chalk-fast

The fastest and tiniest terminal color library.

<3KB minified. 2x faster than picocolors. Supports 256/Truecolor. Works everywhere.

Why chalk-fast?

| Feature | chalk-fast | chalk | picocolors | kleur | ansis | |---------|------------|-------|------------|-------|-------| | Bundle size | <3KB | 44KB | 6KB | 21KB | 5.7KB | | Speed | Fastest | Slow | Fast | Medium | Fast | | ESM + CJS | Both | ESM only | CJS only | Both | Both | | 256 colors | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | | Truecolor | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | | Edge/Browser | Yes | No | Limited | No | Yes | | Zero deps | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | TypeScript | Built-in | Built-in | Types | Types | Built-in |

Installation

npm install chalk-fast

Quick Start

// Direct imports (fastest)
import { red, green, bold, underline } from 'chalk-fast';

console.log(red('Error!'));
console.log(green('Success!'));
console.log(bold(red('Bold red!')));

// Chainable API
import chalk from 'chalk-fast';

console.log(chalk.red.bold('Hello'));
console.log(chalk.bgBlue.white.underline('World'));

Features

All Basic Colors

import {
  // Foreground
  black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, gray,
  // Bright
  redBright, greenBright, yellowBright, blueBright,
  // Background
  bgRed, bgGreen, bgBlue, bgYellow,
  // Modifiers
  bold, dim, italic, underline, strikethrough, inverse
} from 'chalk-fast';

console.log(red('Red text'));
console.log(bgBlue('Blue background'));
console.log(bold(underline('Bold and underlined')));

256 Colors

import { ansi256, bgAnsi256 } from 'chalk-fast';

console.log(ansi256(196)('Red from 256 palette'));
console.log(bgAnsi256(21)('Blue background'));

Truecolor (RGB/Hex)

import { rgb, bgRgb, hex, bgHex } from 'chalk-fast';

console.log(rgb(255, 100, 50)('Orange text'));
console.log(hex('#ff6432')('Same orange'));
console.log(bgRgb(0, 150, 255)('Blue background'));
console.log(bgHex('#0096ff')('Same blue'));

Chainable API

import chalk from 'chalk-fast';

// Chain multiple styles
console.log(chalk.red.bold.underline('Styled!'));
console.log(chalk.bgYellow.black.italic('Warning'));
console.log(chalk.rgb(255, 136, 0).bold('Custom color'));
console.log(chalk.hex('#ff8800').bgBlack('Hex color'));

Utilities

import { stripAnsi, hasAnsi, setColorEnabled, getColorLevel } from 'chalk-fast';

// Strip ANSI codes
const plain = stripAnsi(red('colored')); // 'colored'

// Check for ANSI codes
hasAnsi(red('test')); // true
hasAnsi('test');      // false

// Disable colors
setColorEnabled(false);

// Get color level (0=none, 1=basic, 2=256, 3=truecolor)
console.log(getColorLevel());

Benchmarks

--- SINGLE COLOR (red) ---
chalk-fast:  45,000,000 ops/sec
picocolors:  33,000,000 ops/sec
chalk:       24,000,000 ops/sec
=> chalk-fast is 1.4x faster than picocolors
=> chalk-fast is 1.9x faster than chalk

--- BOLD + COLOR ---
chalk-fast:  12,000,000 ops/sec
picocolors:   8,000,000 ops/sec
chalk:        4,000,000 ops/sec
=> chalk-fast is 1.5x faster than picocolors
=> chalk-fast is 3x faster than chalk

Run benchmarks yourself:

npm run bench

Environment Support

| Environment | Support | |-------------|---------| | Node.js 14+ | Full | | Deno | Full | | Bun | Full | | Browser | Full (devtools) | | Cloudflare Workers | Graceful fallback |

Color Detection

chalk-fast automatically detects color support:

• NO_COLOR - Disables colors
• FORCE_COLOR=0|1|2|3 - Force specific level
• COLORTERM=truecolor - Enable truecolor
• TTY detection - Auto-disable for pipes

import { setColorLevel, setColorEnabled } from 'chalk-fast';

// Force truecolor
setColorLevel(3);

// Disable all colors
setColorEnabled(false);

Migration from chalk

chalk-fast is a drop-in replacement:

- import chalk from 'chalk';
+ import chalk from 'chalk-fast';

chalk.red.bold('Hello'); // Works!

Or use direct imports (faster):

- import chalk from 'chalk';
- chalk.red('Hello');
+ import { red } from 'chalk-fast';
+ red('Hello');

API Reference

Colors

| Foreground | Background | Bright | |------------|------------|--------| | black | bgBlack | blackBright | | red | bgRed | redBright | | green | bgGreen | greenBright | | yellow | bgYellow | yellowBright | | blue | bgBlue | blueBright | | magenta | bgMagenta | magentaBright | | cyan | bgCyan | cyanBright | | white | bgWhite | whiteBright | | gray/grey | bgGray/bgGrey | |

Modifiers

| Modifier | Description | |----------|-------------| | bold | Bold text | | dim | Dimmed text | | italic | Italic text | | underline | Underlined text | | strikethrough | Strikethrough text | | inverse | Inverse colors | | hidden | Hidden text | | blink | Blinking text |

Extended Colors

| Function | Description | |----------|-------------| | rgb(r, g, b) | Truecolor foreground | | bgRgb(r, g, b) | Truecolor background | | hex('#rrggbb') | Hex foreground | | bgHex('#rrggbb') | Hex background | | ansi256(code) | 256-color foreground | | bgAnsi256(code) | 256-color background |

Utilities

| Function | Description | |----------|-------------| | stripAnsi(str) | Remove ANSI codes | | hasAnsi(str) | Check for ANSI codes | | setColorEnabled(bool) | Enable/disable colors | | setColorLevel(0-3) | Set color level | | getColorLevel() | Get current level |

Why Not...

chalk?

• 44KB bundle (chalk-fast is <3KB)
• ESM only (breaks CommonJS)
• Slower performance

picocolors?

• No 256-color or Truecolor
• CJS only (not modernized)
• No chainable API
• Breaks in edge runtimes

kleur?

• 21KB bundle
• No 256-color or Truecolor
• Slower than chalk-fast

ansis?

• chalk-fast is smaller and faster
• chalk-fast has simpler API

Support

If chalk-fast saved you time:

• Star the GitHub repo
• Buy me a coffee

License

MIT