Changing colour of text and background of terminal?

Question

I can change the colour through preference , but how can I change the background colour and text colour of terminal through the command line?

Answer 1

On certain XTerm/ANSI-compatible terminals (like xterm and gnome-terminal), you can set colors using a palette bigger then the default 8/16-colors palette (for example using an 88-colors, 256-colors or 16777216-colors (RGB) palette; both xterm and gnome-terminal support both the 256-colors and the 16777216-colors (RGB) palette); mind that the shell might override this (this is the case e.g. for zsh).

Here's a script to list the colors in the 256-color palette along with their ANSI color code in XTerm/ANSI-compatible terminals with a 256-color palette support:

#!/bin/bash
for((i=16; i<256; i++)); do
    printf "\e[48;5;${i}m%03d" $i;
    printf '\e[0m';
    [ ! $((($i - 15) % 6)) -eq 0 ] && printf ' ' || printf '\n'
done

Depending on whether you want to apply the color to the foreground or to the background, use an <fg_bg> value of 38 or 48 (respectively) in the following command:

printf '\e[<fg_bg>;5;<ANSI_color_code>m'

For example, to set the foreground color (<fg_bg>=38) to red (<ANSI_color_code>=196) and the background color (<fg_bg>=48) to black (<ANSI_color_code>=0):

printf '\e[38;5;196m Foreground color: red\n'
printf '\e[48;5;0m Background color: black\n'

It's necessary to redraw the prompt using printf '\e[K' in order for the background color to apply to the whole line and in order for the foreground color to apply to the cursor:

The same thing can be accomplished using RGB values instead of ANSI color codes in a compatible terminal; depending on whether you want to apply the color to the foreground or to the background, use an <fg_bg> value of 38 or 48 (respectively) in the following command:

printf '\e[<fg_bg>;2;<R>;<G>;<B>m'

For example, to set the foreground color (<fg_bg>=38) to red (<R>=255, <G>=0, <B>=0) and the background color (<fg_bg>=48) to black (<R>=0, <G>=0, <B>=0):

printf '\e[38;2;255;0;0m Foreground color: red\n'
printf '\e[48;2;0;0;0m Background color: black\n'

Again, it's necessary to redraw the prompt using printf '\e[K' in order for the background color to apply to the whole line and in order for the foreground color to apply to the cursor:

Using either methods, you can use printf '\e[0m' to reset all the attributes:

Answer 2

Information as found on this page, excluding preview column:

Sequences are composed of the Escape character (often represented by ”^[” or ”<Esc>”) followed by some other characters: ”^[FCm” (where FC is one of the numbers in the bulleted list below).

In bash, the Esc code can be either of the following:

1. \e
2. \033 (octal)
3. \x1B (hexadecimal)

Note 1: The "\e[0m" sequence removes all attributes (formatting and colors). It can be a good idea to add it at the end of each colored text.

Note 2: Foreground and background colours may vary, depending on the terminal's configuration and not all colours are supported.

Set/Reset

• 0: Reset/remove all modifier, foreground and background attributes: echo -e "\e[0mNormal Text"
• 1: Bold/Bright: echo -e "Normal \e[1mBold"
• 2: Dim: echo -e "Normal \e[2mDim"
• 4: Underlined: echo -e "Normal \e[4mUnderlined"
• 5: Blink (doesn't work in most terminals except XTerm): echo -e "Normal \e[5mBlink"
• 7: Reverse/Invert: echo -e "Normal \e[7minverted"
• 8: Hidden (useful for sensitive info): echo -e "Normal \e[8mHidden Input"
• 21: Reset/Remove bold/bright: echo -e "Normal \e[1mBold \e[21mNormal"
• 22: Reset/Remove dim: echo -e "Normal \e[2mDim \e[22mNormal"
• 24: Reset/Remove underline: echo -e "Normal \e[4mUnderlined \e[24mNormal"
• 25: Reset/Remove blink: echo -e "Normal \e[5mBlink \e[25mNormal"
• 27: Reset/Remove reverse/invert: echo -e "Normal \e[7minverted \e[27mNormal"
• 28: Reset/Remove hidden: echo -e "Normal \e[8mHidden \e[28mNormal"

Foreground

• 39: Default (usually green, white or light gray): echo -e "Default \e[39mDefault"
• 30: Black: echo -e "Default \e[30mBlack" (best combined with a background colour: echo -e "Default \e[30;107mBlack on white")
• 31: Red (don't use with green background)
• 32: Green
• 33: Yellow
• 34: Blue
• 35: Magenta/Purple
• 36: Cyan
• 37: Light Gray
• 90: Dark Gray
• 91: Light Red
• 92: Light Green
• 93: Light Yellow
• 94: Light Blue
• 95: Light Magenta/Pink
• 96: Light Cyan
• 97: White

Background

• 49: Default background color (usually black or blue)
• 40: Black
• 41: Red
• 42: Green
• 43: Yellow
• 44: Blue
• 45: Magenta/Purple
• 46: Cyan
• 47: Light Gray (don't use with white foreground)
• 100: Dark Gray (don't use with black foreground)
• 101: Light Red
• 102: Light Green (don't use with white foreground)
• 103: Light Yellow (don't use with white foreground)
• 104: Light Blue (don't use with light yellow foreground)
• 105: Light Magenta/Pink (don't use with light foreground)
• 106: Light Cyan (don't use with white foreground)
• 107: White (don't use with light foreground)

To set both the foreground and background colours at once, use ther form echo -e "\e[S;FG;BGm". For example: echo -e "\e[1;97;41m" (bold white foreground on red background)

For 256 colour options, see the source page.

Answer 3

Change the colors on an incidental basis

If it is meant to change colors on an incidental basis:

You can use the setterm command:

setterm -term linux -back <background_colour> -fore <text_color> -clear

from the colors, you can chose from (both fore- and background):

black|blue|green|cyan|red|magenta|yellow|white|default

for more options:

setterm -help

Change your profile (color) settings

In 14.04, I didn't find an option to use dconf to set the colors or the terminal. You can however use gconftool

• You first need to get your profile name:

  gconftool-2 --get /apps/gnome-terminal/global/profile_list
  

• Then, to set the text colors of your profile:

  gconftool-2 --set "/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/<profile_name>/foreground_color" --type string "#FFFFFF"
  

  for example to set the text color to white

  The same with background color:

  gconftool-2 --set "/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/<profile_name>/background_color" --type string "#000000"
  

  for example to set the background color to black

ALternatively, to set the name of the color(s), you can simply use white or green, from the same palette as the setterm command, e.g.:

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/<profile_name>/background_color" --type string black

Answer 4

See kos's answer for switching the foreground or background to a particular color of the palette, or even a direct RGB color in some terminals. The effect of such a sequence lasts until a different color is selected (or it's reverted to the default).

Another approach, supported by some terminal emulators, is to redefine the exact RGB values of the terminal's default foreground and background colors using the OSC 10 / 11 escape sequences:

echo -ne '\e]10;#123456\e\\'  # set default foreground to #123456
echo -ne '\e]11;#abcdef\e\\'  # set default background to #abcdef

This is likely to last much longer (until overridden by another OSC 10 / 11 or reset via OSC 110 / 111), but unlike the dconf approach, this still affects the current terminal only.

Answer 5

The various colour codes that used for obtaining coloured output can also be used to obtain coloured backgrounds:

40  black
41  red
42  green
43  yellow
44  blue
45  magenta
46  cyan
47  white

Therefore, the following command turns my background red:

$ echo -e '\e[0;41m'

Depending on the shell, the terminal emulator, etc., you might not need the -e.