Blessings

1.7 · maintenance · verified Sat Apr 11

Blessings is a thin, practical Python wrapper around terminal capabilities, offering an elegant interface for coloring, styling, and positioning text. It aims to simplify advanced terminal interactions compared to raw ANSI escape codes or the `curses` library, handling common cases like output redirection gracefully. The latest version, 1.7, was released in June 2018. The project is largely unmaintained, with active development continuing in a fork called `blessed`.

Warnings

deprecated The `blessings` library is largely unmaintained since its last release (v1.7 in 2018). Most active development and new features, including Python 3.7+ compatibility, Windows support, and improved keyboard handling, are found in the `blessed` fork (PyPI: `blessed`).
Fix: Consider migrating to the `blessed` library (`pip install blessed`) for continued support and new features, especially if targeting modern Python versions or Windows.
gotcha Blessings does not natively support color or styling on the Windows command prompt by itself. While it may work in some environments (like Cygwin, WSL), direct Windows CMD support is absent.
Fix: On Windows, `blessings` needs to be used in conjunction with a library like `colorama` for native CMD support. The `blessed` fork (not `blessings`) offers native Windows support starting from its later versions.
breaking Blessings is explicitly incompatible with specific Python 3 versions (3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3).
Fix: Ensure you are running Blessings on a compatible Python version (>=2.7, excluding 3.0-3.3, and older Python 3.x versions up to 3.6 for Blessings 1.7). For Python 3.7+, you should use the `blessed` library instead.
gotcha The original `blessings` library does not provide robust character-by-character keyboard input handling, which is a common requirement for interactive terminal applications. Users often expect this functionality similar to `curses`.
Fix: For comprehensive keyboard input, including arrow keys and special characters, you would need to use `curses` directly or consider the `blessed` fork, which specifically added enhanced keyboard input capabilities.
gotcha When output is redirected (e.g., to a file or pipe), `blessings` intelligently omits terminal control codes by default. If you intend to pipe output to a program that *can* handle escape sequences (like `less -r`), this automatic omission might be undesired.
Fix: Pass `force_styling=True` to the `Terminal` constructor: `term = Terminal(force_styling=True)`. Alternatively, check `term.does_styling` to conditionally apply formatting.
gotcha While string concatenation (e.g., `term.bold + 'text' + term.normal`) works for applying styles, it requires manual resetting with `term.normal`. For simpler usage, attributes can be called directly.
Fix: Use the callable form: `print(term.bold('text'))`. This automatically applies the style and resets it afterward, reducing boilerplate and potential errors.

Install

pip install blessings Install stable version

Imports

Terminal
```
from blessings import Terminal
```

Quickstart

Initialize the Terminal object and use its attributes for styling. The `location` context manager allows temporary cursor movements. Check `term.does_styling` for graceful degradation when output is piped to a non-terminal.

from blessings import Terminal

term = Terminal()

# Basic styling
print(term.bold_red_on_yellow('Hello, Blessings!'))

# Temporary cursor positioning
with term.location(x=0, y=term.height - 1):
    print(term.underline('This text is at the bottom.'))

# Clear the screen
# print(term.clear)

# Example of does_styling for graceful degradation
if term.does_styling:
    print(term.bold('Terminal supports styling!'))
else:
    print('Terminal does not support styling, printing plain text.')

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