ansi.hpp

The ansi.hpp header is your all-in-one utility to control terminal appearance and behavior using ANSI escape codes.

It exposes predefined constants for colors, text styles, and cursor control - making it incredibly easy to style components and customize your terminal UI without manually writing escape sequences.

This is the file I used in Kontra to build pretty much every component! It's packed with escape sequences I dug up from all corners of the internet :)

Usage

  • You don't need to include it separately.

  • You can simply do following,

#include <kontra.hpp>

✨ Why use ansi.hpp?

  • Easy to use
  • Type-safe and constexpr-defined
  • Clean abstraction over ugly ANSI escape codes
  • Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows

🎨 Colors

You can change foreground (text) or background colors using predefined constants:

Foreground Colors


  ansi::FG_BLACK
  ansi::FG_RED
  ansi::FG_GREEN
  ansi::FG_YELLOW
  ansi::FG_BLUE
  ansi::FG_MAGENTA
  ansi::FG_CYAN
  ansi::FG_WHITE

  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_BLACK
  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_RED
  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_GREEN
  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_YELLOW
  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_BLUE
  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_MAGENTA
  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_CYAN
  ansi::FG_BRIGHT_WHITE

  ansi::FG_DEFAULT

Background Colors


  ansi::BG_BLACK
  ansi::BG_RED
  ansi::BG_GREEN
  ansi::BG_YELLOW
  ansi::BG_BLUE
  ansi::BG_MAGENTA
  ansi::BG_CYAN
  ansi::BG_WHITE

  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_BLACK
  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_RED
  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_GREEN
  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_YELLOW
  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_BLUE
  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_MAGENTA
  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_CYAN
  ansi::BG_BRIGHT_WHITE

  ansi::BG_DEFAULT

Resetting

  • You can reset all the color and other effects simply using,

  ansi::RESET

✍️ Text Styles


  ansi::BOLD
  ansi::DIM
  ansi::ITALIC
  ansi::UNDERLINE
  ansi::INVERSE
  ansi::STRIKETHROUGH

➡️ Cursor Utilities

Want to move or hide the cursor?


  ansi::move_cursor(row, col);
  ansi::move_up(n);
  ansi::move_down(n);
  ansi::move_left(n);
  ansi::move_right(n);

  ansi::hide_cursor();
  ansi::show_cursor();

  ansi::save_cursor();
  ansi::restore_cursor();

🧹 Screen & Line Clearing


  ansi::clear_screen();       // Clears entire screen and moves cursor to top
  ansi::clear_line();         // Clears current line
  • Manual control also possible with:

  ansi::CLEAR_SCREEN
  ansi::CLEAR_ENTIRE_LINE
  ansi::CLEAR_TO_END
  ansi::CLEAR_LINE_TO_START

📐 Terminal Size

  • Get the current terminal width and height:

  auto [cols, rows] = ansi::get_terminal_size();

TL;DR

  • The ansi.hpp module is a powerful and convenient helper for customizing your terminal UI in Kontra.

  • Use it to colorize, stylize, move cursors, and more - with zero boilerplate.

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