MagicPen

Create composable extensible styled text in both consoles and browsers.

Installation

Node

Install it with NPM or add it to your package.json:

$ npm install magicpen

Then:

var magicpen = require('magicpen');
var pen = magicpen('ansi');
pen.red('Hello').sp().green('world!');
console.log(pen.toString());

Browser

Include magicpen.js.

<script src="magicpen.js"></script>

this will expose the magicpen function under the following namespace:

var magicpen = weknowhow.magicpen;
var pen = magicpen('html');
pen.red('Hello').sp().green('world!');
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = pen.toString();

RequireJS

Include the library with RequireJS the following way:

require.config({
    paths: {
        magicpen: 'path/to/magicpen'
    }
});

define(['magicpen'], function (magicpen) {
    var pen = magicpen('html');
    pen.red('Hello').sp().green('world!');
    document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = pen.toString();
});

Usage

You create a new magicpen instance by calling the magicpen function. The function takes one parameter, the output mode. By default the text mode is console output without colors. You can also choose the ansi mode or the html mode. The ansi mode will format the output for the console with colors and basic styling. The html mode will format the output in html with colors and basic styling.

Let's try to create our first magicpen in ansi mode:

var pen = magicpen('ansi');
pen.red('Hello').sp().green('world!');
console.log(pen.toString());

The above snippet create a new magicpen in ansi mode and writes Hello in red, space and world! in green and prints the formatted output to the console. This will produce the following output:


Let's try to create the same output but format it as html:

var pen = magicpen('html');
pen.red('Hello').sp().green('world!');
document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = pen.toString();

You will get the following output it the browser:


API

text(content, styleString...)

Append the given content to the output with the styles specified in the style strings.

Supported styles are:

Text properties: bold, dim, italic, underline, inverse, hidden, strikeThrough.

Foreground colors: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, gray.

Background colors: bgBlack, bgRed, bgGreen, bgYellow, bgBlue, bgMagenta, bgCyan, bgWhite.

Example:

var pen = magicpen('ansi');
pen.text('Hello', 'red')
   .text(' ')
   .text('colorful', 'yellow, bold')
   .text(' ')
   .text('world', 'green', 'underline')
   .text('!', 'bgYellow, blue');
console.log(pen.toString());


Notice that special characters might get escaped by this method. The example below shows how special html characters is escaped by the html mode.

var pen = magicpen('html');
pen.text('<strong>Hello world!</strong>');
expect(pen.toString(), 'to equal',
    '<code>\n' +
    '  <div>&lt;strong&gt;Hello&nbsp;world!&lt;/strong&gt;</div>\n' +
    '</code>');

newline(), nl()

Starts a new line.

Indentation

Example:

pen.text('Hello').nl()
    .indentLines()
        .indent().text('beautiful').nl()
    .outdentLines()
    .text('world');
expect(pen.toString(), 'to equal',
    'Hello\n' +
    '  beautiful\n' +
    'world');

indentLines()

Increments the indentation level.

outdentLines()

Decrements the indentation level.

indent(), i()

Appends the indentation to the output.

append(pen)

Appends the content of the given pen to the end of this pen.

Notice, that the given pen must be in the same mode as this pen.

Example:

var pen = magicpen();
var otherPen = pen.clone().text('world!');
pen.text('Hello').sp().append(otherPen);
expect(pen.toString(), 'to equal', 'Hello world!');

block(pen)

Appends the content of the given pen to the end of this pen in an inline block.

Notice, that the given pen must be in the same mode as this pen.

Example:

var pen = magicpen();
var otherPen = pen.clone()
    .text(' // This is a').nl()
    .text(' // multiline block');
pen.text('Text before block').block(otherPen);
expect(pen.toString(), 'to equal',
    'Text before block // This is a\n' +
    '                  // multiline block');

prependLinesWith(pen)

Prepends each line of this pen with the content of the given pen.

Notice, that the given pen must be in the same mode as this pen.

Example:

var pen = magicpen();
var otherPen = pen.clone().text('> ');
pen.text('Line').nl()
   .text('after line').nl()
   .text('after line');
expect(pen.toString(), 'to equal',
    '> Line\n' +
    '> after line\n' +
    '> after line');

clone()

Returns a clone of the current pen with an empty output buffer. This operation is very cheap, so don't hesitate to use it when it makes sense.

addStyle(style, handler)

Defines a new style for the magicpen. The usage is best explained by an example:

var pen = magicpen('ansi');

pen.addStyle('rainbow', function (text, rainbowColors) {
    rainbowColors = rainbowColors ||
        ['gray', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'magenta', 'cyan'];
    for (var i = 0; i < text.length; i += 1) {
        var color = rainbowColors[i % rainbowColors.length];
        this.text(text[i], color);
    }
});

pen.rainbow('The unicorns are flying low today').nl();
   .rainbow('The unicorns are flying low today', ['green', 'red', 'cyan']);
console.log(pen.toString());

As you can see in the example above, a custom style can produce any kind of output using an instance of a magicpen.

Aliases

space(count = 1), sp(count = 1)

Alias for text(duplicate(' ', count)).

bold(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bold').

dim(content)

Alias for text(content, 'dim').

italic(content)

Alias for text(content, 'italic').

underline(content)

Alias for text(content, 'underline').

inverse(content)

Alias for text(content, 'inverse').

hidden(content)

Alias for text(content, 'hidden').

strikeThrough(content)

Alias for text(content, 'strikeThrough').

black(content)

Alias for text(content, 'black').

red(content)

Alias for text(content, 'red').

green(content)

Alias for text(content, 'green').

yellow(content)

Alias for text(content, 'yellow').

blue(content)

Alias for text(content, 'blue').

magenta(content)

Alias for text(content, 'magenta').

cyan(content)

Alias for text(content, 'cyan').

white(content)

Alias for text(content, 'white').

gray(content)

Alias for text(content, 'gray').

bgBlack(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgBlack').

bgRed(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgRed').

bgGreen(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgGreen').

bgYellow(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgYellow').

bgBlue(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgBlue').

bgMagenta(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgMagenta').

bgCyan(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgCyan').

bgWhite(content)

Alias for text(content, 'bgWhite').