Is is possible to format the output of a python program on the command line?

[mahela007]

is it possible, for example, to make the text that appears as output on the command line appear in a certain colour using python?

[jlm699]

is it possible, for example, to make the text that appears as output on the command line appear in a certain colour using python?

Yes. But the answer depends on your platform. In windows you can use the command-line COLOR command. Here's how:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>COLOR /?
Sets the default console foreground and background colors.

COLOR [attr]

  attr        Specifies color attribute of console output

Color attributes are specified by TWO hex digits -- the first
corresponds to the background; the second the foreground.  Each digit
can be any of the following values:

    0 = Black       8 = Gray
    1 = Blue        9 = Light Blue
    2 = Green       A = Light Green
    3 = Aqua        B = Light Aqua
    4 = Red         C = Light Red
    5 = Purple      D = Light Purple
    6 = Yellow      E = Light Yellow
    7 = White       F = Bright White

If no argument is given, this command restores the color to what it was
when CMD.EXE started.  This value either comes from the current console
window, the /T command line switch or from the DefaultColor registry
value.

The COLOR command sets ERRORLEVEL to 1 if an attempt is made to execute
the COLOR command with a foreground and background color that are the
same.

Example: "COLOR fc" produces light red on bright white

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>COLOR 52

I used COLOR 52 to set the background to Purple with the foreground (text) to Green (ugliest combo I could think of?)

To do this in Python simply use os.system('COLOR 52') . If you're looking for greater resolution you'll need to look into curses; however that's not readily available for Windows. You could instead create your own highly-stylized GUI with something like wxPython or GTK

[mahela007]

thanks.. I'll try that.

[adanaz]

Thanks this works great!

[Tech B]

Any command line commands can be passes with python, not only the color. For example cls to clear the screen.