Terminal Colors

ANSI terminals support three levels of color, each offering increasingly precise control. ts-better-console supports all three through the s() function and the color / backgroundColor properties of StyleOptions.

4-bit Color (Standard)

The original 8 ANSI colors plus their "bright" variants — 16 colors total. These are the named color strings you can pass directly:

Escape codes: ESC[30–37m (foreground), ESC[40–47m (background), ESC[90–97m (bright foreground), ESC[100–107m (bright background).

Available Colors

import { s } from "ts-better-console";

// Named color strings (4-bit)
console.log(s("Red text", { color: "red" }));
console.log(s("Cyan on yellow", { color: "cyan", backgroundColor: "yellow" }));

8-bit Color (256 Palette)

The 8-bit mode gives you access to 256 colors:

• 0–7 — Standard colors (same as 4-bit)
• 8–15 — High-intensity (bright) colors
• 16–231 — 6 × 6 × 6 color cube (216 colors)
• 232–255 — Grayscale ramp (24 shades)

Escape codes: ESC[38;5;{n}m (foreground), ESC[48;5;{n}m (background), where n = 0–255.

256 Color Palette

Click any cell to see details and copy code.

import { s, eightBit, EightBitColor } from "ts-better-console";

// Using a raw code number
console.log(s("Orange", { color: eightBit(208) }));

// Using the EightBitColor enum
console.log(s("Navy bg", { backgroundColor: eightBit(EightBitColor.Navy) }));

24-bit Color (True Color)

True color provides the full 16.7 million color spectrum using RGB values (0–255 per channel). Most modern terminals support this: kitty, iTerm2, Windows Terminal, GNOME Terminal, VS Code integrated terminal, and more.

Escape codes: ESC[38;2;{r};{g};{b}m (foreground), ESC[48;2;{r};{g};{b}m (background).

Color Picker

Pick a color and copy the generated code.

import { s, rgb } from "ts-better-console";

console.log(s("Custom", { color: rgb(255, 136, 0) }));

// Mix RGB fg with RGB bg
console.log(s("Neon", {
color: rgb(0, 255, 128),
backgroundColor: rgb(20, 20, 40),
}));

Comparison

Mixing Color Types

You can freely mix color types — for example, a 24-bit foreground with a 4-bit named background:

import { s, rgb, eightBit } from "ts-better-console";

// 24-bit fg + 4-bit bg
s("mixed", {
color: rgb(255, 100, 50),
backgroundColor: "blue",
});

// 8-bit fg + 24-bit bg
s("combo", {
color: eightBit(208),
backgroundColor: rgb(20, 20, 40),
});