Vargula: Terminal Styling with Color Theory & Accessibility Built In

🎨 Stop Fighting with ANSI Codes

Let’s be honest — styling terminal output in Python has always been a bit of a pain:

# The old way 😓
print(‘\033[1m\033[91mError:\033[0m \033[4mFile not found\033[0m’)

Compare that to this:

# The V…


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sivaprasad Murali

🎨 Stop Fighting with ANSI Codes

Let's be honest — styling terminal output in Python has always been a bit of a pain:

# The old way 😓
print('\033[1m\033[91mError:\033[0m \033[4mFile not found\033[0m')

Compare that to this:

# The Vargula way ✨
import vargula as vg
vg.write("<bold><red>Error:</red></bold> <underline>File not found</underline>")

Much better, right? But Vargula goes way beyond just making syntax prettier. It brings color theory, accessibility checking, and professional UI components to your terminal.

🚀 Quick Start 

pip install vargula

import vargula as vg

# HTML-like tags for styling
vg.write("This is <red>red</red> and <bold>bold</bold>")

# Hex colors work too
vg.write("Custom <#FF5733>orange</#FF5733> text")

# Background colors with @
vg.write("<@yellow><black>Black on yellow</@yellow></black>")

# Nest as much as you want
vg.write("<bold>Bold with <italic><cyan>italic cyan</cyan></italic></bold>")

🎯 The Problem It Solves

I built Vargula because I kept running into the same issues:

  1. Verbose ANSI codes that make code unreadable
  2. No guidance on creating harmonious color palettes
  3. Zero accessibility checking — is my output readable for colorblind users?
  4. Repetitive boilerplate for tables and progress bars

Vargula tackles all of these.

🌈 Built-in Color Theory

Here's where it gets interesting. Need a color palette? Generate one based on actual color theory:

# Generate complementary colors
colors = vg.generate_palette("#3498db", "complementary", 5)
print(vg.preview_palette(colors))

Available schemes:

  • monochromatic — Single hue variations
  • analogous — Adjacent colors (±30°)
  • complementary — Opposite colors (180°)
  • triadic — Three evenly spaced (120°)
  • tetradic — Four colors in pairs
  • split_complementary — Softer complementary
  • square — Four evenly spaced (90°)

Create a Complete Theme 

# Generate a themed palette
theme = vg.generate_theme_palette("analogous", "#e74c3c")
vg.apply_palette_theme(theme)

# Now use semantic tags
vg.write("<primary>Primary action</primary>")
vg.write("<error>Error message</error>")
vg.write("<success>All good!</success>")
vg.write("<warning>Be careful</warning>")

This automatically creates primary, secondary, accent, success, warning, error, info, and neutral colors based on your chosen scheme.

♿ Accessibility First

About 8% of men and 0.5% of women have some form of color vision deficiency. Vargula helps you create inclusive terminal apps:

# Check WCAG contrast compliance
ratio = vg.calculate_contrast_ratio("#FFFFFF", "#3498db")
print(f"Contrast ratio: {ratio:.2f}")

# Verify WCAG AA/AAA compliance
if vg.meets_wcag("#FFFFFF", "#000000", "AA"):
    print("✓ Passes WCAG AA")

# Generate accessible themes automatically
theme = vg.generate_accessible_theme(
    base_color="#3498db",
    background="#ffffff",
    wcag_level="AA"  # or "AAA"
)

Colorblind Simulation

See how your colors appear to users with different types of color blindness:

colors = ["#FF0000", "#00FF00", "#0000FF"]

# Simulate different types
types = ["protanopia", "deuteranopia", "tritanopia"]

for cb_type in types:
    simulated = [vg.simulate_colorblindness(c, cb_type) for c in colors]
    print(f"{cb_type}: {simulated}")

# Check if palette is distinguishable
is_safe, problems = vg.validate_colorblind_safety(colors, "deuteranopia")
if not is_safe:
    print(f"⚠ Found {len(problems)} problematic color pairs")

📊 Tables Made Easy

Creating professional tables is trivial:

table = vg.Table(
    title="Q4 2024 Sales",
    border_style="blue",
    box="double",
    show_lines=True
)

table.add_column("Region", style="bold", justify="left")
table.add_column("Revenue", style="green", justify="right")
table.add_column("Growth", style="cyan", justify="center")

table.add_row("North", "$1.2M", "+15%")
table.add_row("Europe", "$890K", "+8%")
table.add_row("Asia", "$1.5M", "+22%")

print(table)

Box styles: rounded, square, double, heavy, minimal, none

⏱️ Progress Bars

Single or multiple progress bars with ETA and rate display:

import time

# Simple progress bar
for item in vg.progress_bar(range(100), desc="Processing"):
    time.sleep(0.01)

# Multiple concurrent bars
with vg.MultiProgress() as mp:
    download = mp.add_task("Downloading", total=100)
    process = mp.add_task("Processing", total=50)
    upload = mp.add_task("Uploading", total=80)

    # Update independently
    for i in range(100):
        mp.update(download, 1)
        if i % 2 == 0:
            mp.update(process, 1)
        if i % 3 == 0:
            mp.update(upload, 1)
        time.sleep(0.02)

🎨 Color Manipulation

Need to adjust colors programmatically?

base = "#3498db"

# Adjust brightness
lighter = vg.lighten(base, 0.2)
darker = vg.darken(base, 0.2)

# Adjust saturation
vivid = vg.saturate(base, 0.3)
muted = vg.desaturate(base, 0.3)

# Rotate hue (color wheel)
shifted = vg.shift_hue("#FF0000", 120)  # Red → Green

# Mix colors
purple = vg.mix("#FF0000", "#0000FF", 0.5)

# Invert
inverted = vg.invert("#FF0000")  # → #00FFFF

🔧 Custom Styles

Define reusable styles once, use them everywhere:

# Create custom styles
vg.create("error", color="red", look="bold")
vg.create("success", color="green", look="bold")
vg.create("debug", color="cyan", look="dim")

# Use them with tags
vg.write("<error>Connection failed</error>")
vg.write("<success>Upload complete</success>")
vg.write("<debug>Debug info here</debug>")

# Temporary styles with context manager
with vg.temporary("temp", color="magenta"):
    vg.write("<temp>This style is temporary</temp>")
# Automatically cleaned up

💾 Save & Load Palettes

Share your color schemes across projects:

# Generate and save
colors = vg.generate_palette("#3498db", "analogous", 5)
vg.save_palette(colors, "ocean_theme.json", 
                metadata={"name": "Ocean Blue", "author": "Me"})

# Load later
colors, metadata = vg.load_palette("ocean_theme.json")

# Works with themes too
theme = vg.generate_theme_palette("triadic", "#9b59b6")
vg.save_theme(theme, "purple_theme.json")

🔥 Real-World Example: Styled Logger

Let's build a production-ready logger with proper theming:

import vargula as vg
from datetime import datetime

# Setup theme
theme = vg.generate_theme_palette("analogous", "#2196F3")
vg.apply_palette_theme(theme)

# Custom log level styles
vg.create("timestamp", color="#666666")
vg.create("debug", color="cyan", look="dim")
vg.create("info", color="blue")
vg.create("warning", color="yellow", look="bold")
vg.create("error", color="red", look="bold")
vg.create("critical", color="white", bg="red", look="bold")

class Logger:
    def log(self, level, message):
        ts = datetime.now().strftime("%H:%M:%S")
        vg.write(f"<timestamp>[{ts}]</timestamp> <{level}>{level.upper():<8}</{level}> {message}")

    def debug(self, msg): self.log("debug", msg)
    def info(self, msg): self.log("info", msg)
    def warning(self, msg): self.log("warning", msg)
    def error(self, msg): self.log("error", msg)
    def critical(self, msg): self.log("critical", msg)

# Usage
log = Logger()
log.info("Application started")
log.debug("Loading config from config.json")
log.warning("Cache is 90% full")
log.error("Failed to connect to API")
log.critical("System out of memory!")

🎯 Advanced Features

Escape Sequences

Need to show literal tags in documentation?

# Use raw strings with backslash
vg.write(r"Use \<red>text\</red> to make text red")

# Or double backslash
vg.write("Tag syntax: \\<bold>...</bold>")

Direct Styling (Without Tags) 

# Style text directly
print(vg.style("Error", color="red", look="bold"))
print(vg.style("Custom", color="#FF5733", bg="#1a1a1a"))
print(vg.style("Fancy", color=(255, 87, 51), look=["bold", "underline"]))

Utility Functions 

# Strip markup tags
plain = vg.strip("Hello <red>world</red>!")  # "Hello world!"

# Remove ANSI codes
styled = vg.style("Text", color="red")
clean = vg.clean(styled)  # "Text"

# Get visible length (ignoring ANSI)
styled = vg.style("Hello", color="red")
print(len(styled))         # 18 (includes ANSI)
print(vg.length(styled))   # 5 (visible only)

# Globally enable/disable styling
vg.disable()  # No colors
vg.enable()   # Colors back

🎓 Tag Syntax Reference

  • <colorname> — Named foreground (e.g., <red>, <bright_blue>)
  • <@colorname> — Named background (e.g., <@yellow>)
  • <#hexcode> — Hex foreground (e.g., <#FF5733>)
  • <@#hexcode> — Hex background (e.g., <@#FF0000>)
  • <lookname> — Text style (e.g., <bold>, <italic>)
  • <customname> — Your custom styles
  • \<tag> or \\<tag> — Escape sequences for literal tags

Available colors: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, plus bright_* variants

Available styles: bold, dim, italic, underline, blink, reverse, hidden, strikethrough

🌟 Why Vargula?

For developers who:

  • Build CLI tools that need professional output
  • Want accessible, inclusive terminal applications
  • Need harmonious color schemes without a design degree
  • Prefer readable code over ANSI escape sequences
  • Value WCAG compliance in terminal UIs

Key advantages:

  • ✅ Intuitive HTML-like syntax
  • ✅ Color theory algorithms built in
  • ✅ WCAG compliance checking
  • ✅ Colorblind simulation & validation
  • ✅ Professional tables & progress bars
  • ✅ Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • ✅ Zero dependencies for core features

📚 Resources

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Check out the GitHub repo to:

  • Report bugs
  • Request features
  • Submit pull requests
  • Share your color themes

🎬 Try It Now 

import vargula as vg

# Generate a random palette
colors = vg.generate_palette(scheme="triadic", count=5)

# Preview it
print(vg.preview_palette(colors))

# Check accessibility
is_safe, _ = vg.validate_colorblind_safety(colors)
print("✓ Colorblind-safe!" if is_safe else "⚠ Needs adjustment")

# Create and apply theme
theme = vg.generate_theme_palette("complementary", colors[0])
vg.apply_palette_theme(theme)

# Use semantic colors
vg.write("<primary>Primary</primary>")
vg.write("<error>Error</error>")
vg.write("<success>Success</success>")

What kind of CLI tools are you building? Have you tried Vargula? Drop a comment below! 👇

Made with 🎨 by Sivaprasad Murali


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sivaprasad Murali


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Sivaprasad Murali | Sciencx (2025-11-24T13:04:10+00:00) Vargula: Terminal Styling with Color Theory & Accessibility Built In. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/11/24/vargula-terminal-styling-with-color-theory-accessibility-built-in/

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