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{{Redirect|ANSI code||ANSI (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2012}}
<!-- Page title should be changed to "sequence" not "code".  Null mod to raise the issue. -->
In [[computing]], '''ANSI escape code''' (or '''escape sequences''') is the method of [[in-band signaling]] to control [[formatted text|formatting, color, and other output options]] on video [[text terminal]]s. To encode this formatting information, it embeds certain sequences of [[byte]]s into the text, which have to be interpreted specially, not as [[character encoding|codes of characters]]. Although [[computer hardware|hardware]] text terminals become increasingly rare in the 21st century, the relevance of this [[technical standard|standard]] persists because most [[terminal emulator]]s<!-- in the broad sense --> interpret at least some of the ANSI escape sequences in the [[text-based user interface|output text]]. One notable exception is the [[win32 console]] component of [[Microsoft Windows]].

==History==
Almost all manufacturers of video terminals added vendor-specific escape sequences to do operations such as placing the cursor at arbitrary positions on the screen. As these sequences were all different, elaborate libraries such as [[termcap]] had to be created so programs could use the same [[application programming interface|API]] for all of them. In addition, most designs required sending numbers (such as row & column) as the binary values of the characters; for some programming languages and for systems that did not use ASCII internally it was often difficult or impossible to turn a number into the correct character.

The first standard for '''ANSI escape sequences''' was [[Ecma International|ECMA]]-48, adopted in 1976. It was a continuation of a series of character coding standards, the first one being ECMA-6 from 1961, a 7-bit standard from which [[ASCII]] originates. ECMA-48 has been updated several times and the current edition is the 5th from 1991. It is also adopted by [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]] and [[International Electrotechnical Commission|IEC]] as standard '''ISO/IEC 6429'''. The name "ANSI escape sequence" dates from 1981 when [[American National Standards Institute|ANSI]] adopted ECMA-48 as the standard '''ANSI X3.64''' (and later, in 1997, withdrew it).<ref>See this [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|NIST]] [http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/withdraw.htm list of withdrawn standards]</ref>

The first popular video terminal to support these sequences was the Digital [[VT100]] introduced in 1978,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vt100.net/vt_history |title=Digital's Video Terminals |publisher=VT100.net |author=Paul Williams |year=2006 | accessdate=17 August 2011}}</ref> which sparked a variety of "clones", among the earliest and most popular of which was the much more affordable [[Zenith Z-89|Zenith Z-19]] in 1979.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pestingers.net/Computer_history/Computers_79.htm|title= Heathkit Catalog 1979|author= Heathkit Company|year= 1979|work= |publisher= Heathkit Company|accessdate=4 November 2011}}</ref><!-- Document at http://www.retroarchive.org/hardware/heathkit/H19CODES.DOC shows that you "Enter ANSI mode" with ESC <, but does not document the result --><!-- H-19 Esc < switches into ANSI mode, requiring a proprietary ANSI extended escape code to return to VT-52 (Heathkit) mode. ~~~~ -->  The popularity of these gradually led to more and more software (especially [[bulletin board system]]s) assuming the escape sequences worked, leading to almost all new terminals and emulator programs supporting them.

== Support ==
Most [[terminal emulator]]s running on [[Unix-like]] systems (such as [[xterm]] and the [[Terminal (Mac OS X)|OS X Terminal]]) interpret ANSI escape sequences. The [[Linux console]] (the text seen when X is not running) also interprets them. Terminal programs for [[Microsoft Windows]] designed to show text from an outside source (a serial port, modem, or socket) also interpret them. Some support for text from local programs on Windows is offered through alternate command processors such as JP Software's [[Take Command Console|TCC]] (formerly 4NT), Michael J. Mefford's ANSI.COM, and Jason Hood's [[ansicon]].

Many [[Unix]] [[console application]]s (e.g., [[ls]], [[grep]], [[Vim (text editor)|Vim]], and [[Emacs]]) can generate them. Utility programs such as [[tput]] output them, as well as in low-level programming libraries, such as [[termcap]] or [[terminfo]], or a higher-level library such as [[curses (programming library)|curses]].

===Windows and DOS===
DOS 1.x did not support the ANSI or any other escape sequences. Only a few [[control character]]s ([[Carriage return|CR]], [[Line feed|LF]], [[Backspace character|BS]]) were interpreted, making it impractical to do any kind of full-screen application.<ref>Such an application would have to rely on scrolling the screen down sufficiently to erase all the old text, then redrawing the entire screen.  The user would see the scroll/redraw, and the hardware [[Cursor (computers)|cursor]] would be left at the very bottom.  Some early [[batch file]]s achieved rudimentary "full screen" displays in this way, but they were generally not advanced.</ref>{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} Any display effects had to be done with BIOS calls (or far more often by directly manipulating the IBM PC hardware).

DOS 2.0 introduced the ability to add a [[device driver]] for the ANSI escape sequences – the ''[[de facto]]'' standard being <code>[[ANSI.SYS]]</code>, but others like <code>ANSI.COM</code>,<ref name="ANSI.COM">{{cite web
|url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,5343,00.asp
|title=ANSI.com: Download It Here
|publisher=PC Magazine
|author=Michael Mefford
|date=7 February 1989
|accessdate=10 August 2011
}}</ref> and <code>NANSI.SYS</code><ref name="NANSI.SYS">{{cite web
|url=http://www.kegel.com/nansi/
|title=Nansi and NNansi - ANSI Drivers for MS-DOS
|publisher=Dan Kegel's Web Hostel
|author=Dan Kegel, Eric Auer
|date=28 February 1999
|accessdate=10 August 2011
}}</ref> are used as well. Extreme slowness and the fact that it was not installed by default made usage by software almost non-existent; software continued to directly manipulate the hardware to get the text display needed.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}} ANSI.SYS and similar drivers continued to work in Windows 9x up to Windows Me. ANSI.SYS also works in NT-derived systems for 16-bit legacy programs executing under the [[NTVDM]].

The [[Win32 console]] does not natively support ANSI escape sequences at all. Software such as [[Ansicon]]<ref name=Ansicon>{{cite web
|url=https://github.com/adoxa/ansicon
|title=Process ANSI escape sequences for Windows console programs
|publisher=Jason Hood's Home page
|author=Jason Hood
|year=2005
|accessdate=9 May 2013
}}</ref> can however act as a wrapper around the standard [[Win32 console]] and add support for ANSI escape sequences. Other software can manipulate the console with the [[ioctl]]-like Console API<ref>{{cite web |url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682087.aspx |title=Console Reference (Windows) |publisher=Microsoft |accessdate=17 August 2013}}</ref> interlaced with the text output. Some software internally interprets ANSI escape sequences in text being printing and translates them to these calls.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pypi.python.org/pypi/colorama |title=colorama 0.2.5 : |work=Python Package Index |accessdate=17 August 2013}}</ref>

== Sequence elements ==
Escape sequences start with the character '''[[Escape character|ESC]]''' ([[ASCII]] [[decimal]] 27/[[hexadecimal|hex]] 0x1B/[[octal]] 033). For two character sequences, the second character is in the range ASCII 64 to 95 ('''@''' to '''_'''). However, most of the sequences are more than two characters, and  start with the characters '''[[Escape character|ESC]]''' and '''<nowiki>[</nowiki>''' (left bracket). This sequence is called '''CSI''' for '''Control Sequence Introducer''' (or Control Sequence Initiator). The final character of these sequences is in the range [[ASCII]] 64 to 126 (@ to ~).

There is a single-character CSI (155/[[Hexadecimal|0x]]9B/[[octal|0]]233) as well. The '''ESC'''+'''<nowiki>[</nowiki>''' two-character sequence is more often used than the single-character alternative, for details see [[C0 and C1 control codes]]. Only the two-character sequence is recognized by devices that support just [[ASCII]] (7-bit bytes) or devices that support 8-bit bytes but use the 0x80–0x9F control character range for other purposes. On terminals that use [[UTF-8]] encoding, both forms take 2 bytes (CSI in UTF-8 is 0xC2, 0x9B){{discuss|assertion about C1 controls in UTF-8}} but the '''ESC'''+'''<nowiki>[</nowiki>''' sequence is clearer.

Though some encodings use multiple [[byte]]s per character, the following discussion is restricted to ASCII characters, and so assumes each character is directly represented by a single byte.

== Non-CSI codes ==
Note: other C0 codes besides ESC&nbsp;— commonly BEL, BS, CR, LF, FF, TAB, VT, SO, and SI&nbsp;— may produce similar or identical effects to some control sequences when output.

;ESC N = SS2
;ESC O = SS3
: Select a single character from one of the alternate character sets.
;ESC ^ = PM
;ESC _ = APC
: These each take a single string of text, terminated by ST (ESC \ ). They are ignored by xterm.
;ESC P = DCS
: Device control string,
;ESC ] = OSC
: Operating system command&nbsp;— these are similar to CSI, but not limited to integer arguments. Because they are frequently used,{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} in many cases BEL is an acceptable alternative to ST. E.g., in xterm, the window title can be set by: "OSC0;this is the window titleBEL"

Note: pressing special keys on the keyboard, as well as outputting many xterm CSI, DCS, or OSC sequences, often produces a CSI, DCS, or OSC sequence.

== CSI codes ==
The general structure of most ANSI escape sequences is <code>CSI [''private mode character(s?)''] ''n1'' ; ''n2''... [''trailing intermediate character(s?)''] ''letter''</code>.  The final byte, modified by private mode characters and trailing intermediate characters, specifies the command. The numbers are optional parameters. The default value used for omitted parameters varies with the command, but is usually 1 or 0.  If trailing parameters are omitted, the trailing semicolons may also be omitted.

The final byte is technically any character in the range 64 to 126 ([[hexadecimal|hex]] 0x40 to 0x7e, ASCII ''@'' to ''~''), and may be modified with leading intermediate bytes in the range 32 to 47 (hex 0x20 to 0x2f).

The colon (0x3a) is the only character not a part of the general sequence; it was left for future standardization, so any sequence containing it should be ignored.
Although multiple private mode characters or trailing intermediates are permitted, there are no such known usages.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

If there are any leading private mode characters, the main body of the sequence could theoretically contain any order of characters 0x30 – 0x3f instead of a well-formed semicolon-separated list of numbers,{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}<!-- need section number in standard to cite this --> but all known terminals are nice and just use them as a flag.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}
Sequences are also private if the final byte is in the range 112 to 126 (hex 0x70 to 0x7e, ASCII ''p'' to ''~'').

Examples of private escape codes include the '''DECTCEM''' ([[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] text cursor enable mode) shown below.
It was first introduced for the VT-300 series of [[Computer terminal|video terminals]].

The existence of a C0 control, DEL (0x7f), or a high characters is undefined.{{clarify|date=November 2010}} Typically, implementations will either cancel the sequence or execute the control and then continue parsing the CSI sequence.{{clarify|date=November 2010}}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Some ANSI escape sequences (not a complete list)
|-
! Code !! Name !! Effect
|-
| CSI ''n'' A || CUU – Cursor Up || rowspan=4 | Moves the cursor ''n'' (default 1) cells in the given direction. If the cursor is already at the edge of the screen, this has no effect.
|-
| CSI ''n'' B || CUD – Cursor Down
|-
| CSI ''n'' C || CUF – Cursor Forward
|-
| CSI ''n'' D || CUB – Cursor Back
|-
| CSI ''n'' E || CNL – Cursor Next Line || Moves cursor to beginning of the line ''n'' (default 1) lines down.
|-
| CSI ''n'' F || CPL – Cursor Previous Line || Moves cursor to beginning of the line ''n'' (default 1) lines up.
|-
| CSI ''n'' G || CHA – Cursor Horizontal Absolute || Moves the cursor to column ''n''.
|-
| {{nowrap|CSI ''n'' ; ''m'' H}} || CUP – Cursor Position || Moves the cursor to row ''n'', column ''m''.  The values are 1-based, and default to 1 (top left corner) if omitted.  A sequence such as CSI ;5H is a synonym for CSI 1;5H as well as CSI 17;H is the same as CSI 17H and CSI 17;1H
|-
| CSI ''n'' J || ED – Erase Data || Clears part of the screen. If ''n'' is zero (or missing), clear from cursor to end of screen. If ''n'' is one, clear from cursor to beginning of the screen. If ''n'' is two, clear entire screen (and moves cursor to upper left on MS-DOS ANSI.SYS).
|-
| CSI ''n'' K || EL – Erase in Line || Erases part of the line. If ''n'' is zero (or missing), clear from cursor to the end of the line. If ''n'' is one, clear from cursor to beginning of the line. If ''n'' is two, clear entire line.  Cursor position does not change.
|-
| CSI ''n'' S || SU – Scroll Up || Scroll whole page up by ''n'' (default 1) lines.  New lines are added at the bottom.  (not ANSI.SYS)
|-
| CSI ''n'' T || SD – Scroll Down || Scroll whole page down by ''n'' (default 1) lines.  New lines are added at the top.  (not ANSI.SYS)
|-
| {{nowrap|CSI ''n'' ; ''m'' f}} || HVP – Horizontal and Vertical Position || Moves the cursor to row ''n'', column ''m''.  Both default to 1 if omitted.  Same as CUP
|-
| {{nowrap|CSI ''n'' m}} || SGR – Select Graphic Rendition || Sets [[#graphics|SGR parameters]], including text color. After CSI can be zero or more parameters separated with ;.  With no parameters, CSI m is treated as CSI 0 m (reset / normal), which is typical of most of the ANSI escape sequences.
|-
| CSI 6 n || DSR – Device Status Report || Reports the cursor position to the application as (as though typed at the keyboard) ESC<nowiki>[</nowiki>''n'';''m''R, where ''n'' is the row and ''m'' is the column. (May not work on MS-DOS.)
|-
| CSI s || SCP – Save Cursor Position || Saves the cursor position.
|-
| CSI u || RCP – Restore Cursor Position || Restores the cursor position.
|-
| CSI ?25l || DECTCEM || Hides the cursor. (Note: the trailing character is lowercase L.)
|-
| CSI ?25h || DECTCEM || Shows the cursor.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+  <span id="graphics"> SGR (Select Graphic Rendition) parameters</span>
|-
! Code !! Effect !! Note
|-
| 0 || Reset / Normal || all attributes off
|-
| 1 || Bold or increased intensity ||
|-
| 2 || Faint (decreased intensity) || not widely supported
|-
| 3 || Italic: on || not widely supported. Sometimes treated as inverse.
|-
| 4 || Underline: Single ||
|-
| 5 || Blink: Slow || less than 150 per minute
|-
| 6 || Blink: Rapid || MS-DOS ANSI.SYS; 150 per minute or more; not widely supported
|-
| 7 || Image: Negative || inverse or reverse; swap foreground and background ([[reverse video]])
|-
| 8 || Conceal || not widely supported
|-
| 9 || Crossed-out || Characters legible, but marked for deletion.  Not widely supported.
|-
| 10 || Primary(default) font ||
|-
| 11–19 || ''n''-th alternate font || Select the ''n''-th alternate font. 14 being the fourth alternate font, up to 19 being the 9th alternate font.
|-
| 20 || [[Fraktur (script)|Fraktur]] || hardly ever supported
|-
| 21 || Bold: off or Underline: Double || bold off not widely supported, double underline hardly ever
|-
| 22 || Normal color or intensity || neither bold nor faint
|-
| 23 || Not italic, not Fraktur ||
|-
| 24 || Underline: None || not singly or doubly underlined
|-
| 25 || Blink: off ||
|-
| 26 || Reserved ||
|-
| 27 || Image: Positive ||
|-
| 28 || Reveal || conceal off
|-
| 29 || Not crossed out ||
|-
| 30–37 || Set text color (foreground) || 30 + x, where x is from the color table below
|-
| 38 || Set xterm-256 text color (foreground) {{dubious|xterm-256colors|date=November 2010}} || next arguments are 5;x where x is color index (0..255)
|-
| 39 || Default text color (foreground) || implementation defined (according to standard)
|-
| 40–47 || Set background color || 40 + x, where x is from the color table below
|-
| 48 || Set xterm-256 background color || next arguments are 5;x where x is color index (0..255)
|-
| 49 || Default background color || implementation defined (according to standard)
|-
| 50 || Reserved ||
|-
| 51 || Framed ||
|-
| 52 || Encircled ||
|-
| 53 || Overlined ||
|-
| 54 || Not framed or encircled ||
|-
| 55 || Not overlined ||
|-
| 56–59 || Reserved ||
|-
| 60 || ideogram underline or right side line || hardly ever supported
|-
| 61 || ideogram double underline or double line on the right side || hardly ever supported
|-
| 62 || ideogram overline or left side line || hardly ever supported
|-
| 63 || ideogram double overline or double line on the left side || hardly ever supported
|-
| 64 || ideogram stress marking || hardly ever supported
|-
| 90–99 || Set foreground text color, high intensity || aixterm (not in standard)
|-
| 100–109 || Set background color, high intensity || aixterm (not in standard)
|}
<!-- SGR 9x and 10x are not defined in ISO 6429, etc.  They were defined for IBM's aixterm, and are used in xterm -->
<!-- The names given for the SGR codes are not normative from the ISO/IEC 6429, nor ECMA 48, nor ANSI X3.64.  Rather, they are subjectively descriptive. Room for improvement. -->

== Colors ==

Text colors (and SGR parameters in general) are manipulated using <code>''CSI'' ''n1'' [;''n2'' [; ''...'']] m</code> sequences, where each <code>n1</code>, <code>n2</code>, ... is an SGR parameter as shown above. Thus, for instance, you use codes <code>30+i</code> to specify foreground color, <code>40+i</code> to specify background color, where <code>i</code> is the number in the desired color's column header in the table below. The following examples can be used with the <code>printf</code> utility, where <code>\x1b[</code> implements the CSI: To switch the foreground color to black, use <code>\x1b[30m</code>; to switch to red, use <code>\x1b[31m</code>; utilizing the "bold" parameter, gray would be <code>\x1b[30;1m</code>; to get bold red, use <code>\x1b[31;1m</code>. To reset colors to their defaults, use <code>\x1b[0m</code>.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Color table<ref>The names are standard, however the exact shade/hue/value of colors are not standardized and will depend on the device used to display them.</ref>
|-
! Intensity !!0!!1!!2!!3!!4!!5!!6!!7
|-
! Normal
| style='background: black;color:white' | Black
| style='background: maroon;color:white'| Red
| style='background: green;color:white' | Green
| style='background: olive;color:white' | Yellow<ref>On terminals based on [[Color Graphics Adapter|CGA]] compatible hardware, such as ANSI.SYS running on DOS, this normal intensity foreground color is rendered as Orange.  CGA [[Color_Graphics_Adapter#With_an_RGBI_monitor|RGBI]] monitors contained hardware to modify the dark yellow color to an orange/brown color by reducing the green component.  See this [http://sixteencolors.net/pack/ciapak26/DH-JNS11.CIA ansi art] as an example.</ref>
| style='background: navy;color:white'  | Blue
| style='background: purple;color:white'| Magenta
| style='background: teal;color:white'  | Cyan
| style='background: silver;color:black'| White
|-
! Bright
| style='background: gray;color:white'   | Black
| style='background: red;color:black'    | Red
| style='background: lime;color:black'   | Green
| style='background: yellow;color:black' | Yellow
| style='background: blue;color:white'   | Blue
| style='background: fuchsia;color:black'| Magenta
| style='background: cyan;color:black'   | Cyan
| style='background: white;color:black'  | White
|}

There are two other color standards [[Web colors|CSS/HTML standard colors]] and [[X11 color names|X Window colors]] which standardize both the color names and associated [[RGB color model|RGB color values]], but the escape sequence standard only specifies the color names, not RGB values. The chart below shows default RGB assignments for some common terminal programs, together with the CSS and the X-Window colors for these color names.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|
! Color name
! Standard VGA colors
! Windows XP<br />[[Command Prompt|command prompt]]
! [[Terminal (Mac OS X)|Terminal.app]]
! [[PuTTY]]
! [[xterm]]
! [[CSS]]/[[HTML]]
! [[X Window System|X Window]]
|-
! rowspan="8" | Normal
! Black
| style="background: #000000; color: white" | 0, 0, 0
| style="background: #000000; color: white" | 0, 0, 0
| style="background: #000000; color: white" | 0, 0, 0
| style="background: #000000; color: white" | 0, 0, 0
| style="background: #000000; color: white" | 0, 0, 0
| style="background: #000000; color: white" | 0, 0, 0
| style="background: #000000; color: white" | 0, 0, 0
|-
! Red
| style="background: #AA0000; color: white" | 170, 0, 0
| style="background: #800000; color: white" | 128, 0, 0
| style="background: #c23621; color: white" | 194, 54, 33
| style="background: #bb0000; color: white" | 187, 0, 0
| style="background: #cd0000; color: white" | 205, 0, 0
| style="background: #ff0000; color: white" | 255, 0, 0
| style="background: #ff0000; color: white" | 255, 0, 0
|-
! Green
| style="background: #00AA00; color: white" | 0, 170, 0
| style="background: #008000; color: white" | 0, 128, 0
| style="background: #25bc26; color: white" | 37, 188, 36
| style="background: #00bb00; color: white" | 0, 187, 0
| style="background: #00cd00; color: white" | 0, 205, 0
| style="background: #00ff00; color: black" | 0, 255, 0
| style="background: #008000; color: white" | 0, 128, 0
|-
! Brown/yellow
| style="background: #AA5500; color: white" | 170, 85, 0
| style="background: #808000; color: white" | 128, 128, 0
| style="background: #adad27; color: white" | 173, 173, 39
| style="background: #bbbb00; color: black" | 187, 187, 0
| style="background: #cdcd00; color: black" | 205, 205, 0
| style="background: #ffff00; color: black" | 255, 255, 0
| style="background: #ffff00; color: black" | 255, 255, 0
|-
! Blue
| style="background: #0000AA; color: white" | 0, 0, 170
| style="background: #000080; color: white" | 0, 0, 128
| style="background: #492ee1; color: white" | 73, 46, 225
| style="background: #0000bb; color: white" | 0, 0, 187
| style="background: #0000ee; color: white" | 0, 0, 238
| style="background: #0000ff; color: white" | 0, 0, 255
| style="background: #0000ff; color: white" | 0, 0, 255
|-
! Magenta
| style="background: #AA00AA; color: white" | 170, 0, 170
| style="background: #800080; color: white" | 128, 0, 128
| style="background: #d338d3; color: white" | 211, 56, 211
| style="background: #bb00bb; color: white" | 187, 0, 187
| style="background: #cd00cd; color: white" | 205, 0, 205
| style="background: #ff00ff; color: black" | 255, 0, 255
| style="background: #ff00ff; color: black" | 255, 0, 255
|-
! Cyan
| style="background: #00AAAA; color: white" | 0, 170, 170
| style="background: #008080; color: white" | 0, 128, 128
| style="background: #33bbc8; color: white" | 51, 187, 200
| style="background: #00bbbb; color: black" | 0, 187, 187
| style="background: #00cdcd; color: black" | 0, 205, 205
| style="background: #00ffff; color: black" | 0, 255, 255
| style="background: #00ffff; color: black" | 0, 255, 255
|-
! Gray
| style="background: #AAAAAA; color: black" | 170, 170, 170
| style="background: #c0c0c0; color: black" | 192, 192, 192
| style="background: #cbcccd; color: black" | 203, 204, 205
| style="background: #bbbbbb; color: black" | 187, 187, 187
| style="background: #e5e5e5; color: black" | 229, 229, 229
| style="background: #ffffff; color: black" | 255, 255, 255
| style="background: #ffffff; color: black" | 255, 255, 255
|-
! rowspan="8" | Bright/light
! Darkgray
| style="background: #555555; color: white" | 85, 85, 85
| style="background: #808080; color: black" | 128, 128, 128
| style="background: #818383; color: white" | 129, 131, 131
| style="background: #555555; color: white" | 85, 85, 85
| style="background: #7f7f7f; color: white" | 127, 127, 127
|
|
|-
! Red
| style="background: #FF5555; color: white" | 255, 85, 85
| style="background: #ff0000; color: white" | 255, 0, 0
| style="background: #fc391f; color: white" | 252,57,31
| style="background: #ff5555; color: white" | 255, 85, 85
| style="background: #ff0000; color: white" | 255, 0, 0
|
|
|-
! Green
| style="background: #55FF55; color: black" | 85, 255, 85
| style="background: #00ff00; color: black" | 0, 255, 0
| style="background: #31e722; color: black" | 49, 231, 34
| style="background: #55ff55; color: black" | 85, 255, 85
| style="background: #00ff00; color: black" | 0, 255, 0
| style="background: #90ee90; color: black" | 144, 238, 144
| style="background: #90ee90; color: black" | 144, 238, 144
|-
! Yellow
| style="background: #FFFF55; color: black" | 255, 255, 85
| style="background: #ffff00; color: black" | 255, 255, 0
| style="background: #eaec23; color: black" | 234, 236, 35
| style="background: #ffff55; color: black" | 255, 255, 85
| style="background: #ffff00; color: black" | 255, 255, 0
| style="background: #ffffe0; color: black" | 255, 255, 224
| style="background: #ffffe0; color: black" | 225, 255, 224
|-
! Blue
| style="background: #5555FF; color: white" | 85, 85, 255
| style="background: #0000ff; color: white" | 0, 0, 255
| style="background: #5833ff; color: black" | 88, 51, 255
| style="background: #5555ff; color: black" | 85, 85, 255
| style="background: #5c5cff; color: black" | 92, 92, 255
| style="background: #acd8e6; color: black" | 173, 216, 230
| style="background: #acd8e6; color: black" | 173, 216, 230
|-
! Magenta
| style="background: #FF55FF; color: black" | 255, 85, 255
| style="background: #ff00ff; color: black" | 255, 0, 255
| style="background: #f935f8; color: black" | 249, 53, 248
| style="background: #ff55ff; color: black" | 255, 85, 255
| style="background: #ff00ff; color: black" | 255, 0, 255
|
|
|-
! Cyan
| style="background: #55FFFF; color: black" | 85, 255, 255
| style="background: #00ffff; color: black" | 0, 255, 255
| style="background: #14f0f0; color: black" | 20, 240, 240
| style="background: #55ffff; color: black" | 85, 255, 255
| style="background: #00ffff; color: black" | 0, 255, 255
| style="background: #e0ffff; color: black" | 224, 255, 255
| style="background: #e0ffff; color: black" | 224, 255, 255
|-
! White
| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black" | 255, 255, 255
| style="background: #ffffff; color: black" | 255, 255, 255
| style="background: #e9ebeb; color: black" | 233, 235, 235
| style="background: #ffffff; color: black" | 255, 255, 255
| style="background: #ffffff; color: black" | 255, 255, 255
|
|
|}

The VGA column denotes the typical colors that are used when booting PCs and leaving them in their classical 80×25 text mode. The colors are different in the EGA/VGA graphic modes.

In July 2004, the blue colors of xterm changed,<ref>
{{cite web
| url=http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_192
| title=Patch #192 - 2004/7/12 - XFree86 4.4.99.9
}}</ref> RGB (0,0,205) → (0,0,238) for normal and (0,0,255) → (92,92,255) for bright. As of 2010, old xterm versions still linger on many computers though.{{cn|date=September 2013}}

Recent-enough versions of KDE's [[Konsole]] program support 24-bit foreground and background color setting<ref>{{cite web |url=https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/applications/konsole/repository/revisions/master/entry/tests/color-spaces.pl |title=color-spaces.pl (a copy of 256colors2.pl from xterm dated 11 July 1999) |publisher=KDE |date=6 December 2006 }}</ref>{{better source|24-bit colors (sic)|date=September 2013}} Quoting one of the text-files in its source-tree:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/applications/konsole/repository/revisions/master/entry/doc/user/README.moreColors |title=README.moreColors |publisher=KDE |date=22 April 2010}}</ref>{{better source|24-bit colors (sic)|date=September 2013}}
    <code>ESC[ … 38;2;<r>;<g>;&lt;b> … m Select RGB foreground color</code>
    <code>ESC[ … 48;2;<r>;<g>;&lt;b> … m Select RGB background color</code>

In 256 color mode, the color-codes are the following:{{cn|date=September 2013}}
  0x00-0x07 standard colors (as in ESC [ 30+''n'' ; m)
  0x08-0x0f high intensity colors (as in ESC [ 90+''n'' ; m)
  0x10-0xe7 6*6*6=216 colors: 16 + 36*r + 6*g + b (0≤r,g,b≤5)
  0xe8-0xff grayscale from black to white in 24 steps

==Examples==
<code>CSI 2 J</code> — This clears the screen and, on some devices, locates the cursor to the y,x position 1,1 (upper left corner).

<code>CSI 32 m</code> — This makes text green. On MS-DOS, normally the green would be dark, dull green, so you may wish to enable Bold with the sequence <code>CSI 1 m</code> which would make it bright green, or combined as <code>CSI 32 ; 1 m</code>.  MS-DOS ANSI.SYS uses the Bold state to make the character Bright; also the Blink state can be set (via <code>INT 10, AX 1003h, BL 00h</code>) to render the Background in the Bright mode.  MS-DOS ANSI.SYS does not support SGR codes 90–97 and 100–107 directly.

<code>CSI 0 ; 6 8 ; "DIR" ; 13 p</code> — This re-assigns the key F10 to send to the keyboard buffer the string "DIR" and ENTER, which in the DOS command line would display the contents of the current directory. (MS-DOS ANSI.SYS only)  This was sometimes used for [[ANSI bomb]]s.  This is a private-use code (as indicated by the letter p), using a non-standard extension to include a string-valued parameter.  Following the letter of the standard would consider the sequence to end at the letter D.

<code>CSI s</code> — This saves the cursor position. Using the sequence <code>CSI u</code> will restore it to the position. Say the current cursor position is 7(y) and 10(x). The sequence <code>CSI s</code> will save those two numbers. Now you can move to a different cursor position, such as 20(y) and 3(x), using the sequence <code>CSI 20 ; 3 H</code> or <code>CSI 20 ; 3 f</code>. Now if you use the sequence CSI u the cursor position will return to 7(y) and 10(x). Some terminals require the DEC sequences <code>ESC 7</code> / <code>ESC 8</code> instead which is more widely supported.

===Example of use in shell scripting===

ANSI escape codes are often used in [[UNIX]] and UNIX-like [[virtual console|terminals]] to provide [[syntax highlighting]]. For example, on compatible terminals, the following ''[[ls|list]]'' command color-codes file and directory names by type.

<code>ls --color</code>

Users can employ escape codes in their scripts by including them as part of ''[[standard output]]'' or ''[[stderr|standard error]]''. For example, the following ''[[sed]]'' command embellishes the output of the ''[[make (software)|make]]'' command by displaying lines containing words starting with "ERR" in <span style="color:white;background:black;">reverse video</span>, and words starting with "WARN" in '''bold''' ([[letter case]] is ignored).

 <span style="white-space:pre-wrap;">make 2&gt;&amp;1 | sed -e 's/.*\bERR.*/<span style="color:white;background:black;">\x1b[7m</span>&amp;<span style="color:black;background:silver;">\x1b[0m</span>/i' -e 's/.*\bWARN.*/<span style="color:black;background:silver;font-weight:bolder;">\x1b[1m</span>&amp;<span style="color:black;background:silver;">\x1b[0m</span>/i'</span>

The representations of the codes are highlighted.<ref>[http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch09.en.html#_colorized_shell_echo Colorized shell echo]</ref>

==Invalid and ambiguous sequences in use==
* The Linux console uses <code>OSC P n rr gg bb</code> to change the palette, which, if hard-coded into an application, may hang other terminals. However, appending <code>ST</code> will be ignored by Linux and form a proper, ignorable sequence for other terminals.
* On the Linux console, certain function keys generate sequences of the form <code>CSI [ ''char''</code>. The CSI sequence should terminate on the [.
* Old versions of [[Terminator (terminal emulator)|Terminator]] generates <code>SS3 1; ''modifiers'' ''char''</code> when F1–F4 are pressed with modifiers. The faulty behavior was copied from [[GNOME Terminal]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}
* xterm replies <code>CSI ''row'' ; ''column'' R</code> if asked for cursor position and <code>CSI 1 ; ''modifiers'' R</code> if the F3 key is pressed with modifiers, which collide in the case of ''row'' == 1. This can be avoided by using the ''?'' private modifier, which will be reflected in the response.{{clarify|date=November 2010}}
* many terminals prepend <code>ESC</code> to any character that is typed with the alt key down. This creates ambiguity for uppercase letters and symbols ''@[\]^_'', which would form C1 codes.{{clarify|date=November 2010}}
* [[Konsole]] generates <code>SS3 ''modifiers'' ''char''</code> when F1–F4 are pressed with modifiers.{{clarify|date=November 2010}}

==See also==
* [[ANSI art]]
* [[Control character]]
* [[Advanced Video Attribute Terminal Assembler and Recreator]] (AVATAR)

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-048.htm Standard ECMA-48, Control Functions For Coded Character Sets]. (''5th edition, June 1991''), European Computer Manufacturers Association, Geneva 1991 (also published by ISO and IEC as standard ISO/IEC 6429)
* [http://vt100.net/docs/ vt100.net DEC Documents]
* {{Wayback|url=http://enterprise.aacc.cc.md.us/~rhs/ansi.html|title=ANSI.SYS -- ansi terminal emulation escape sequences|date=20060206022229}}
* [http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html Xterm / Escape Sequences]
* [http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/aix/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.aix.cmds%2Fdoc%2Faixcmds1%2Faixterm.htm AIXterm / Escape Sequences]
* [http://bjh21.me.uk/all-escapes/all-escapes.txt A collection of escape sequences for terminals that are vaguely compliant with ECMA-48 and friends.]
* [http://ascii-table.com/ansi-escape-sequences.php ANSI Escape Sequences]

{{Character encoding}}
{{Ecma International Standards}}
{{ISO standards}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansi Escape Code}}
[[Category:Computer standards]]
[[Category:Ecma standards]]
[[Category:ANSI standards]]
[[Category:Text user interface]]