ANSI and Markdown

ANSI⚓︎

ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute. It is a set of standards for character and terminal handling. It is used by many programs, including the Linux kernel itself, to produce colored terminal output. The most basic ANSI escape codes are those involved in rendering text. These let you add decorations like Colors, Background Colors or other Decorations to your printed text, but don't do anything fancy.

Most ANSI escape codes start with \u001b[ and end with m. The codes in between are the actual codes. For example, \u001b[31m is the code for red text. You can find a list of all the codes here. All the codes are separated by a ;. For example, \u001b[31;1m is the code for bold red text. You can also combine multiple codes. For example, \u001b[31;1;4m is the code for bold red underlined text.

Ansi Format

\u001b[{code}m{text}\u001b[0m

Note

The \u001b[0m at the end is the code for resetting the text. If you don't add it, the text will stay in the same format.

Warning

So far discord supports only 8 colors each for foreground and background and 3 possible formats (bold, italic, underline).

Building an ANSI Generator⚓︎

Python

import enum


class Style(enum.IntEnum):
    def __str__(self) -> str:
        return f"{self.value}"

Foreground Colors⚓︎

Color	Code
Gray	`\u001b[30m`
Red	`\u001b[31m`
Green	`\u001b[32m`
Yellow	`\u001b[33m`
Blue	`\u001b[34m`
Magenta	`\u001b[35m`
Cyan	`\u001b[36m`
White	`\u001b[37m`

Python

class Colors(Style):
    GRAY = 30
    RED = 31
    GREEN = 32
    YELLOW = 33
    BLUE = 34
    MAGENTA = 35
    CYAN = 36
    WHITE = 37

Background Colors⚓︎

Color	Code
Firefly Dark Blue	`\u001b[40m`
Orange	`\u001b[41m`
Marble Blue	`\u001b[42m`
Greyish Turquoise	`\u001b[43m`
Gray	`\u001b[44m`
Indigo	`\u001b[45m`
Light Gray	`\u001b[46m`
White	`\u001b[47m`

Python

class Backgrounds(Style):
    GRAY = 40
    RED = 41
    GREEN = 42
    YELLOW = 43
    BLUE = 44
    MAGENTA = 45
    CYAN = 46
    WHITE = 47

Text Formats⚓︎

Format	Code
Normal	`\u001b[0m`
Bold	`\u001b[1m`
Underline	`\u001b[4m`

Python

class Formats(Style):
    NORMAL = 0
    BOLD = 1
    UNDERLINE = 4

Putting it all together⚓︎

Python

import enum


class Style(enum.IntEnum):
    def __str__(self) -> str:
        return f"{self.value}"


class Colors(Style):
    GRAY = 30
    RED = 31
    GREEN = 32
    YELLOW = 33
    BLUE = 34
    MAGENTA = 35
    CYAN = 36
    WHITE = 37


class BackgroundColors(Style):
    FIREFLY_DARK_BLUE = 40
    ORANGE = 41
    MARBLE_BLUE = 42
    GREYISH_TURQUOISE = 43
    GRAY = 44
    INDIGO = 45
    LIGHT_GRAY = 46
    WHITE = 47


class Styles(Style):
    NORMAL = 0
    BOLD = 1
    UNDERLINE = 4


class AnsiBuilder:
    def __init__(self, text: str = "", *styles: Style) -> None:
        self.styles = styles
        self.cursor = len(text)
        self.text = f"\033[{';'.join(map(str, styles))}m{text}\033[0m" if styles and text else text

    def __add__(self, other: str) -> "AnsiBuilder":
        self.text += other
        self.cursor += len(other)
        return self

    def write(self, cursor: int, text: str) -> "AnsiBuilder":
        if cursor > self.cursor or cursor > len(self.text):
            raise ValueError("Cursor cannot be greater than the length of the text")
        if cursor < 0:
            raise ValueError("Cursor cannot be less than 0")
        self.text = self.text[:cursor] + text + self.text[cursor:]
        self.cursor += len(text)
        return self

    def __str__(self) -> str:
        return self.text

    @classmethod
    def to_ansi(cls, text: str, *styles: Style) -> str:
        return str(cls(text, *styles))

    @property
    def block(self) -> str:
        return f"```ansi\n{self.text}```"

Implementation in a Bot⚓︎

Python

import os

import discord
from discord.ext import commands
from dotenv import load_dotenv

bot = commands.Bot(command_prefix="!", intents=discord.Intents.all())
load_dotenv()


@bot.command()
async def foreground(ctx: commands.Context[commands.Bot]) -> None:
    fg = AnsiBuilder("Foreground Colors\n", Styles.BOLD)
    for color in Colors:
        fg += AnsiBuilder.to_ansi(f"{color.name}\n", color)
    await ctx.send(fg.block)


@bot.command()
async def background(ctx: commands.Context[commands.Bot]) -> None:
    bg = AnsiBuilder("Background Colors\n", Styles.BOLD)
    for color in BackgroundColors:
        bg += AnsiBuilder.to_ansi(f"{color.name}\n", color)
    await ctx.send(bg.block)


@bot.command()
async def style(ctx: commands.Context[commands.Bot]) -> None:
    _style = AnsiBuilder("Styles\n", Styles.BOLD)
    for s in Styles:
        _style += AnsiBuilder.to_ansi(f"{s.name}\n", s)
    await ctx.send(_style.block)


@bot.command()
async def combo(ctx: commands.Context[commands.Bot]) -> None:
    # combination of all foreground colors on all background colors
    for bg in BackgroundColors:
        combined = AnsiBuilder()
        for fg in Colors:
            combined += f"{AnsiBuilder.to_ansi('Sample', fg, bg)} "
        await ctx.send(combined.block)


@bot.command()
async def style_combo(ctx: commands.Context[commands.Bot], style_: str) -> None:
    if style_ not in Styles.__members__:
        await ctx.send("Invalid style")
        return
    _style = Styles[style_]
    combined = AnsiBuilder()
    for fg in Colors:
        combined += f"{AnsiBuilder.to_ansi('Sample', fg, _style)} "
    await ctx.send(combined.block)


bot.run(str(os.getenv("TOKEN")))

Note

So far, ANSI highlighting is available on all stable desktop and web clients, but not on mobile clients.

Markdown⚓︎

Text Formatting⚓︎

Format	Code
Bold	`bold` like this bold
Italic	`italic` like this italic
Underline	`__underline__` like this underline
Strikethrough	`~~strikethrough~~` like this ~~strikethrough~~

Tip

You can combine formats like ***bold italic*** like this bold italic, __**underline bold**__ like this underline bold etc.

Headers⚓︎

Format	Code
H1	`# Header 1`
H2	`## Header 2`
H3	`### Header 3`

Links⚓︎

Format	Code
Link	`[text](url)`

Markdown

[Here](https://google.com)

Spoilers⚓︎

Format	Code
Spoiler	`\|\|spoiler\|\|`

Markdown

||spoiler||

Lists⚓︎

Unordered Lists⚓︎

Markdown

- Item 1
- Item 2
  - Item 2.1
- Item 3

Tip

You can use * instead of - to create unordered lists.

Ordered Lists⚓︎

Markdown

1. Item 1
3. Item 2
   1. Item 2.1
2. Item 3

Tip

The numbers don't have to be in numerical order, they will be automatically sorted.

Blockquotes⚓︎

Markdown

> This is a single line blockquote
> This is another line

Markdown

>>> This is a multiline blockquote
this continues

Code Blocks⚓︎

Inline Code⚓︎

Markdown

This is `inline code`

Code Blocks⚓︎

Warning

Use backticks ` and not single quotes ' to create code blocks.

Syntax Highlighting⚓︎

To have syntax highlighting in code blocks, you can specify the language after the first set of backticks. For example, to have syntax highlighting for Python, you can use ```py.

SQLHTMLRustDiff

SQL

SELECT * FROM table

HTML

<html>
    <head>
        <title>Test</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>Test</h1>
    </body>
</html>

Rust

fn main() {
    println!("Hello, world!");
}

Diff

- this is a removed line
+ this is an added line

Tip

Above were just a few examples, You can find a list of supported languages here.

Conclusion⚓︎

In this tutorial, we learned how to use markdown and ANSI highlighting in discord.py. We also learned how to use the AnsiBuilder class to create custom ANSI blocks. Discord allows you to use markdown and ANSI highlighting in embeds and messages. You can leverage this to make your bot's messages more readable and attractive.

ANSI and Markdown

ANSI⚓︎

Building an ANSI Generator⚓︎

Foreground Colors⚓︎

Background Colors⚓︎

Text Formats⚓︎

Putting it all together⚓︎

Implementation in a Bot⚓︎

Markdown⚓︎

Text Formatting⚓︎

Headers⚓︎

Links⚓︎

Spoilers⚓︎

Lists⚓︎

Unordered Lists⚓︎

Ordered Lists⚓︎

Blockquotes⚓︎

Code Blocks⚓︎

Inline Code⚓︎

Code Blocks⚓︎

Syntax Highlighting⚓︎

Conclusion⚓︎

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