Chalk npm CLI Colors for Node.js

A good and appealing user interface is extremely important if you want your CLI to be a success. An easy way of having one is adding colors to your current interface. In command-line tools, you can add colors with a package called chalk.

Let’s take a look at how we can use it in our CLI.

#Chalk

You would need to install it first in your project. You can do that by running the following command inside your terminal.

npm install chalk

#Usage

Now you would need to require it and then use it. For instance, if you want a green color for the font instead of the traditional white color, you can easily do that with chalk.

const chalk = require('chalk');
console.log(chalk.green('NodeCLI.com'));

This will print a green NodeCLI.com string on your terminal.

Now if you are interested in having a nice background color behind your text, chalk lets you do that as well.

console.log(chalk.bgGreen(chalk.black(`NodeCLI.com`)));

If you carefully take a look at the code, I am first adding a background color and then black font color to our string NodeCLI.com.

#Hex Colors

The chalk package also allows you to use hex colors instead of the traditional colors. For instance, if I am interested in using #68a063 as my background, I can easily do that with the following piece of code:

console.log(chalk.hex(`#68a063`).inverse(`NodeCLI.com`));

The inverse function will change the color that is supposed to be for the font to the background. You can read all of its documentation here to get a more clear understanding.

#Wrapping Up

You can make all sorts of different color combinations with chalk. It is also a cross-platform package. It means your CLI will still have colors if it runs on other operating systems like Windows. You should definitely give it a shot to improve your CLI user interface.