IRC String Formatting

Most IRC clients will accept caret notation for formatting IRC text.

Colors

The general formula for colors is ^CN,M.

^C is ASCII character 3 (usually represented as \x03 in code). N is the text (foreground) color, M is the background color. A background color is not always included. If no background color is set, the receiving client uses the default background color. Additionally, you can use color 99 to indicate the default color.

Color codes

Number	Name
00	white
01	black
02	blue (navy)
03	green
04	red
05	brown (maroon)
06	purple
07	orange (olive)
08	yellow
09	light green (lime)
10	teal (a green/blue cyan)
11	light cyan (cyan / aqua)
12	light blue (royal)
13	pink (light purple / fuchsia)
14	grey
15	light grey (silver)

Example

Red text on a blue background would be:

jenni.reply("\x0304,02Example\x03")

Other formatting

Code	Meaning
\x02	bold
\x03	colored text
\x1D	italic text
\x1F	underlined text
\x16	swap background and foreground colors ("reverse video")
\x0F	reset all formatting

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Keywords

control characters, IRC colors, IRC colours, caret notation