PrintStyle 🌈

ANSI terminal styling with a built-in micro template language.

Most color libraries make you chain function calls or concatenate escape codes by hand. PrintStyle gives you paint() — a template syntax that reads like markup and just works.

import PrintStyle from "printstyle";
const ps = new PrintStyle();

ps.paint("{red|Error:} Woops something went wrong!");

Why PrintStyle?

• Template syntax — paint() lets you style strings inline without concatenation chains or nested calls. No other terminal color package has this built in.
• Tiny — ~9 KB unpacked, zero dependencies.
• Hex colors — use any color, not just the 16 built-in ANSI names.
• NO_COLOR / FORCE_COLOR — follows the standard out of the box.
• No magic — plain class with string properties. No Proxy, no prototype tricks, no chaining API. Easy to debug, easy to understand.

Note: Legacy Windows CMD (before Windows 10) does not support ANSI escape codes. Use Windows Terminal, PowerShell, or WSL instead.

Install

npm install printstyle

Template Syntax — paint()

Wrap mode (auto-reset)

Style is applied and automatically reset after the content:

ps.paint("{red|error message}"); // red text, then reset
ps.paint("{bold.red|ERROR}"); // bold + red, then reset
ps.paint("{bgRed.white| FAIL }"); // red background, white text

Spanning mode (manual reset)

Style stays active until you close with {/}:

ps.paint("{red}all of this is red{/}");
ps.paint("{dim}prefix {bold|inner} still dim{/}");

Dot-chaining

Combine multiple styles with .:

ps.paint("{bgRed.white.bold|FAIL}"); // background + foreground + style
ps.paint("{green.bold|✓} {dim|file.jpg}"); // multiple wraps in one string

Hex colors

Use any hex color for foreground or background:

ps.paint("{#2e8b57|sea green text}");
ps.paint("{bg#ff5500.white|orange background}");
ps.paint("{#f00|shorthand red}"); // 3-char hex supported

Direct Property Access

Every ANSI code is also available as a string property for manual concatenation:

console.log(ps.red + "error" + ps.reset);
console.log(ps.bold + ps.blue + "title" + ps.reset);

Available properties

Styles: reset bold dim italic underline blink inverse hidden strikethrough

Colors: black red green yellow blue magenta cyan white gray

Bright colors: redBright greenBright yellowBright blueBright magentaBright cyanBright whiteBright

Backgrounds: bgBlack bgRed bgGreen bgYellow bgBlue bgMagenta bgCyan bgWhite bgGray

Bright backgrounds: bgRedBright bgGreenBright bgYellowBright bgBlueBright bgMagentaBright bgCyanBright bgWhiteBright

Other: bell

Custom Styles — extend()

Register your own named styles built from any combination of built-in codes or hex colors:

const ps = new PrintStyle();

ps.extend({
  error: ps.bold + ps.red,
  success: ps.bold + ps.green,
  warning: ps.yellow,
  brand: ps.color("#ff6600"),
  link: ps.blue + ps.underline + ps.italic,
});

console.log(ps.paint("{error|Something failed}"));
console.log(ps.paint("{success|All good}"));
console.log(ps.paint("{brand|Acme Corp}"));
console.log(ps.paint("{link|https://github.com/stamat/printstyle}"));

Custom styles work everywhere built-in styles do — in paint() templates, dot-chaining, direct property access, and they integrate with disable() / enable().

Hex Color Methods

ps.color("#ff0000"); // foreground escape sequence for hex
ps.background("#00ff00"); // background escape sequence for hex

Both accept 6-char (#ff0000) or 3-char (#f00) hex, with or without #.

NO_COLOR / FORCE_COLOR

PrintStyle respects the NO_COLOR and FORCE_COLOR environment variables automatically:

• NO_COLOR (any value) — disables all color output
• FORCE_COLOR=1 — forces color output regardless of NO_COLOR
• FORCE_COLOR=0 — disables color output

You can also control it programmatically:

ps.disable(); // turn off all codes
ps.enable(); // restore all codes
ps.enabled; // check current state

Comparison

| | printstyle | chalk | ansis | picocolors | kleur | ansi-colors | yoctocolors | | ------------------- | ---------- | ------------ | --------- | ---------- | --------- | ----------- | ----------- | | Unpacked size | ~9 KB | ~44 KB | ~6 KB | ~6 KB | ~20 KB | ~26 KB | ~10 KB | | Runtime deps | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Template syntax | Built-in | Separate pkg | No | No | No | No | No | | Hex colors | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | | NO_COLOR | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | FORCE_COLOR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | | TypeScript | Built-in | Built-in | Built-in | Built-in | Built-in | Built-in | Built-in | | Module type | ESM | ESM | CJS + ESM | CJS + ESM | CJS + ESM | CJS | ESM | | Legacy Win CMD | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |

License

MIT

P.S.

Another one - DJ Khaled

❤️, @stamat