Color console output with C++ in Windows

Question

Is there a way to output colored text to the console? I am using Visual Studio 2010, and only need the code to work in Windows.

I have been unsuccessful in finding anything except the windows COLOR command, but that changed the color for the entire screen, and I am looking for something that will change only the part I wish to output. I've seen it done in Managed C++

E.g.,

{color red}
cout << "Hello ";
{color blue}
cout << "world\n";

would yield "Hello world" in red and blue.

Answer 1

You can use the system("") command, which is used like that:

cout<<"lol";
system("color 1") // the colours are from 1 to 15. 
cout<<"Coloured text! yay";

Answer 2

Coloring C++ output in Windows is done through SetConsoleTextAttribute, where the HANDLE of the console passed in along with attributes. However, calling SetConsoleTextAttribute is cumbersome. Fortunately, there are lots of small libraries on the internet and github that can assist, you should just pick one with an API you like. If you want to change colors with operator<<, I recommend this header-only library https://github.com/ikalnitsky/termcolor. The api looks like this:

using namespace termcolor;
std::cout << grey    << "grey message"    << reset << std::endl;
std::cout << red     << "red message"     << reset << std::endl;

If having to reset the color turns you off, try my library. It's header-only too, Windows only, and it lets you color printf statements easily: https://github.com/jrebacz/colorwin. The api looks like this:

using namepsace wincolor;
std::cout << color(gray) << "grey message\n";
std::cout << color(red) << "red message\n";

std::cout << "normal color\n";
{
    withcolor scoped(red);
    std::cout << "|red\n";
    std::cout << "|red again\n";
}
std::cout << "normal color\n";
withcolor(cyan).printf("A cyan printf of %d\n", 1234);

Answer 3

I took this code from here:

// color your text in Windows console mode
// colors are 0=black 1=blue 2=green and so on to 15=white
// colorattribute = foreground + background * 16
// to get red text on yellow use 4 + 14*16 = 228
// light red on yellow would be 12 + 14*16 = 236
// a Dev-C++ tested console application by vegaseat 07nov2004

#include <iostream>
#include <windows.h> // WinApi header

using namespace std; // std::cout, std::cin

int main()
{
HANDLE hConsole;
int k;

hConsole = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

// you can loop k higher to see more color choices
for(k = 1; k < 255; k++)
{
// pick the colorattribute k you want
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hConsole, k);
cout << k << " I want to be nice today!" << endl;
}

cin.get(); // wait
return 0;
}

Answer 4

Here is our in house solution:

inline void setcolor(int textcol, int backcol)
{
    if ((textcol % 16) == (backcol % 16))textcol++;
    textcol %= 16; backcol %= 16;
    unsigned short wAttributes = ((unsigned)backcol << 4) | (unsigned)textcol;
    HANDLE hStdOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO csbi;
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(hStdOut, wAttributes);
}

and here are examples of colors to choose from:

#define LOG_COLOR_WHITE 7
#define COLOR_GREEN 10
#define COLOR_YELLOW 14 
#define COLOR_MAGENTA 13