File size: 4,995 Bytes
bc20498
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
# picocolors

The tiniest and the fastest library for terminal output formatting with ANSI colors.

```javascript
import pc from "picocolors"

console.log(
  pc.green(`How are ${pc.italic(`you`)} doing?`)
)
```

- **No dependencies.**
- **14 times** smaller and **2 times** faster than chalk.
- Used by popular tools like PostCSS, SVGO, Stylelint, and Browserslist.
- Node.js v6+ & browsers support. Support for both CJS and ESM projects.
- TypeScript type declarations included.
- [`NO_COLOR`](https://no-color.org/) friendly.

## Motivation

With `picocolors` we are trying to draw attention to the `node_modules` size
problem and promote performance-first culture.

## Prior Art

Credits go to the following projects:

- [Nanocolors](https://github.com/ai/nanocolors) by [@ai](https://github.com/ai)
- [Colorette](https://github.com/jorgebucaran/colorette) by [@jorgebucaran](https://github.com/jorgebucaran)
- [Kleur](https://github.com/lukeed/kleur) by [@lukeed](https://github.com/lukeed)
- [Colors.js](https://github.com/Marak/colors.js) by [@Marak](https://github.com/Marak)
- [Chalk](https://github.com/chalk/chalk) by [@sindresorhus](https://github.com/sindresorhus)

## Benchmarks

The space in node_modules including sub-dependencies:

```diff
$ node ./benchmarks/size.js
Data from packagephobia.com
  chalk       101 kB
  cli-color  1249 kB
  ansi-colors  25 kB
  kleur        21 kB
  colorette    17 kB
  nanocolors   16 kB
+ picocolors    7 kB
```

Library loading time:

```diff
$ node ./benchmarks/loading.js
  chalk          6.167 ms
  cli-color     31.431 ms
  ansi-colors    1.585 ms
  kleur          2.008 ms
  kleur/colors   0.773 ms
  colorette      2.476 ms
  nanocolors     0.833 ms
+ picocolors     0.466 ms
```

Benchmark for simple use case:

```diff
$ node ./benchmarks/simple.js
  chalk         24,066,342 ops/sec
  cli-color        938,700 ops/sec
  ansi-colors    4,532,542 ops/sec
  kleur         20,343,122 ops/sec
  kleur/colors  35,415,770 ops/sec
  colorette     34,244,834 ops/sec
  nanocolors    33,443,265 ops/sec
+ picocolors    33,271,645 ops/sec
```

Benchmark for complex use cases:

```diff
$ node ./benchmarks/complex.js
  chalk            969,915 ops/sec
  cli-color        131,639 ops/sec
  ansi-colors      342,250 ops/sec
  kleur            611,880 ops/sec
  kleur/colors   1,129,526 ops/sec
  colorette      1,747,277 ops/sec
  nanocolors     1,251,312 ops/sec
+ picocolors     2,024,086 ops/sec
```

## Usage

Picocolors provides an object which includes a variety of text coloring and formatting functions

```javascript
import pc from "picocolors"
```

The object includes following coloring functions: `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, `magenta`, `cyan`, `white`, `gray`.

```javascript
console.log(`I see a ${pc.red("red door")} and I want it painted ${pc.black("black")}`)
```

The object also includes following background color modifier functions: `bgBlack`, `bgRed`, `bgGreen`, `bgYellow`, `bgBlue`, `bgMagenta`, `bgCyan`, `bgWhite` and bright variants `bgBlackBright`, `bgRedBright`, `bgGreenBright`, `bgYellowBright`, `bgBlueBright`, `bgMagentaBright`, `bgCyanBright`, `bgWhiteBright`.

```javascript
console.log(
  pc.bgBlack(
    pc.white(`Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush.`)
  )
)
```

Besides colors, the object includes following formatting functions: `dim`, `bold`, `hidden`, `italic`, `underline`, `strikethrough`, `reset`, `inverse` and bright variants `blackBright`, `redBright`, `greenBright`, `yellowBright`, `blueBright`, `magentaBright`, `cyanBright`, `whiteBright`.

```javascript
for (let task of tasks) {
  console.log(`${pc.bold(task.name)} ${pc.dim(task.durationMs + "ms")}`)
}
```

The library provides additional utilities to ensure the best results for the task:

- `isColorSupported` — boolean, explicitly tells whether or not the colors or formatting appear on the screen

  ```javascript
  import pc from "picocolors"

  if (pc.isColorSupported) {
    console.log("Yay! This script can use colors and formatters")
  }
  ```

- `createColors(enabled)` — a function that returns a new API object with manually defined color support configuration

  ```javascript
  import pc from "picocolors"

  let { red, bgWhite } = pc.createColors(options.enableColors)
  ```

## Replacing `chalk`

1. Replace package name in import:

   ```diff
   - import chalk from 'chalk'
   + import pico from 'picocolors'
   ```

2. Replace variable:

   ```diff
   - chalk.red(text)
   + pico.red(text)
   ```

3. Replace chains to nested calls:

   ```diff
   - chalk.red.bold(text)
   + pico.red(pico.bold(text))
   ```

4. You can use [`colorize-template`](https://github.com/usmanyunusov/colorize-template)
   to replace chalk’s tagged template literal.

   ```diff
   + import { createColorize } from 'colorize-template'

   + let colorize = createColorize(pico)
   - chalk.red.bold`full {yellow ${"text"}}`
   + colorize`{red.bold full {yellow ${"text"}}}`
   ```