiler and operating system are you using? In anticipation of you being on Windows, you can use SetConsoleTextAttribute to give your text color.

[severman]

im using Visual Studio and windows xp.

[Narue]

You're all set then. Follow the link I gave in my previous post for details.

[severman]

10x!

[Colin Mac]

Here's some examples
http://www.adrianxw.dk/SoftwareSite/Consoles/Consoles4.html

[zdaxxy]

This is for console printing. Before you printf something print this escape sequence to produce it in the desired color. There is a small routine textcolor() which does this automatically. You can use it in your programs along with the #define constants.

textcolor()

#includes <stdio.h>

#define RESET       0
#define BRIGHT      1
#define DIM     2
#define UNDERLINE   3
#define BLINK       4
#define REVERSE     7
#define HIDDEN      8

#define BLACK       0
#define RED     1
#define GREEN       2
#define YELLOW      3
#define BLUE        4
#define MAGENTA     5
#define CYAN        6
#define WHITE       7

void textcolor(int attr, int fg, int bg);
int main()
{   textcolor(BRIGHT, RED, BLACK);  
    printf("In color\n");
    textcolor(RESET, WHITE, BLACK); 
    return 0;
}

void textcolor(int attr, int fg, int bg)
{   char command[13];

    /* Command is the control command to the terminal */
    sprintf(command, "%c[%d;%d;%dm", 0x1B, attr, fg + 30, bg + 40);
    printf("%s", command);
}

The textcolor() is modeled against the Turbo C API function. You call the function to set the color and then print with a sprintf() (a function used in Turbo C to produce console output in color).
A Demo of colors

#include <stdio.h>

#define RESET       0
#define BRIGHT      1
#define DIM     2
#define UNDERLINE   3
#define BLINK       4
#define REVERSE     7
#define HIDDEN      8

#define BLACK       0
#define RED     1
#define GREEN       2
#define YELLOW      3
#define BLUE        4
#define MAGENTA     5
#define CYAN        6
#define WHITE       7

#define ARRAY_SIZE(a) (sizeof(a) / sizeof(a[0]))

char *attrs[] = {"NORMAL", "BRIGHT", "DIM", "UNDERLINE", "BLINK",
         "REVERSE", "HIDDEN", "EXIT"};
char *colors[] = {"BLACK", "RED", "GREEN", "YELLOW", "BLUE", "MAGENTA",
         "CYAN", "WHITE", "EXIT"};
void textcolor(int attr, int fg, int bg);
int print_menu(char *array[], int n_options, char *title);
int main()
{   int attr, fg, bg;
    int attr_size, colors_size;

    attr_size = ARRAY_SIZE(attrs);
    colors_size = ARRAY_SIZE(colors);
    while(1)
    {   printf("\n");
        attr = print_menu(attrs, attr_size, "Choose the attr you want:");
        if(attr == attr_size - 1)
            break;
        fg = print_menu(colors, colors_size, "Choose the foreground you want:");
        if(attr == colors_size - 1)
            break;
        bg = print_menu(colors, colors_size, "Choose the background you want:");
        if(attr == colors_size - 1)
            break;
        printf("\n");
        textcolor(attr, fg, bg);    
        printf("This is what you get if you use the combination %s attribute %s foreground and %s
 background", attrs[attr], colors[fg], colors[bg]);
        textcolor(RESET, WHITE, BLACK);
        system("clear");
    }
    return 0;
}

int print_menu(char *array[], int n_options, char *title)
{   int choice, i;
    for(i = 0;i < n_options; ++i)
        printf("%d.%s\n", i, array[i]);
    printf("%s", title);
    scanf("%d", &choice);
    return choice;
}       
void textcolor(int attr, int fg, int bg)
{   char command[13];

    /* Command is the control command to the terminal */
    sprintf(command, "%c[%d;%d;%dm", 0x1B, attr, fg + 30, bg + 40);
    printf("%s", command);
}

This program asks the user to play with attributes and colors and shows a string in that color. You can use it to find out the best combination of colors for your GUIs.

Hope this helps.