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Standard ANSI colors

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Standard

Standard ANSI colors use SGR parameters to set the foreground and background to one of 8 normal or 8 bright colors.

Syntax​

CSI 30-37 m       SGR — Set foreground to standard color
CSI 39 m          SGR — Reset foreground to default
CSI 40-47 m       SGR — Set background to standard color
CSI 49 m          SGR — Reset background to default
CSI 90-97 m       SGR — Set foreground to bright color
CSI 100-107 m     SGR — Set background to bright color
Formal syntax
SGR-fg-color      = 0x1b, "[", fg-code, "m" ;
SGR-bg-color      = 0x1b, "[", bg-code, "m" ;
SGR-fg-bright     = 0x1b, "[", fg-bright-code, "m" ;
SGR-bg-bright     = 0x1b, "[", bg-bright-code, "m" ;
SGR-fg-default    = 0x1b, "[", "39", "m" ;
SGR-bg-default    = 0x1b, "[", "49", "m" ;
fg-code           = "30" | "31" | "32" | "33" | "34" | "35" | "36" | "37" ;
bg-code           = "40" | "41" | "42" | "43" | "44" | "45" | "46" | "47" ;
fg-bright-code    = "90" | "91" | "92" | "93" | "94" | "95" | "96" | "97" ;
bg-bright-code    = "100" | "101" | "102" | "103" | "104" | "105" | "106" | "107" ;

Parameters​

Foreground colors (30-37):

CodeColor
30Black
31Red
32Green
33Yellow
34Blue
35Magenta
36Cyan
37White
39Default foreground

Background colors (40-47):

CodeColor
40-47Same colors as 30-37
49Default background

Bright colors (90-97, 100-107):

The bright/intense color variants. Codes 90-97 set bright foreground; 100-107 set bright background.

Description​

Per ECMA-48 §8.3.117, SGR parameters 30-37 set the foreground display color and 40-47 set the background color. ECMA-48 defines these as: black (30/40), red (31/41), green (32/42), yellow (33/43), blue (34/44), magenta (35/45), cyan (36/46), and white (37/47).

The bright color ranges (90-97 for foreground, 100-107 for background) are not part of ECMA-48 but are a widely supported extension originally from AIXTerm. They provide access to the "bright" or "intense" versions of the 8 standard colors without requiring the bold attribute.

SGR 39 and 49 reset the foreground and background to their default colors respectively. SGR 0 resets all colors and attributes.

The actual RGB values for these colors are not standardized and vary between terminals. Most terminals allow users to customize them.

Examples​

printf '\e[31mRed text\e[0m\n'
printf '\e[32;43mGreen on yellow\e[0m\n'
printf '\e[91mBright red text\e[0m\n'
printf '\e[97;104mBright white on bright blue\e[0m\n'

Specifications​

SpecificationSection
XTerm ctlseqs—

Terminal support​

TerminalSupportVersionNotes
Terminal Emulators
Alacritty✓YesSGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 listed in escape_support.md
Bobcat??Implemented in external TerminalCtrl library, not in Bobcat source code
contour✓v0.1.0
foot✓YesSGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 in csi.c:153-311
Ghostty✓v1.0.0
iTerm2✓v20260216-nightly
Kitty✓YesPresent since early versions
Konsole✓YesFull support for SGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 in src/Vt102Emulation.cpp:2064-2110
mintty✓YesSGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 fully implemented at termout.c:2195-2265
mlterm✓rel-2_9_1
PuTTY✓0.43SGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 fully supported since initial release
Rio✓v0.0.3
rxvt-unicode✓rxvt-unicode-1.2
st✓0.4
terminology✓v0.1.0
VT100✗No
VTE✓YesSGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 all handled in parser-sgr.hh
WezTerm✓YesFull support for SGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 - see wezterm-escape-parser/src/csi.rs:2775-2950
Windows Terminal✓YesSGR 30-37, 40-47, 90-97, 100-107 fully implemented in adaptDispatchGraphics.cpp
xterm✓YesSGR 30-37, 40-47 documented as VT100. SGR 90-97, 100-107 require OPT_AIX_COLORS compile flag
xterm.js✓0.3
Multiplexers
cy✓Yes
GNU Screen✓v.4.2.0Requires COLOR compile flag
tmux✓0.8
tuios✓v0.0.15
Zellij✓v0.12.0

See also​