ANSI syntax highlighting for the terminal.

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • all
  • common
  • createEmphasize(grammars?)
  • emphasize.highlight(language, value[, options])
  • emphasize.highlightAuto(value[, options])
  • emphasize.listLanguages()
  • emphasize.register(grammars)
  • emphasize.registerAlias(aliases)
  • emphasize.registered(aliasOrLanguage)
  • AutoOptions
  • LanguageFn
  • Result
  • Sheet
  • Style
• Compatibility
• Security
• Contribute
• License

This package wraps lowlight to output ANSI syntax highlighting instead of HTML. It can support 190+ programming languages.

This package is useful when you want to display code on a terminal.

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:

npm install emphasize

In Deno with esm.sh:

import {all, common, createEmphasize} from 'https://esm.sh/emphasize@7'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import {all, common, createEmphasize} from 'https://esm.sh/emphasize@7?bundle'
</script>

Say example.css looks as follows:

@font-face {
  font-family: Alpha;
  src: url('Bravo.otf');
}

body, .charlie, #delta {
  color: #bada55;
  background-color: rgba(33, 33, 33, 0.33);
  font-family: "Alpha", sans-serif;
}

@import url(echo.css);

@media print {
  a[href^=http]::after {
    content: attr(href)
  }
}

…and example.js contains the following:

import fs from 'node:fs/promises'
import {emphasize} from 'emphasize'

const doc = String(await fs.readFile('example.css'))

const output = emphasize.highlightAuto(doc).value

console.log(output)

…now running node example.js yields:

\x1B[32m@font-face\x1B[39m {
  \x1B[33mfont-family\x1B[39m: Alpha;
  \x1B[33msrc\x1B[39m: \x1B[31murl\x1B[39m(\x1B[36m'Bravo.otf'\x1B[39m);
}

\x1B[32mbody\x1B[39m, \x1B[34m.charlie\x1B[39m, \x1B[34m#delta\x1B[39m {
  \x1B[33mcolor\x1B[39m: \x1B[36m#bada55\x1B[39m;
  \x1B[33mbackground-color\x1B[39m: \x1B[31mrgba\x1B[39m(\x1B[36m33\x1B[39m, \x1B[36m33\x1B[39m, \x1B[36m33\x1B[39m, \x1B[36m0.33\x1B[39m);
  \x1B[33mfont-family\x1B[39m: \x1B[36m"Alpha"\x1B[39m, sans-serif;
}

\x1B[32m@import\x1B[39m url(echo.css);

\x1B[32m@media\x1B[39m print {
  \x1B[32ma\x1B[39m\x1B[35m[href^=http]\x1B[39m\x1B[35m::after\x1B[39m {
    \x1B[33mcontent\x1B[39m: \x1B[31mattr\x1B[39m(href)
  }
}

…which looks as follows:

This package exports the identifiers all, common, and createEmphasize. There is no default export.

It exports the TypeScript types AutoOptions, LanguageFn, Result, Sheet, and Style.

Map of all (±190) grammars (Record<string, LanguageFn>).

See all from lowlight.

Map of common (37) grammars (Record<string, LanguageFn>).

See common from lowlight.

Create a emphasize instance.

• grammars (Record<string, LanguageFn>, optional) — grammars to add

Emphasize (emphasize).

Highlight value (code) as language (name).

• language (string) — programming language name
• value (string) — code to highlight
• sheet (Sheet, optional) — style sheet

Result.

Highlight value (code) and guess its programming language.

• value (string) — code to highlight
• options (AutoOptions or Sheet, optional) — configuration or style sheet

Result.

List registered languages.

See lowlight.listLanguages.

Register languages.

See lowlight.register.

Register aliases.

See lowlight.registerAlias.

Check whether an alias or name is registered.

See lowlight.registered.

Configuration for highlightAuto (TypeScript type).

• sheet (Sheet, optional) — sheet
• subset (Array<string>, default: all registered languages) — list of allowed languages

Highlight.js grammar (TypeScript type).

See LanguageFn from lowlight.

Result (TypeScript type).

• language (string or undefined) — detected programming language.
• relevance (number or undefined) — how sure lowlight is that the given code is in the language
• value (string) — highlighted code

Map highlight.js classes to styles functions (TypeScript type).

The hljs- prefix must not be used in those classes. The “descendant selector” (a space) is supported.

For convenience chalk’s chaining of styles is suggested. An abbreviated example is as follows:

{
  'comment': chalk.gray,
  'meta meta-string': chalk.cyan,
  'meta keyword': chalk.magenta,
  'emphasis': chalk.italic,
  'strong': chalk.bold,
  'formula': chalk.inverse
}

type Sheet = Record<string, Style>

Color something (TypeScript type).

• value (string) — input

Output (string).

This projects is compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.

When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of Node. This means we try to keep the current release line, emphasize@7, compatible with Node.js 16.

This package is safe.

Yes please! See How to Contribute to Open Source.

MIT © Titus Wormer