Gesso 🎨

A lightweight, chainable terminal styling library for Dart that makes your console output beautiful and expressive.

Features

• 🔗 Chainable API - Combine multiple styles fluently
• 🎨 Rich Styling - Colors, backgrounds, text decorations
• 🚀 Lightweight - Zero dependencies, minimal footprint
• 💪 Type Safe - Full Dart type safety with enums
• 🎯 Production Ready - Robust error handling and validation

Installation

Add gesso to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  gesso: ^1.0.0

Quick Start

import 'package:gesso/gesso.dart';

void main() {
  final gesso = Gesso();
  
  // Simple styling
  print(gesso.red('Error: Something went wrong!'));
  print(gesso.green.bold('✓ Success!'));
  
  // Chainable styling
  print(gesso
    .blue
    .bold
    .underline('Important Notice'));
    
  // Background colors
  print(gesso
    .white
    .background(GessoColor.red)
    ('ALERT'));
}

API Reference

Core Class: Gesso

The main class for creating styled terminal output.

Constructors

Gesso()              // Creates a new instance
Gesso.from(codes)    // Creates from existing ANSI codes

Text Styling Methods

All methods return a new Gesso instance for chaining:

• bold() - Bold text
• dim() - Dimmed text
• italic() - Italic text
• underline() - Underlined text
• blink() - Blinking text
• blinkRapid() - Rapid blinking text
• reversed() - Reversed colors
• hidden() - Hidden text
• strikethrough() - Strikethrough text

Color Methods

Foreground Colors:

• black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white
• brightBlack, brightRed, brightGreen, etc.

Advanced Color Methods:

foreground(GessoColor color, [bool bright = false])
background(GessoColor color, [bool bright = false])

Applying Styles

String call(String text)  // Apply all styles to text

Enums

GessoStyle

Defines text styling options:

enum GessoStyle {
  bold(1),
  dim(2),
  italic(3),
  underline(4),
  blink(5),
  blinkRapid(6),
  reversed(7),
  hidden(8),
  strikethrough(9)
}

GessoColor

Defines available colors:

enum GessoColor {
  black(0),
  red(1),
  green(2),
  yellow(3),
  blue(4),
  magenta(5),
  cyan(6),
  white(7)
}

Usage Examples

Basic Styling

final g = Gesso();

// Single styles
print(g.red('Error message'));
print(g.bold('Important text'));
print(g.underline('Underlined text'));

Combining Styles

final g = Gesso();

// Chain multiple styles
print(g.red.bold.underline('Critical Error!'));
print(g.green.italic('Success message'));
print(g.blue.background(GessoColor.yellow)('Highlighted'));

Color Variations

final g = Gesso();

// Standard colors
print(g.red('Standard red'));
print(g.brightRed('Bright red'));

// Using color methods
print(g.foreground(GessoColor.red)('Red text'));
print(g.foreground(GessoColor.red, true)('Bright red text'));
print(g.background(GessoColor.blue)('Blue background'));

Advanced Usage

final g = Gesso();

// Create reusable styles
final errorStyle = g.red.bold;
final successStyle = g.green.bold;
final warningStyle = g.yellow.italic;

print(errorStyle('Error: File not found'));
print(successStyle('✓ Operation completed'));
print(warningStyle('⚠ Warning: Low disk space'));

// Complex combinations
final headerStyle = g
  .white
  .bold
  .background(GessoColor.blue);
  
print(headerStyle(' APPLICATION HEADER '));

Building Custom Styles

final g = Gesso();

// Add individual style codes
final customStyle = g
  .add(GessoStyle.bold)
  .add(GessoStyle.underline)
  .with(91); // Custom ANSI code

print(customStyle('Custom styled text'));

Best Practices

1. Reuse Style Objects

// Good: Create once, use multiple times
final errorStyle = Gesso().red.bold;
print(errorStyle('Error 1'));
print(errorStyle('Error 2'));

// Avoid: Creating new instances repeatedly
print(Gesso().red.bold('Error 1'));
print(Gesso().red.bold('Error 2'));

2. Semantic Styling

final g = Gesso();

// Define semantic styles
final success = g.green.bold;
final error = g.red.bold;
final warning = g.yellow;
final info = g.blue;

// Use semantic names
print(success('Operation completed'));
print(error('Failed to connect'));

3. Terminal Compatibility

// Check terminal support before using advanced features
final g = Gesso();

if (Platform.environment['TERM'] != 'dumb') {
  print(g.brightBlue.italic('Fancy output'));
} else {
  print('Simple output');
}

ANSI Escape Codes

Gessetto uses standard ANSI escape sequences:

• Text styles: 1-9
• Foreground colors: 30-37, 90-97
• Background colors: 40-47, 100-107
• Reset: 0

Browser Support

While primarily designed for terminal applications, Gesso's output will display as plain text in browsers (ANSI codes are ignored).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Changelog

v1.0.0

• Initial release
• Full ANSI color and style support
• Chainable API
• Production-ready implementationrom the package authors, and more.