crayons

0.4.0 · active · verified Sat Apr 11

Crayons is a simple Python module that provides colored strings for terminal usage, automatically wrapping a given string in both the foreground color and resetting to the original state after the string is complete. It aims to simplify terminal coloring by managing ANSI escape codes for the user. The current version is 0.4.0, released in August 2020, indicating a stable but less frequently updated library.

Warnings

breaking The `clean` function was completely rewritten in v0.3.0. Previously, it might have stripped all characters, but now it specifically removes ANSI escape codes.
Fix: If you relied on `crayons.clean()` to strip all non-alphanumeric characters, its behavior changed. Test your code with v0.3.0+ to ensure the new behavior (ANSI code stripping only) is what you expect. If not, implement your own string cleaning logic.
gotcha As of v0.4.0, `crayons` explicitly checks if `sys.stdout` has an `isatty` attribute and if it's `True` before displaying colors. If using a custom stdout object without `isatty` or if `isatty` is `False` (e.g., in a piped environment), colors might not display.
Fix: To force color output regardless of the TTY status, set the `CLINT_FORCE_COLOR` environment variable to any non-empty value (e.g., `export CLINT_FORCE_COLOR=1` or `os.environ['CLINT_FORCE_COLOR'] = '1'` in Python code). Alternatively, use `always=True` on individual color calls.
gotcha Prior to v0.3.1, passing non-string parameters directly to `crayons` functions could lead to unexpected behavior (e.g., issues with `len`).
Fix: Ensure all inputs to `crayons` color functions are strings. Version 0.3.1 and later explicitly convert incoming parameters to strings, but it's good practice to provide strings yourself.

Install

pip install crayons Install latest version

Imports

crayons
```
import crayons
```
The library is imported as 'crayons', and color functions are accessed as attributes, e.g., `crayons.red()`.

Quickstart

Import the `crayons` library and call color functions (e.g., `crayons.red()`) with your string. You can pass `bold=True` for bold text or `always=True` to force color output even when not in a TTY. The `clean()` function removes ANSI escape codes from a colored string.

import crayons
import os

# Basic color usage
print(crayons.red("This text is red."))
print(crayons.green("This text is green and bold.", bold=True))
print(crayons.blue("This is blue text."))

# Using 'always=True' to force color even when not in a TTY
print(crayons.yellow("This warning should always be yellow.", always=True))

# Demonstrating the clean function
colored_text = crayons.magenta("Hello, colorful world!")
print(f"Original: {colored_text}")
print(f"Cleaned: {crayons.clean(colored_text)}")

# Force color using environment variable (useful for CI/CD or non-TTY environments)
# os.environ['CLINT_FORCE_COLOR'] = '1'
# print(crayons.cyan("This should be cyan even if not in a TTY due to env var."))
# del os.environ['CLINT_FORCE_COLOR'] # Clean up environment variable for subsequent tests

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