ANSI escape codes

An ANSI escape code is a short run of characters a program prints to tell the terminal to do something other than show those characters — turn the next words red, move the cursor up two lines, clear the screen. The terminal swallows the sequence and acts on it, which is why a log file full of them looks like line noise when you open it in an editor.

Every code below starts with the escape byte and, with one exception, an opening bracket. The parameter column gives the part between the bracket and the final letter, which is the piece you assemble in code; the first column shows the whole sequence as you would write it in a shell.

Support varies by terminal, and this page says so where it matters. The eight basic colours and bold work everywhere; blink, double underline and true colour do not.

Anatomy of a sequence

Every code on this page is the same shape: the escape byte, an opening bracket, some parameters, and one letter that says what to do with them.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e	0x1B	The escape byte that starts every sequenceWritten \e in a shell, \033 in C, \x1b in most languages and \u001b in JSON and Java.
\e[	CSI	Control Sequence Introducer — opens a parameterised command
\e[<n>m	m	Select Graphic Rendition: everything colour and style ends in m
\e[1;4;31m	1;4;31	Several parameters at once, separated by semicolonsBold, underlined and red in one sequence — shorter than three separate ones and identical in effect.
\e[0m	0	Clears every attribute back to the terminal defaultEmit this at the end of coloured output. A program that exits without it leaves the user's prompt coloured.
\e]8;;URL\e\\text\e]8;;\e\\	OSC 8	A clickable hyperlink, in terminals that support oneAn OSC sequence rather than a CSI one, and terminated by ESC \ instead of a letter.

Text attributes

Support is uneven below the first five. Blink is ignored almost everywhere, and a few terminals render dim and italic identically.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e[1m	1	Bold or bright
\e[2m	2	Dim
\e[3m	3	Italic
\e[4m	4	Underline
\e[5m	5	BlinkWidely ignored; most modern terminals render it as plain text.
\e[7m	7	Reverse: swaps foreground and background
\e[8m	8	Hidden: the text is there but not drawn
\e[9m	9	Strikethrough
\e[21m	21	Double underlineSome terminals read 21 as “bold off” instead.
\e[22m	22	Normal intensity: cancels bold and dim
\e[23m	23	Cancels italic
\e[24m	24	Cancels underline
\e[27m	27	Cancels reverse
\e[29m	29	Cancels strikethrough

Text colour

The eight standard colours and their bright counterparts. What the reader actually sees is their terminal theme's take on each — “red” is a slot in a palette, not a hex value.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e[30m	30	Black text
\e[31m	31	Red text
\e[32m	32	Green text
\e[33m	33	Yellow text
\e[34m	34	Blue text
\e[35m	35	Magenta text
\e[36m	36	Cyan text
\e[37m	37	White text
\e[39m	39	Back to the default text colour
\e[90m	90	Bright black text
\e[91m	91	Bright red text
\e[92m	92	Bright green text
\e[93m	93	Bright yellow text
\e[94m	94	Bright blue text
\e[95m	95	Bright magenta text
\e[96m	96	Bright cyan text
\e[97m	97	Bright white text

Background colour

The same palette shifted by ten. A background code sets the cell behind the text and stays in effect until it is reset.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e[40m	40	Black background
\e[41m	41	Red background
\e[42m	42	Green background
\e[43m	43	Yellow background
\e[44m	44	Blue background
\e[45m	45	Magenta background
\e[46m	46	Cyan background
\e[47m	47	White background
\e[49m	49	Back to the default background
\e[100m	100	Bright black background
\e[101m	101	Bright red background
\e[102m	102	Bright green background
\e[103m	103	Bright yellow background
\e[104m	104	Bright blue background
\e[105m	105	Bright magenta background
\e[106m	106	Bright cyan background
\e[107m	107	Bright white background

256 colours and true colour

Two extensions to the same SGR mechanism. Both are widely but not universally supported; a terminal that does not understand them usually ignores the sequence rather than printing it.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e[38;5;<n>m	38;5;n	Text in palette colour n, 0–2550–15 are the sixteen above, 16–231 a 6×6×6 colour cube, 232–255 a greyscale ramp.
\e[48;5;<n>m	48;5;n	Background in palette colour n, 0–255
\e[38;2;<r>;<g>;<b>m	38;2;r;g;b	Text in an exact 24-bit colour
\e[48;2;<r>;<g>;<b>m	48;2;r;g;b	Background in an exact 24-bit colour

Cursor movement

Moves do not scroll and do not wrap: a cursor already at the top of the screen ignores a request to go up.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e[<n>A	A	Up n rows
\e[<n>B	B	Down n rows
\e[<n>C	C	Right n columns
\e[<n>D	D	Left n columns
\e[<n>E	E	Down n rows, to the start of the line
\e[<n>F	F	Up n rows, to the start of the line
\e[<n>G	G	To column n of the current row
\e[<row>;<col>H	H	To an absolute row and column, counting from 1
\e[s	s	Remember the cursor position
\e[u	u	Go back to the remembered position
\e[6n	6n	Ask the terminal where the cursor isThe terminal answers on standard input as \e[<row>;<col>R — the one sequence here that produces a reply.

Erasing

Erasing writes spaces with the current background colour; it does not move the cursor.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e[0J	0J	Clear from the cursor to the end of the screen
\e[1J	1J	Clear from the start of the screen to the cursor
\e[2J	2J	Clear the whole screenThe cursor stays where it was, which is why this is usually paired with \e[H.
\e[3J	3J	Clear the scrollback buffer as well
\e[0K	0K	Clear from the cursor to the end of the line
\e[1K	1K	Clear from the start of the line to the cursor
\e[2K	2K	Clear the whole line\r\e[2K is the usual way to redraw a progress line in place.

Terminal modes

Private modes, marked by the question mark. They change how the terminal behaves rather than how one piece of text looks, and every one of them has to be turned back off before the program exits.

Sequence	Parameter	Effect
\e[?25l	?25l	Hide the cursor
\e[?25h	?25h	Show the cursor
\e[?1049h	?1049h	Switch to the alternate screenWhat a full-screen program uses so the shell's scrollback survives underneath it.
\e[?1049l	?1049l	Switch back to the main screen
\e[?7h	?7h	Wrap long lines at the right edge
\e[?7l	?7l	Let long lines run off the right edge
\e[?2004h	?2004h	Turn on bracketed pastePasted text arrives wrapped in \e[200~ and \e[201~, so a shell can tell typing from pasting.
\e[?2004l	?2004l	Turn off bracketed paste

FAQ

Why does my output stay coloured after the program ends?

Because nothing reset it. A colour code stays in effect until another one replaces it, so a program that exits mid-colour hands the shell a coloured prompt. Print \e[0m before exiting — including on the error path, which is the one people forget.

What is the difference between \e, \033 and \x1b?

Nothing. All three are the same byte, 0x1B, written the way a particular language spells it: \e in bash and zsh, \033 in C and in echo -e, \x1b in Python, Go, Rust and JavaScript, \u001b where only a Unicode escape is allowed, such as JSON and Java.

How do I strip these out of a log file?

Paste it into the ANSI stripper on this site. It removes colour, cursor and mode sequences and can also convert the colours to HTML or Markdown instead of dropping them, which is what you want if the point of the log was the highlighting.

Should I hard-code colours or use a library?

For anything more than a few lines, use a library — it checks whether the output is a terminal at all. Colour codes written to a pipe or a file end up in the file, and that is how build logs acquire their line noise.

Is bold the same as bright?

Historically yes, and on some terminals still. Code 1 was defined as bold, but many terminals implemented it by switching to the bright half of the palette instead, so bold red and bright red can render identically. The 90–97 range exists so you can ask for bright without asking for bold.

ANSI escape codes

Anatomy of a sequence#

Text attributes#

Text colour#

Background colour#

256 colours and true colour#

Cursor movement#

Erasing#

Terminal modes#

FAQ

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