Coloring The Console

By Kashif Bilal

When working with console applications in c#, black screens with white foregrounds
are always used. We can change the foreground color as well as background color of
our console application by using win32 API SetConsoleTextAttribute().

SetConsoleTextAttribute takes two arguments

1. Handle to console screen buffer
2. character attributes
BOOL SetConsoleTextAttribute(
HANDLE hConsoleOutput,
WORD wAttributes
);

We can get the handle to the console screen buffer by using a function of win32
API i.e. GetStdHandle(),which takes a parameter and returns a handle for input,
output or error device. We give -10 for input,-11 for output and -12 for error
device as parameter to GetStdHandle function. We have attributes for fore ground
and background colors like 0x0001 for fore ground blue and 0x0010 for back ground
blue.
How To Use Win32 API Function in C#.

First of all declare the function using DllImport attribute. An API function must
be declared static extern. DllImport is used to call an unmanaged code inside a
mangaed code, so we must have to use it to call unmanaged win32 APIs.

Let's start an example

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices; // for DllImport attribute

namespace color_console
{

class Class1
{

static void Main(string[] args)

{
//
// TODO: Add code to start application here
//
Class1 c =new Class1();
c.change();

}
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError=true)]
public static extern bool SetConsoleTextAttribute(
IntPtr hConsoleOutput,
CharacterAttributes wAttributes); /* declaring the setconsoletextattribute
function*/

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(int nStdHandle); //declaring the
getstdhandle funtion
 /* to get thehandle that would be used in setConsoletextattribute
function */
void change()
{
IntPtr hOut; /* declaring varianle to get handle*/
hOut= GetStdHandle(-11);/* -11 is sent for output device*/

/*Displaying text in different colors and background colors*/

SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut, CharacterAttributes.FOREGROUND_BLUE );
Console.WriteLine(" Subhan ALLAH ");

SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut, CharacterAttributes.BACKGROUND_RED);
Console.WriteLine(" Alkhamdolillah ");
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut, CharacterAttributes.BACKGROUND_GREEN );
Console.WriteLine(" Allah O Akbar ");
SetConsoleTextAttribute(hOut, CharacterAttributes.FOREGROUND_RED );
Console.WriteLine(" Pakistan ");

}
/* This enumeration lists all of the character attributes. You can combine
attributes to */
/* achieve specific effects.*/

public enum CharacterAttributes

{
FOREGROUND_BLUE = 0x0001,
FOREGROUND_GREEN = 0x0002,
FOREGROUND_RED = 0x0004,
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY = 0x0008,
BACKGROUND_BLUE = 0x0010,
BACKGROUND_GREEN = 0x0020,
BACKGROUND_RED = 0x0040,
BACKGROUND_INTENSITY = 0x0080,
COMMON_LVB_LEADING_BYTE = 0x0100,
COMMON_LVB_TRAILING_BYTE = 0x0200,
COMMON_LVB_GRID_HORIZONTAL = 0x0400,
COMMON_LVB_GRID_LVERTICAL = 0x0800,
COMMON_LVB_GRID_RVERTICAL = 0x1000,
COMMON_LVB_REVERSE_VIDEO = 0x4000,
COMMON_LVB_UNDERSCORE = 0x8000
}

We can also change the font and cursor of console application using win32 APIs.
Changing the title of the console is also easy, just use SetConsoleTitle()function
and provide a string to it as a parameter. That would be title of console. You can
do it easily
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")
public static extern bool SetConsoleTitle(String lpConsoleTitle);
First declare setconsoletitle function and then use it
SetConsoleTitle(" ALlah O Akbar ... ");