Simple color management in the terminal
Run colo s <COLOR> to view a color. Colo supports HTML color names, hex colors and 12 different color spaces.
> colo s ff3377 ████████ #ff3377 rgb(255, 51, 119) ████████ hsl(-20, 100%, 60%) hsv(340, 80%, 100%) ████████ cmy(0%, 80%, 53.3%) cmyk(0%, 80%, 53.3%, 0%) ████████ lch(57, 78.1, 9.2) luv(57, 136.2, -0.1) > colo s orange ████████ #ffa500 orange rgb(255, 165, 0) ████████ hsl(38.8, 100%, 50%) hsv(38.8, 100%, 100%) ████████ cmy(0%, 35.3%, 100%) cmyk(0%, 35.3%, 100%, 0%) ████████ lch(74.9, 82.5, 73.1) luv(74.9, 74.9, 74) > colo s 'hsv(300, 100%, 100%)' ████████ #ff00ff fuchsia rgb(255, 0, 255) ████████ hsl(-60, 100%, 50%) hsv(300, 100%, 100%) ████████ cmy(0%, 100%, 0%) cmyk(0%, 100%, 0%, 0%) ████████ lch(60.3, 115.6, 328.2) luv(60.3, 84.1, -108.7) >
12 supported color spaces
Colo supports widely used color spaces, that should cover the needs for professional developers and designers. More information.
Terminal color picker
Pick a color by entering colo pick, and then setting the desired values with the arrow keys, or by entering the values directly. With Tab, you can switch between the sRGB, HSL, HSV and CMY color space. When you’re done, press Enter or Esc.
> colo pick HSL H 0 ▕▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▏ S 100% ▕▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▏ L 50% ▕▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▏
The pick keyword can also be used in different context to select a color with the color picker. - can be used to read a color from stdin, e.g.
> colo s - pick --size=0 Enter color: 147 HSL H 40 ▕▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▏ S 100% ▕▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▏ L 50% ▕▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▏ ██ #114477 rgb(17, 68, 119) hsl(210, 75%, 26.7%) ██ #ffaa00 rgb(255, 170, 0) hsl(40, 100%, 50%) >
Press S to toggle the rectangle mode. This displays a rectangle with one slider as x-axis and another slider as y-axis:
> colo pick HSL H 30 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ S 90% ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ L 50% ▕▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▏ <S> Toggle mode <Tab ↹> Toggle color space
Support for pipes/redirects
Piping data between colo and other commands or files is convenient and enables a wide range of applications.
> echo orange ff4400 | colo s -o hsl > somefile.txt > cat somefile.txt hsl(38.8, 100%, 50%) hsl(16, 100%, 50%) > colo s < somefile.txt ████████ #ffa500 orange rgb(255, 164.9, 0) ████████ hsl(38.8, 100%, 50%) hsv(38.8, 100%, 100%) ████████ cmy(0%, 35.3%, 100%) cmyk(0%, 35.3%, 100%, 0%) ████████ lch(74.9, 82.5, 73.1) luv(74.9, 74.9, 74) ████████ #ff4400 rgb(255, 68, 0) ████████ hsl(16, 100%, 50%) hsv(16, 100%, 100%) ████████ cmy(0%, 73.3%, 100%) cmyk(0%, 73.3%, 100%, 0%) ████████ lch(57.5, 96.9, 45.3) luv(57.5, 151.7, 45.3) >
Mix colors and create gradients
Colors can be mixed in various color spaces. The default color space is lab, because it is designed to approximate human vision.
> colo mix orange blue -w 2,3 Colors: Weights: 2, 3 ████████ #b749af rgb(182.9, 72.9, 174.5) ████████ hsl(-55.4, 43.3%, 50.2%) hsv(304.6, 60.1%, 71.7%) ████████ cmy(28.3%, 71.4%, 31.6%) cmyk(0%, 0%, 0%, 28.3%) ████████ lch(49.4, 66, 329.9) luv(49.4, 51.9, -57.2) > colo gradient orange blue >
Print colored text
colo print <TEXT> <COLORS>... prints text with certain colors applied. There are also flags to make the text bold (-b), italic (-i) or underlined (-u), and a flag to continue printing in the same line (-n):
> colo print 'Hello ' lime -n && colo print 'world!' black lime -ib Hello world! >
Get color contrast
Check the contrast between two colors, and find out if white or black text is better readable on a background color.
> colo textcolor green white > colo contrast green white ████████ 5.13 ████████ (relative luminance: 0.154 / 1.000) >
Flexible input
Hex colors can be entered in the formats RGB, RRGGBB, RRRGGGBBB, etc. Colors in different color spaces are entered in the format color_space(value1, value2, value3), for example hsl(30, 100%, 60%). The parentheses and commas are optional, so the following commands are equivalent:
> colo s 'cmy(100%, 50%, 66.7%)' > colo s cmy 100% 50% 66.7% > colo s cmy 1 50% 66.7%
Random values can be used anywhere where colors or numbers can be used. For example:
> colo contrast rand rand ████████ 2.90 ████████ (relative luminance: 0.055 / 0.255) > colo s 'hsl(rand, 100%, 50%)' ████████ #ff0090 rgb(255, 0, 144.5) ████████ hsl(326, 100%, 50%) hsv(326, 100%, 100%) ████████ cmy(0%, 100%, 43.3%) cmyk(0%, 100%, 43.3%, 0%) ████████ lch(55.4, 86, 356.6) luv(55.4, 134.5, -23.8) >
Show terminal colors
Display the default colors of your terminal.
> colo term The appearance of these colors depends on your terminal. BrightWhite White BrightWhite White BrightBlack Black BrightBlack Black BrightRed Red BrightRed Red BrightYellow Yellow BrightYellow Yellow BrightGreen Green BrightGreen Green BrightCyan Cyan BrightCyan Cyan BrightBlue Blue BrightBlue Blue BrightMagenta Magenta BrightMagenta Magenta >