Color Format Specification

This document describes the color formats accepted by fastfetch wherever a color is expected: the --color-* options, the color properties of the JSONC config, and the {#...} placeholders in format strings.

Supported formats

ANSI Escape Sequences

A color encoding in ANSI escape sequence format. It will be inserted between "ESC[" and "m". For more information about ANSI escape codes, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#SGR_(Select_Graphic_Rendition)_parameters

35              # Magenta
38;5;38         # 38th color in the ANSI 256 color palette
4;92            # Bright green with underline
5;104           # Blinking text on a blue background (terminal support varies)
38;2;255;0;0    # RGB red (255,0,0)
1;38;5;220      # Bold orange (ANSI 256 color)

A value that is already a complete escape sequence is used as is: \e[1;35m and 1;35 are equivalent, and the trailing m is optional.

Named Colors

ANSI named colors are also supported:

magenta                # Equivalent to `35`
bold_red               # Equivalent to `1;31`
underline_bright_green # Equivalent to `4;1;32`

• Supported named colors: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, default, and light_black, light_red, light_green, light_yellow, light_blue, light_magenta, light_cyan, light_white
• Supported named prefixes: reset_, bold_, bright_, dim_, italic_, underline_, blink_, inverse_, hidden_, strike_
  • bright_ is an alias for bold_; both expand to 1;.
• Names are matched case-insensitively, and a prefix can be combined with a color name, or with each other: bold_underline_red is equivalent to 1;4;31.
• There is no prefix for background colors, and bg_blue is rejected as an invalid color code. Write the escape sequence directly instead, for example 44 for a blue background.
• The keywords keys, title, output and separator are accepted as well. See Special Keywords.
• Run fastfetch -h color to print the list of named colors together with the ANSI code each one expands to.

RGB Colors

#RRGGBB or #RGB (v2.42.0)

#FF0000              # Equivalent to `38;2;255;0;0` (red)
#F00                 # Same as #FF0000

XTerm 256 Colors

@<number> (v2.57.0), where <number> is between 0 and 255

@196                   # Equivalent to `38;5;196` (red)
@34                    # Equivalent to `38;5;34` (green)

Use in format strings or the JSONC config file

Syntax

Use {#color_code} (e.g. {#bold_red}) to set color and {#} to reset. Note when using RGB Colors, two #s are required ({##FF0000})

Special Keywords

The following special keywords can be used to reference colors set by other options:

{#keys}                  # Uses the color set by `--color-keys`
{#title}                 # Uses the color set by `--color-title`
{#output}                # Uses the color set by `--color-output`
{#separator}             # Uses the color set by `--color-separator`