Try this simple code

def prRed(prt): print("\033[91m {}\033[00m" .format(prt)) def prGreen(prt): print("\033[92m {}\033[00m" .format(prt)) def prYellow(prt): print("\033[93m {}\033[00m" .format(prt)) def prLightPurple(prt): print("\033[94m {}\033[00m" .format(prt)) def prPurple(prt): print("\033[95m {}\033[00m" .format(prt)) def prCyan(prt): print("\033[96m {}\033[00m" .format(prt)) def prLightGray(prt): print("\033[97m {}\033[00m" .format(prt)) def prBlack(prt): print("\033[98m {}\033[00m" .format(prt))  prGreen("Hello world") 

On Windows you can use module ‘win32console’ (available in some Python distributions) or module ‘ctypes’ (Python 2.5 and up) to access the Win32 API.

To see complete code that supports both ways, see the color console reporting code from Testoob.

ctypes example:

import ctypes  # Constants from the Windows API STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE = -11 FOREGROUND_RED    = 0x0004 # text color contains red.  def get_csbi_attributes(handle):     # Based on IPython's winconsole.py, written by Alexander Belchenko     import struct     csbi = ctypes.create_string_buffer(22)     res = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(handle, csbi)     assert res      (bufx, bufy, curx, cury, wattr,     left, top, right, bottom, maxx, maxy) = struct.unpack("hhhhHhhhhhh", csbi.raw)     return wattr   handle = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE) reset = get_csbi_attributes(handle)  ctypes.windll.kernel32.SetConsoleTextAttribute(handle, FOREGROUND_RED) print "Cherry on top" ctypes.windll.kernel32.SetConsoleTextAttribute(handle, reset) 

I have wrapped @joeld answer into a module with global functions that I can use anywhere in my code.

file: log.py

HEADER = '\033[95m' OKBLUE = '\033[94m' OKGREEN = '\033[92m' WARNING = '\033[93m' FAIL = '\033[91m' ENDC = '\033[0m' BOLD = "\033[1m"  def disable():     HEADER = ''     OKBLUE = ''     OKGREEN = ''     WARNING = ''     FAIL = ''     ENDC = ''  def infog( msg):     print OKGREEN + msg + ENDC  def info( msg):     print OKBLUE + msg + ENDC  def warn( msg):     print WARNING + msg + ENDC  def err( msg):     print FAIL + msg + ENDC 

use as follows:

 import log     log.info("Hello World")     log.err("System Error") 

Stupidly simple based on @joeld’s answer

class PrintInColor:     RED = '\033[91m'     GREEN = '\033[92m'     YELLOW = '\033[93m'     LIGHT_PURPLE = '\033[94m'     PURPLE = '\033[95m'     END = '\033[0m'      @classmethod     def red(cls, s, **kwargs):         print(cls.RED + s + cls.END, **kwargs)      @classmethod     def green(cls, s, **kwargs):         print(cls.GREEN + s + cls.END, **kwargs)      @classmethod     def yellow(cls, s, **kwargs):         print(cls.YELLOW + s + cls.END, **kwargs)      @classmethod     def lightPurple(cls, s, **kwargs):         print(cls.LIGHT_PURPLE + s + cls.END, **kwargs)      @classmethod     def purple(cls, s, **kwargs):         print(cls.PURPLE + s + cls.END, **kwargs) 

Then just

PrintInColor.red('hello', end=' ') PrintInColor.green('world') 

For Windows you cannot print to console with colors unless you’re using the win32api.

For Linux it’s as simple as using print, with the escape sequences outlined here:

Colors

For the character to print like a box, it really depends on what font you are using for the console window. The pound symbol works well, but it depends on the font:

# 

# Pure Python 3.x demo, 256 colors # Works with bash under Linux and MacOS  fg = lambda text, color: "\33[38;5;" + str(color) + "m" + text + "\33[0m" bg = lambda text, color: "\33[48;5;" + str(color) + "m" + text + "\33[0m"  def print_six(row, format, end="\n"):     for col in range(6):         color = row*6 + col - 2         if color>=0:             text = "{:3d}".format(color)             print (format(text,color), end=" ")         else:             print(end="    ")   # four spaces     print(end=end)  for row in range(0, 43):     print_six(row, fg, " ")     print_six(row, bg)  # Simple usage: print(fg("text", 160)) 

Try it online

def black(text):     print('\033[30m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')  def red(text):     print('\033[31m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')  def green(text):     print('\033[32m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')  def yellow(text):     print('\033[33m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')  def blue(text):     print('\033[34m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')  def magenta(text):     print('\033[35m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')  def cyan(text):     print('\033[36m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')  def gray(text):     print('\033[90m', text, '\033[0m', sep='')   black("BLACK") red("RED") green("GREEN") yellow("YELLOW") blue("BLACK") magenta("MAGENTA") cyan("CYAN") gray("GRAY") 

Try online

I ended up doing this, I felt it was cleanest:

formatters = {                  'RED': '\033[91m',          'GREEN': '\033[92m',        'END': '\033[0m',       }  print 'Master is currently {RED}red{END}!'.format(**formatters) print 'Help make master {GREEN}green{END} again!'.format(**formatters) 

Building on @joeld answer, using https://pypi.python.org/pypi/lazyme pip install -U lazyme :

from lazyme.string import color_print >>> color_print('abc') abc >>> color_print('abc', color='pink') abc >>> color_print('abc', color='red') abc >>> color_print('abc', color='yellow') abc >>> color_print('abc', color='green') abc >>> color_print('abc', color='blue', underline=True) abc >>> color_print('abc', color='blue', underline=True, bold=True) abc >>> color_print('abc', color='pink', underline=True, bold=True) abc 

Screenshot:

Some updates to the color_print with new formatters, e.g.:

>>> from lazyme.string import palette, highlighter, formatter >>> from lazyme.string import color_print >>> palette.keys() # Available colors. ['pink', 'yellow', 'cyan', 'magenta', 'blue', 'gray', 'default', 'black', 'green', 'white', 'red'] >>> highlighter.keys() # Available highlights. ['blue', 'pink', 'gray', 'black', 'yellow', 'cyan', 'green', 'magenta', 'white', 'red'] >>> formatter.keys() # Available formatter,  ['hide', 'bold', 'italic', 'default', 'fast_blinking', 'faint', 'strikethrough', 'underline', 'blinking', 'reverse'] 

Note: italic, fast blinking and strikethrough may not work on all terminals, doesn’t work on Mac / Ubuntu.

E.g.

>>> color_print('foo bar', color='pink', highlight='white') foo bar >>> color_print('foo bar', color='pink', highlight='white', reverse=True) foo bar >>> color_print('foo bar', color='pink', highlight='white', bold=True) foo bar >>> color_print('foo bar', color='pink', highlight='white', faint=True) foo bar >>> color_print('foo bar', color='pink', highlight='white', faint=True, reverse=True) foo bar >>> color_print('foo bar', color='pink', highlight='white', underline=True, reverse=True) foo bar 

Screenshot:

note how well the with keyword mixes with modifiers like these that need to be reset (using Python 3 and Colorama):

from colorama import Fore, Style import sys  class Highlight:   def __init__(self, clazz, color):     self.color = color     self.clazz = clazz   def __enter__(self):     print(self.color, end="")   def __exit__(self, type, value, traceback):     if self.clazz == Fore:       print(Fore.RESET, end="")     else:       assert self.clazz == Style       print(Style.RESET_ALL, end="")     sys.stdout.flush()  with Highlight(Fore, Fore.GREEN):   print("this is highlighted") print("this is not")