PHP Command Line Interface (CLI) has not built-in coloring for script output, like example Perl language has (perldoc.perl.org/Term/ANSIColor.html). So I decided to make own class for adding colors on PHP CLI output. This class works only Bash shells. This class is easy to use. Just create new instance of class and call getColoredString function with string and foreground color and/or background color. PHP Class for Coloring PHP Command Line (CLI) Scripts Output <?php class Colors { private $foreground_colors = array(); private $background_colors = array(); public function __construct() { // Set up shell colors $this->foreground_colors['black'] = '0;30'; $this->foreground_colors['dark_gray'] = '1;30'; $this->foreground_colors['blue'] = '0;34'; $this->foreground_colors['light_blue'] = '1;34'; $this->foreground_colors['green'] = '0;32'; $this->foreground_colors['light_green'] = '1;32'; $this->foreground_colors['cyan'] = '0;36'; $this->foreground_colors['light_cyan'] = '1;36'; $this->foreground_colors['red'] = '0;31'; $this->foreground_colors['light_red'] = '1;31'; $this->foreground_colors['purple'] = '0;35'; $this->foreground_colors['light_purple'] = '1;35'; $this->foreground_colors['brown'] = '0;33'; $this->foreground_colors['yellow'] = '1;33'; $this->foreground_colors['light_gray'] = '0;37'; $this->foreground_colors['white'] = '1;37'; $this->background_colors['black'] = '40'; $this->background_colors['red'] = '41'; $this->background_colors['green'] = '42'; $this->background_colors['yellow'] = '43'; $this->background_colors['blue'] = '44'; $this->background_colors['magenta'] = '45'; $this->background_colors['cyan'] = '46'; $this->background_colors['light_gray'] = '47'; } // Returns colored string public function getColoredString($string, $foreground_color = null, $background_color = null) { $colored_string = ""; // Check if given foreground color found if (isset($this->foreground_colors[$foreground_color])) { $colored_string .= "\033[" . $this->foreground_colors[$foreground_color] . "m"; } // Check if given background color found if (isset($this->background_colors[$background_color])) { $colored_string .= "\033[" . $this->background_colors[$background_color] . "m"; } // Add string and end coloring $colored_string .= $string . "\033[0m"; return $colored_string; } // Returns all foreground color names public function getForegroundColors() { return array_keys($this->foreground_colors); } // Returns all background color names public function getBackgroundColors() { return array_keys($this->background_colors); } } Colors class basic usage examples <?php // Create new Colors class $colors = new Colors(); // Test some basic printing with Colors class echo $colors->getColoredString("Testing Colors class, this is purple string on yellow background.", "purple", "yellow") . "\n"; echo $colors->getColoredString("Testing Colors class, this is blue string on light gray background.", "blue", "light_gray") . "\n"; echo $colors->getColoredString("Testing Colors class, this is red string on black background.", "red", "black") . "\n"; echo $colors->getColoredString("Testing Colors class, this is cyan string on green background.", "cyan", "green") . "\n"; echo $colors->getColoredString("Testing Colors class, this is cyan string on default background.", "cyan") . "\n"; echo $colors->getColoredString("Testing Colors class, this is default string on cyan background.", null, "cyan") . "\n"; Output: