picocolors

The tiniest and the fastest library for terminal output formatting with ANSI colors.

```javascript import pc from "picocolors"

console.log( pc.green(How are ${pc.italic(you)} doing?) ) ```

• No dependencies.
• 14 times smaller and 2 times faster than chalk.
• Used by popular tools like PostCSS, SVGO, Stylelint, and Browserslist.
• Node.js v6+ & browsers support. Support for both CJS and ESM projects.
• TypeScript type declarations included.
• NO_COLOR friendly.

Motivation

With picocolors we are trying to draw attention to the node_modules size problem and promote performance-first culture.

Prior Art

Credits go to the following projects:

• Nanocolors by @ai
• Colorette by @jorgebucaran
• Kleur by @lukeed
• Colors.js by @Marak
• Chalk by @sindresorhus

Benchmarks

The space in node_modules including sub-dependencies:

diff $ node ./benchmarks/size.js Data from packagephobia.com chalk 101 kB cli-color 1249 kB ansi-colors 25 kB kleur 21 kB colorette 17 kB nanocolors 16 kB + picocolors 7 kB

Library loading time:

diff $ node ./benchmarks/loading.js chalk 6.167 ms cli-color 31.431 ms ansi-colors 1.585 ms kleur 2.008 ms kleur/colors 0.773 ms colorette 2.476 ms nanocolors 0.833 ms + picocolors 0.466 ms

Benchmark for simple use case:

diff $ node ./benchmarks/simple.js chalk 24,066,342 ops/sec cli-color 938,700 ops/sec ansi-colors 4,532,542 ops/sec kleur 20,343,122 ops/sec kleur/colors 35,415,770 ops/sec colorette 34,244,834 ops/sec nanocolors 33,443,265 ops/sec + picocolors 33,271,645 ops/sec

Benchmark for complex use cases:

diff $ node ./benchmarks/complex.js chalk 969,915 ops/sec cli-color 131,639 ops/sec ansi-colors 342,250 ops/sec kleur 611,880 ops/sec kleur/colors 1,129,526 ops/sec colorette 1,747,277 ops/sec nanocolors 1,251,312 ops/sec + picocolors 2,024,086 ops/sec

Usage

Picocolors provides an object which includes a variety of text coloring and formatting functions

javascript import pc from "picocolors"

The object includes following coloring functions: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, gray.

javascript console.log(`I see a ${pc.red("red door")} and I want it painted ${pc.black("black")}`)

The object also includes following background color modifier functions: bgBlack, bgRed, bgGreen, bgYellow, bgBlue, bgMagenta, bgCyan, bgWhite and bright variants bgBlackBright, bgRedBright, bgGreenBright, bgYellowBright, bgBlueBright, bgMagentaBright, bgCyanBright, bgWhiteBright.

javascript console.log( pc.bgBlack( pc.white(`Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush.`) ) )

Besides colors, the object includes following formatting functions: dim, bold, hidden, italic, underline, strikethrough, reset, inverse and bright variants blackBright, redBright, greenBright, yellowBright, blueBright, magentaBright, cyanBright, whiteBright.

javascript for (let task of tasks) { console.log(`${pc.bold(task.name)} ${pc.dim(task.durationMs + "ms")}`) }

The library provides additional utilities to ensure the best results for the task:

• isColorSupported — boolean, explicitly tells whether or not the colors or formatting appear on the screen

```javascript import pc from "picocolors"

if (pc.isColorSupported) { console.log("Yay! This script can use colors and formatters") } ```

• createColors(enabled) — a function that returns a new API object with manually defined color support configuration

```javascript import pc from "picocolors"

let { red, bgWhite } = pc.createColors(options.enableColors) ```

Replacing chalk

1. Replace package name in import:

diff - import chalk from 'chalk' + import pico from 'picocolors'

1. Replace variable:

diff - chalk.red(text) + pico.red(text)

1. Replace chains to nested calls:

diff - chalk.red.bold(text) + pico.red(pico.bold(text))

1. You can use colorize-template to replace chalk’s tagged template literal.

```diff + import { createColorize } from 'colorize-template'

• let colorize = createColorize(pico)
• chalk.red.boldfull {yellow ${"text"}}
• colorize{red.bold full {yellow ${"text"}}} ```