SGR: Select Graphic Rendition

Status: Standard (ECMA-48) for the core attributes; xterm, Extension, and Convention for colors beyond 8, underline styles, and underline color.

CSI Pm m

SGR sets the attributes applied to characters printed afterwards. Parameters accumulate: CSI 1 ; 31 m is bold and red. CSI m and CSI 0 m reset every attribute, including colors.

Attributes

Ps	Effect	Reset by	Notes
0	Reset all		Also resets foreground, background, underline color
1	Bold	22	Historically "bright"; see bold-as-bright
2	Faint	22	Rendered as dimmer color or lighter weight
3	Italic	23	ECMA-48 says "italicized"; some terminals render inverse instead
4	Underline	24	4:n selects a style; see below
5	Slow blink	25	Often disabled by configuration
6	Rapid blink	25	Almost universally treated as 5
7	Inverse	27	Swaps foreground and background at render time
8	Conceal	28	Rendered as spaces; text remains in the grid and can be copied
9	Strikethrough	29
21	Double underline	24	ECMA-48; xterm used to treat as "bold off", now follows ECMA
53	Overline	55
58	Underline color	59	Extension (kitty); same syntax as 38

Parameters 10–20 (font selection), 26 (proportional), 51–52 (framed, encircled), and 60–65 (ideogram attributes) are defined by ECMA-48 and implemented almost nowhere; mintty is the notable exception.

Underline styles

Status: Extension, originated by kitty.

CSI 4 : 0 m    no underline
CSI 4 : 1 m    straight
CSI 4 : 2 m    double
CSI 4 : 3 m    curly
CSI 4 : 4 m    dotted
CSI 4 : 5 m    dashed

CSI 4 m equals 4:1 and CSI 24 m clears all styles. Terminfo announces support with Smulx (styled underline) and Setulc (underline color); tmux relays them when its outer terminal has them.

Terminals that do not understand sub-parameters typically apply plain underline for 4:3 (they stop at the colon) or ignore the whole SGR. Neither outcome is harmful, which is why applications ship curly underlines without detection.

Colors

Ps	Effect
30–37	Foreground from the 8-color palette
40–47	Background from the 8-color palette
90–97	Foreground from the bright 8 (aixterm; universal)
100–107	Background from the bright 8
38 ; 5 ; n	Foreground from the 256-color palette
48 ; 5 ; n	Background from the 256-color palette
38 ; 2 ; r ; g ; b	Foreground truecolor
48 ; 2 ; r ; g ; b	Background truecolor
39 / 49	Default foreground / background
58 ; 2 ; r ; g ; b, 58 ; 5 ; n	Underline color; 59 resets

The 256-color palette is 16 named colors, a 6×6×6 cube at 16–231 with levels 0, 95, 135, 175, 215, 255, and a 24-step gray ramp at 232–255. Entries are redefinable with OSC 4; applications must not assume index 1 is red.

Color parameter forms

ISO 8613-6 defines the colon form with a color-space identifier:

CSI 38 : 2 : id : r : g : b m     id is usually empty
CSI 38 : 5 : n m

xterm adopted the semicolon form 38;2;r;g;b before sub-parameters were common, and it became the de facto interchange form. Both are now widely accepted; the differences:

• 38;2;r;g;b is parsed by everything that supports truecolor, including terminals that reject colons;
• 38:2::r:g:b survives being combined with other parameters in one sequence when the receiver does not implement it, because the receiver can skip one parameter;
• some terminals accept 38:2:r:g:b (no id) as well; xterm documents both.

Terminfo reports truecolor as RGB (ncurses 6.1+) or the older tmux-style Tc user capability; COLORTERM=truecolor is the shell-level convention. See Environment.

Bold and bright

Classic terminals rendered SGR 1 by switching to the bright palette entry. Modern emulators render a bold weight and, by configuration, may also brighten the color. Applications wanting bright colors should use 90–97 explicitly and treat 1 as weight only. xterm's boldColors resource, kitty's bold_is_bright, and VTE's bold-is-bright control this.

Faint

There is no bright counterpart. Emulators blend toward the background or use a lighter font weight; the result differs enough that faint text should never carry information that regular text does not.

Push and pop

Status: xterm.

CSI # {          XTPUSHSGR: push current attributes
CSI # }          XTPOPSGR: pop
CSI Ps ; … # {   push only the listed attribute classes

Implemented by xterm (opt-in build), Contour, and mintty; elsewhere ?. Applications cannot rely on it and should track attributes themselves.

"pass" means tmux relays the attribute to the outer terminal when that terminal's terminfo advertises it.

Probe

tools/sgr-sampler
tools/query tcap RGB       # hex reply carries the terminfo value
tools/query tcap Smulx
tools/query decrqss m      # DECRQSS: current SGR, e.g. ^[P1$r0;1;31m^[\

Sources

• ECMA-48 §8.3.117
• ISO/IEC 8613-6 (ITU T.416) §13.1.8
• XTerm Control Sequences, SGR
• kitty underline styles
• Gist: True Colour support in terminals
• mintty control sequences

Compatibility

Feature support by terminal. Imported claims have not been reverified; unknown is not unsupported.

Feature / stable ID	Alacritty	Apple Terminal	ConPTY (conhost)	Contour	DomTerm	foot	Ghostty	iTerm2	kitty	Konsole	mintty	mlterm	PuTTY	Revenant	RLogin	st	tmux	rxvt-unicode	VTE	wayst	WezTerm	Windows Terminal	xterm	xterm.js
256 colors sgr-256-colors	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
Truecolor 38;2 sgr-38-2-truecolor	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
Colon form 38:2 sgr-38-2-colon-form	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
Italic 3 sgr-3-italic	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	PartialImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
Strikethrough 9 sgr-9-strikethrough	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	PartialImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
Underline styles 4:n sgr-4-underline-styles	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
Underline color 58 sgr-58-underline-color	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Supported	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unsupported	SupportedImported · unverified
Overline 53 sgr-53-overline	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	PartialImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
Blink 5 sgr-5-blink	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	PartialImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified
XTPUSHSGR csi-xtpushsgr	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown
SGR select graphic rendition csi-sgr	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
XTPOPSGR pop graphic rendition csi-xtpopsgr	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
SGR 0: Reset all sgr-0-reset-all	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
SGR 1: Bold sgr-1-bold	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
SGR 2: Faint sgr-2-faint	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
SGR 6: Rapid blink sgr-6-rapid-blink	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
SGR 7: Inverse sgr-7-inverse	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
SGR 8: Conceal sgr-8-conceal	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
SGR 21: Double underline sgr-21-double-underline	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Reset underline color sgr-59-underline-color-reset	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown