Spectre.Console

Write ANSI

How to write ANSI/VT sequences and markup without the Spectre.Console library

As of version 0.54.1-alpha.0.33, the Spectre.Console library relies on a library called Spectre.Console.Ansi to emit ANSI/VT escape sequences and markup in the terminal.

Creating an AnsiWriter

Create a new AnsiWriter that automatically detects capabilities.

var writer = new AnsiWriter(Console.Out);

Create a new AnsiWriter with specific capabilities.
Useful for testing, but usually not recommended.

var writer = new AnsiWriter(
    Console.Out, 
    new AnsiCapabilities 
    {
        Ansi = true,
        Links = true,
        ColorSystem = ColorSystem.TrueColor,
        AlternateBuffer = true,
    });

Caution

Creating an AnsiWriter can be expensive, so make sure that you cache and reuse them between writes, especially when detecting capabilities.

Emitting ANSI

To emit ANSI, you can either write "raw" ANSI/VT escape sequences directly or use the built-in fluent API.

writer
    .BeginLink("https://spectreconsole.net", linkId: 123)
    .Decoration(Decoration.Bold | Decoration.Italic)
    .Foreground(Color.Yellow)
    .Write("Spectre Console")
    .ResetStyle()
    .EndLink();

Emitting Markup

You can also emit markup using the AnsiWriter.

writer.Markup(
    "[yellow bold italic link=https://spectreconsole.net]" + 
    "Spectre.Console[/]");

System.Console Extensions

If you're running .NET 10 with C# 14 enabled, you can use the new functionality directly from System.Console.

using System;
  
Console.Markup("[yellow]Hello[/] ");
Console.MarkupLine("[blue]World[/]");
  
Console.Ansi(writer => writer
    .BeginLink("https://spectreconsole.net", linkId: 123)
    .Decoration(Decoration.Bold | Decoration.Italic)
    .Foreground(Color.Yellow)
    .Write("Spectre Console")
    .ResetStyle()
    .EndLink());

See Also