Standard escape codes are prefixed with Escape:
- Ctrl-Key:
^[ - Octal:
\033 - Unicode:
\u001b - Hexadecimal:
\x1b - Decimal:
27
Followed by the command, usually delimited by opening square bracket ([) and optionally followed by arguments and the command itself.
Arguments are delimeted by semi colon (;).
For example:
\x1b[1;31m # Set style to bold, red foreground.| Name | decimal | octal | hex | C-escape | Ctrl-Key | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BEL |
7 | 007 | 0x07 | \a |
^G |
Terminal bell |
BS |
8 | 010 | 0x08 | \b |
^H |
Backspace |
HT |
9 | 011 | 0x09 | \t |
^I |
Horizontal TAB |
LF |
10 | 012 | 0x0A | \n |
^J |
Linefeed (newline) |
VT |
11 | 013 | 0x0B | \v |
^K |
Vertical TAB |
FF |
12 | 014 | 0x0C | \f |
^L |
Formfeed (also: New page NP) |
CR |
13 | 015 | 0x0D | \r |
^M |
Carriage return |
ESC |
27 | 033 | 0x1B | <none> |
^[ |
Escape character |
DEL |
127 | 177 | 0x7F | <none> |
<none> |
Delete character |
Note: The Ctrl-Key representation is simply associating the non-printable characters from ASCII code 1 with the printable (letter) characters from ASCII code 65 ("A"). ASCII code 1 would be
^A(Ctrl-A), while ASCII code 7 (BEL) would be^G(Ctrl-G). This is a common representation (and input method) and historically comes from one of the VT series of terminals.
| ESC Code Sequence | Description |
|---|---|
ESC[H |
moves cursor to home position (0, 0) |
ESC[{line};{column}H ESC[{line};{column}f |
moves cursor to line #, column # |
ESC[#A |
moves cursor up # lines |
ESC[#B |
moves cursor down # lines |
ESC[#C |
moves cursor right # columns |
ESC[#D |
moves cursor left # columns |
ESC[#E |
moves cursor to beginning of next line, # lines down |
ESC[#F |
moves cursor to beginning of previous line, # lines down |
ESC[#G |
moves cursor to column # |
ESC[#;#R |
reports current cursor line and column |
ESC[s |
saves the current cursor position |
ESC[u |
restores the cursor to the last saved position |
| ESC Code Sequence | Description |
|---|---|
ESC[J |
clears the screen |
ESC[0J |
clears from cursor until end of screen |
ESC[1J |
clears from cursor to beginning of screen |
ESC[2J |
clears entire screen |
ESC[K |
clears the current line |
ESC[0K |
clears from cursor to end of line |
ESC[1K |
clears from cursor to start of line |
ESC[2K |
clears entire line |
| ESC Code Sequence | Description |
|---|---|
ESC[{...}m |
Set styles and colors for cell and onward. |
ESC[0m |
reset all styles and colors |
ESC[1m |
set style to bold |
ESC[2m |
set style to dim |
ESC[2m |
set style to dim |
Most terminals support 8 and 16 colors, as well as 256 (8-bit) colors. These colors are set by the user, but have commonly defined meanings.
| Color Name | Foreground Color Code | Background Color Code |
|---|---|---|
| Black | 30 |
40 |
| Red | 31 |
41 |
| Green | 32 |
42 |
| Yellow | 33 |
43 |
| Blue | 34 |
44 |
| Magenta | 35 |
45 |
| Cyan | 36 |
46 |
| White | 37 |
47 |
| Reset | 0 |
0 |
Note: The Reset is the reset code that resets all colors and text effects.
Most terminals, apart from the basic set of 8 colors, also support the "bright" or "bold" colors. These have their own set of codes, mirroring the normal colors, but with an additional ;1 in their codes:
# Set style to bold, red foreground.
\x1b[1;31mHello
# Set style to dimmed white foreground with red background.
\x1b[2;37;41mWorldThe following escape code tells the terminal to use the given color ID:
ESC[38;5;${ID}m
| ESC Code Sequence | Description |
|---|---|
ESC[38;5;${ID}m |
Set foreground color. |
ESC[48;5;${ID}m |
Set background color. |
Where ID is the color index from 0 to 255 of the color table:
The table starts with the original 16 colors (0-15).
The proceeding 216 colors (16-231) or formed by a 3bpc RGB value offset by 16, packed into a single value.
The final 24 colors (232-256) are grayscale starting from a shade slighly lighter than black, ranging up to shade slightly darker than white.
Some emulators interpret these steps as linear increments from (256 / 24) on all three channels, although some emulators may explicitly define these values.
More modern terminals supports Truecolor (24-bit RGB), which allows you to set foreground and background colors using RGB.
These escape sequences are usually not well documented.
| ESC Code Sequence | Description |
|---|---|
ESC[38;2;{r};{g};{b}m |
Set foreground color as RGB. |
ESC[48;2;{r};{g};{b}m |
Set background color as RGB. |
Note that
;38and;48corresponds to the 16 color sequence and is interpreted by the terminal to set the foreground and background color respectively. Where as;2and;5sets the color format.
| ESC Code Sequence | Description |
|---|---|
ESC[={value}h |
Changes the screen width or type to the mode specified by value. |
ESC[=0h |
40 x 25 monochrome (text) |
ESC[=1h |
40 x 25 color (text) |
ESC[=2h |
80 x 25 monochrome (text) |
ESC[=3h |
80 x 25 color (text) |
ESC[=4h |
320 x 200 4-color (graphics) |
ESC[=5h |
320 x 200 monochrome (graphics) |
ESC[=6h |
640 x 200 monochrome (graphics) |
ESC[=7h |
Enables line wrapping |
ESC[=13h |
320 x 200 color (graphics) |
ESC[=14h |
640 x 200 color (16-color graphics) |
ESC[=15h |
640 x 350 monochrome (2-color graphics) |
ESC[=16h |
640 x 350 color (16-color graphics) |
ESC[=17h |
640 x 480 monochrome (2-color graphics) |
ESC[=18h |
640 x 480 color (16-color graphics) |
ESC[=19h |
320 x 200 color (256-color graphics) |
ESC[={value}l |
Resets the mode by using the same values that Set Mode uses, except for 7, which disables line wrapping. The last character in this escape sequence is a lowercase L. |
| ESC Code Sequence | Description |
| ESC[?25l | make cursor invisible |
| ESC[?25h | make cursor visible |
| ESC[?47l | restore screen |
| ESC[?47h | save screen |
ESC[{code};{string};{...}pRedefines a keyboard key to a specified string.
The parameters for this escape sequence are defined as follows:
Code is one or more of the values listed in the following table. These values represent keyboard keys and key combinations. When using these values in a command, you must type the semicolons shown in this table in addition to the semicolons required by the escape sequence. The codes in parentheses are not available on some keyboards. ANSI.SYS will not interpret the codes in parentheses for those keyboards unless you specify the /X switch in the DEVICE command for ANSI.SYS.
String is either the ASCII code for a single character or a string contained in quotation marks. For example, both 65 and "A" can be used to represent an uppercase A.
IMPORTANT: Some of the values in the following table are not valid for all computers. Check your computer's documentation for values that are different.
| Key | Code | SHIFT+code | CTRL+code | ALT+code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | 0;59 | 0;84 | 0;94 | 0;104 |
| F2 | 0;60 | 0;85 | 0;95 | 0;105 |
| F3 | 0;61 | 0;86 | 0;96 | 0;106 |
| F4 | 0;62 | 0;87 | 0;97 | 0;107 |
| F5 | 0;63 | 0;88 | 0;98 | 0;108 |
| F6 | 0;64 | 0;89 | 0;99 | 0;109 |
| F7 | 0;65 | 0;90 | 0;100 | 0;110 |
| F8 | 0;66 | 0;91 | 0;101 | 0;111 |
| F9 | 0;67 | 0;92 | 0;102 | 0;112 |
| F10 | 0;68 | 0;93 | 0;103 | 0;113 |
| F11 | 0;133 | 0;135 | 0;137 | 0;139 |
| F12 | 0;134 | 0;136 | 0;138 | 0;140 |
| HOME (num keypad) | 0;71 | 55 | 0;119 | -- |
| UP ARROW (num keypad) | 0;72 | 56 | (0;141) | -- |
| PAGE UP (num keypad) | 0;73 | 57 | 0;132 | -- |
| LEFT ARROW (num keypad) | 0;75 | 52 | 0;115 | -- |
| RIGHT ARROW (num keypad) | 0;77 | 54 | 0;116 | -- |
| END (num keypad) | 0;79 | 49 | 0;117 | -- |
| DOWN ARROW (num keypad) | 0;80 | 50 | (0;145) | -- |
| PAGE DOWN (num keypad) | 0;81 | 51 | 0;118 | -- |
| INSERT (num keypad) | 0;82 | 48 | (0;146) | -- |
| DELETE (num keypad) | 0;83 | 46 | (0;147) | -- |
| HOME | (224;71) | (224;71) | (224;119) | (224;151) |
| UP ARROW | (224;72) | (224;72) | (224;141) | (224;152) |
| PAGE UP | (224;73) | (224;73) | (224;132) | (224;153) |
| LEFT ARROW | (224;75) | (224;75) | (224;115) | (224;155) |
| RIGHT ARROW | (224;77) | (224;77) | (224;116) | (224;157) |
| END | (224;79) | (224;79) | (224;117) | (224;159) |
| DOWN ARROW | (224;80) | (224;80) | (224;145) | (224;154) |
| PAGE DOWN | (224;81) | (224;81) | (224;118) | (224;161) |
| INSERT | (224;82) | (224;82) | (224;146) | (224;162) |
| DELETE | (224;83) | (224;83) | (224;147) | (224;163) |
| PRINT SCREEN | -- | -- | 0;114 | -- |
| PAUSE/BREAK | -- | -- | 0;0 | -- |
| BACKSPACE | 8 | 8 | 127 | (0) |
| ENTER | 13 | -- | 10 | (0 |
| TAB | 9 | 0;15 | (0;148) | (0;165) |
| NULL | 0;3 | -- | -- | -- |
| A | 97 | 65 | 1 | 0;30 |
| B | 98 | 66 | 2 | 0;48 |
| C | 99 | 66 | 3 | 0;46 |
| D | 100 | 68 | 4 | 0;32 |
| E | 101 | 69 | 5 | 0;18 |
| F | 102 | 70 | 6 | 0;33 |
| G | 103 | 71 | 7 | 0;34 |
| H | 104 | 72 | 8 | 0;35 |
| I | 105 | 73 | 9 | 0;23 |
| J | 106 | 74 | 10 | 0;36 |
| K | 107 | 75 | 11 | 0;37 |
| L | 108 | 76 | 12 | 0;38 |
| M | 109 | 77 | 13 | 0;50 |
| N | 110 | 78 | 14 | 0;49 |
| O | 111 | 79 | 15 | 0;24 |
| P | 112 | 80 | 16 | 0;25 |
| Q | 113 | 81 | 17 | 0;16 |
| R | 114 | 82 | 18 | 0;19 |
| S | 115 | 83 | 19 | 0;31 |
| T | 116 | 84 | 20 | 0;20 |
| U | 117 | 85 | 21 | 0;22 |
| V | 118 | 86 | 22 | 0;47 |
| W | 119 | 87 | 23 | 0;17 |
| X | 120 | 88 | 24 | 0;45 |
| Y | 121 | 89 | 25 | 0;21 |
| Z | 122 | 90 | 26 | 0;44 |
| 1 | 49 | 33 | -- | 0;120 |
| 2 | 50 | 64 | 0 | 0;121 |
| 3 | 51 | 35 | -- | 0;122 |
| 4 | 52 | 36 | -- | 0;123 |
| 5 | 53 | 37 | -- | 0;124 |
| 6 | 54 | 94 | 30 | 0;125 |
| 7 | 55 | 38 | -- | 0;126 |
| 8 | 56 | 42 | -- | 0;126 |
| 9 | 57 | 40 | -- | 0;127 |
| 0 | 48 | 41 | -- | 0;129 |
| - | 45 | 95 | 31 | 0;130 |
| = | 61 | 43 | --- | 0;131 |
| [ | 91 | 123 | 27 | 0;26 |
| ] | 93 | 125 | 29 | 0;27 |
| 92 | 124 | 28 | 0;43 | |
| ; | 59 | 58 | -- | 0;39 |
| ' | 39 | 34 | -- | 0;40 |
| , | 44 | 60 | -- | 0;51 |
| . | 46 | 62 | -- | 0;52 |
| / | 47 | 63 | -- | 0;53 |
| ` | 96 | 126 | -- | (0;41) |
| ENTER (keypad) | 13 | -- | 10 | (0;166) |
| / (keypad) | 47 | 47 | (0;142) | (0;74) |
| * (keypad) | 42 | (0;144) | (0;78) | -- |
| - (keypad) | 45 | 45 | (0;149) | (0;164) |
| + (keypad) | 43 | 43 | (0;150) | (0;55) |
| 5 (keypad) | (0;76) | 53 | (0;143) | -- |