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ANSI Color & VT-100 Test Suite

examples/ANSI Color Test/README.md

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ANSI Color & VT-100 Test Suite

This example exercises Serial Studio's ANSI color and VT-100 terminal emulation support.

Features Tested

Text Attributes

  • Normal, bold, dim, italic, underline (single, double, curly)
  • Blink, reverse, hidden, strikethrough
  • Combined attributes (bold + underline, bold + reverse, italic + strikethrough)

4-bit Colors (Standard ANSI)

  • Standard foreground colors (30-37): Black, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Magenta, Cyan, White
  • Bright foreground colors (90-97): Bright variants of all standard colors
  • Standard background colors (40-47)
  • Bright background colors (100-107)
  • FG × BG matrix: every foreground rendered over every background

8-bit Colors (256 Color Palette)

  • System colors (0-15)
  • 6×6×6 RGB color cube (16-231): 216 colors
  • 24-step grayscale ramp (232-255)
  • Rendered as background swatches: \033[48;5;Nm

24-bit RGB Colors (True Color)

  • RGB foreground: \033[38;2;R;G;Bm
  • RGB background: \033[48;2;R;G;Bm
  • Full 16.7 million color support

VT-100 Control Sequences

  • Cursor up (\033[1A) and cursor back (\033[3D) with overwrite
  • Erase to end of line (\033[K)
  • Combined text styles with colors

Visual Displays

  • 4-bit FG × BG matrix table
  • 256-color palette organized display
  • Named truecolor swatches with their escape codes (CSS/X11 reference)
  • Channel ramps and color gradients (red→blue, green→yellow, cyan→magenta, black→white, navy→orange)

Creative Effects

  • HSV hue, saturation, and value sweeps
  • Animated 2D plasma field (per-cell 24-bit sine-field rendering)

Requirements

  • Python 3.6 or later
  • Serial Studio with ANSI colors support

Setup

  1. Configure Serial Studio:

    • Open Serial Studio
    • In the Setup panel, select the Network Socket device
    • Set Socket Type to UDP
    • Set Local Port to 9000
    • Click Connect

  2. Enable ANSI Colors:

    • Open the Console pane
    • Check the "ANSI Colors" checkbox
    • Optionally check "Show Timestamp" to see colored timestamps

Usage

Run Full Test Suite

Run the complete test script with all color tests:

bash
python3 test_ansi_colors.py

The script sends a full suite of ANSI color and VT-100 test sequences to Serial Studio via UDP. Watch the console pane to see:

  • All color combinations rendered with their ANSI codes
  • Background colors behind text
  • Rainbow effects and gradients
  • VT-100 cursor movement demonstrations

Command-Line Options

You can also run individual test sections:

bash
# Text attributes (bold, italic, underline, ...)
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --attributes

# 16-color foreground, background, and FG x BG matrix
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --4bit

# 4-bit FG x BG color matrix only
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --matrix

# 256-color (8-bit) palette
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --256

# 24-bit truecolor ramps, gradients, HSV sweeps
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --truecolor

# Named truecolor samples (CSS/X11 reference)
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --named

# VT-100 cursor, erase, and attribute sequences
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --vt100

# 2D truecolor rendering test (sine-field plasma)
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --plasma

# Show help message
python3 test_ansi_colors.py --help

How It Works

The script sends formatted test sequences as UDP datagrams to 127.0.0.1:9000. Each test section includes:

  1. Visual output: Colored text/backgrounds displayed in the terminal
  2. ANSI codes: The escape sequences used (e.g., \033[38;2;255;20;147m)
  3. Descriptions: What each test demonstrates

Color Code Reference

4-bit Foreground

\033[30m  Black          \033[90m  Bright Black
\033[31m  Red            \033[91m  Bright Red
\033[32m  Green          \033[92m  Bright Green
\033[33m  Yellow         \033[93m  Bright Yellow
\033[34m  Blue           \033[94m  Bright Blue
\033[35m  Magenta        \033[95m  Bright Magenta
\033[36m  Cyan           \033[96m  Bright Cyan
\033[37m  White          \033[97m  Bright White

4-bit Background

\033[40m   Black BG      \033[100m  Bright Black BG
\033[41m   Red BG        \033[101m  Bright Red BG
\033[42m   Green BG      \033[102m  Bright Green BG
\033[43m   Yellow BG     \033[103m  Bright Yellow BG
\033[44m   Blue BG       \033[104m  Bright Blue BG
\033[45m   Magenta BG    \033[105m  Bright Magenta BG
\033[46m   Cyan BG       \033[106m  Bright Cyan BG
\033[47m   White BG      \033[107m  Bright White BG

8-bit Colors

\033[38;5;Nm     Set foreground to color N (0-255)
\033[48;5;Nm     Set background to color N (0-255)

Color ranges:

  • 0-7: Standard colors
  • 8-15: Bright colors
  • 16-231: 6×6×6 RGB cube (calculated as: 16 + 36×r + 6×g + b, where r,g,b ∈ [0,5])
  • 232-255: Grayscale ramp (24 shades from dark to light)

24-bit RGB Colors

\033[38;2;R;G;Bm    Set foreground to RGB(R, G, B)
\033[48;2;R;G;Bm    Set background to RGB(R, G, B)

Where R, G, B are values from 0-255.

Combined Colors

Multiple codes can be combined with semicolons:

\033[31;47m              Red text on white background
\033[1;32m               Bold green text
\033[38;5;206;48;5;57m   8-bit pink on blue
\033[38;2;255;82;197;48;2;155;106;0m   RGB pink on brown

Reset

\033[0m   Reset all attributes (color, bold, etc.)

Example Output

When you run the test, you should see colorful output in the Serial Studio console like:

[2] 4-bit Colors  (16 standard ANSI colors)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Foreground — normal (30–37):
    Black           \033[30m
    Red             \033[31m
    Green           \033[32m
...

Each color will be rendered in its actual color, with backgrounds displaying behind text.

Customization

You can modify test_ansi_colors.py to:

  • Change the UDP host/port (HOST/PORT constants, default 127.0.0.1:9000)
  • Add custom color combinations
  • Adjust timing delays between messages
  • Create your own color effects

Technical Details

Serial Studio's ANSI color implementation:

  • Color accuracy: Full 24-bit RGB support (16.7M colors)
  • Standards compliance: VT-100/ANSI X3.64 escape sequences
  • Background rendering: Separate passes for backgrounds and text to prevent overlap
  • Optional: Colors are only processed when "ANSI Colors" is enabled

See Also