Option to render bold text in a different, fixed color

[Rohit-Bevinahally]

I would like to have an option to render bold text in a different color. This is an extension to the bold-is-bright option which operates only on the color palette and not on the default foreground.

The purpose of this feature is to make it easier to distinguish bold text. Eg: lazygit (attached below), output of brew install etc.

This is implemented in other terminals as well. Eg: font_rules in WezTerm, Bold color option in conjuction with Brighten bold text in iTerm2 etc.

The patch below shows a sample implementation of this feature for MacOS (Metal), but the same can be used for OpenGL as well

Patch

diff --git a/src/config/Config.zig b/src/config/Config.zig
index a5ba71b2..d48e0b03 100644
--- a/src/config/Config.zig
+++ b/src/config/Config.zig
@@ -1887,6 +1887,9 @@ keybind: Keybinds = .{},
 /// If `true`, the bold text will use the bright color palette.
 @"bold-is-bright": bool = false,
 
+/// Set color to be used for foreground while rendering bold text.
+@"bold-color": ?Color = null,
+
 /// This will be used to set the `TERM` environment variable.
 /// HACK: We set this with an `xterm` prefix because vim uses that to enable key
 /// protocols (specifically this will enable `modifyOtherKeys`), among other
diff --git a/src/renderer/Metal.zig b/src/renderer/Metal.zig
index 3f24c3d2..e8bf26ee 100644
--- a/src/renderer/Metal.zig
+++ b/src/renderer/Metal.zig
@@ -361,6 +361,7 @@ pub const DerivedConfig = struct {
     selection_foreground: ?terminal.color.RGB,
     invert_selection_fg_bg: bool,
     bold_is_bright: bool,
+    bold_color: ?terminal.color.RGB,
     min_contrast: f32,
     padding_color: configpkg.WindowPaddingColor,
     custom_shaders: configpkg.RepeatablePath,
@@ -432,6 +433,11 @@ pub const DerivedConfig = struct {
             else
                 null,
 
+            .bold_color = if (config.@"bold-color") |bg|
+                bg.toTerminalRGB()
+            else
+                null,
+
             .custom_shaders = custom_shaders,
             .links = links,
             .vsync = config.@"window-vsync",
@@ -2360,7 +2366,7 @@ fn rebuildCells(
                 false;
 
             const bg_style = style.bg(cell, color_palette);
-            const fg_style = style.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color;
+            const fg_style = style.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color);
 
             // The final background color for the cell.
             const bg = bg: {
@@ -2604,7 +2610,7 @@ fn rebuildCells(
         const cursor_color = self.cursor_color orelse color: {
             if (self.cursor_invert) {
                 const sty = screen.cursor.page_pin.style(screen.cursor.page_cell);
-                break :color sty.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color;
+                break :color sty.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color);
             } else {
                 break :color self.foreground_color;
             }
diff --git a/src/terminal/style.zig b/src/terminal/style.zig
index 6c1f8b60..7313d5fc 100644
--- a/src/terminal/style.zig
+++ b/src/terminal/style.zig
@@ -123,10 +123,17 @@ pub const Style = struct {
     pub fn fg(
         self: Style,
         palette: *const color.Palette,
+        default_color: color.RGB,
         bold_is_bright: bool,
-    ) ?color.RGB {
+        bold_color: ?color.RGB,
+    ) color.RGB {
         return switch (self.fg_color) {
-            .none => null,
+            .none => default: {
+                if (self.flags.bold) {
+                    break :default bold_color orelse default_color;
+                }
+                break :default default_color;
+            },
             .palette => |idx| palette: {
                 if (bold_is_bright and self.flags.bold) {
                     const bright_offset = @intFromEnum(color.Name.bright_black);
@@ -136,7 +143,12 @@ pub const Style = struct {
 
                 break :palette palette[idx];
             },
-            .rgb => |rgb| rgb,
+            .rgb => |rgb| rgb: {
+                if (self.flags.bold and rgb.eql(default_color)) {
+                    break :rgb bold_color orelse rgb;
+                }
+                break :rgb rgb;
+            },
         };
     }

[1Jo1]

@Rohit-Bevinahally how can I achieve the same on Linux with Wayland?

[Rohit-Bevinahally]

In this case OpenGL would be used for rendering, so copying the changes made in Metal.zig to OpenGL.zig should work

[1Jo1]

On which commit is the patch based?

[Rohit-Bevinahally]

I don't see any recent changes in the touched areas, so any commit after 1.0.0 release should be fine to apply

[kgrusha]

Linking to the corresponding issue I have created yesterday before finding this discussion, for link integrity: #3410

[edrozenberg]

On Mac, comparing Terminal.app vs Ghostty, Ghostty is not showing bright color for the directory blue. I'm using the same base color code for the blue in both apps.

On Terminal.app I've enabled "Use bright colors for bold text", and on Ghostty I am using:

# Colors
bold-is-bright = true
palette = 04=#3940b2
palette = 06=#49a3b0
palette = 12=#0435f0
palette = 14=#69e2e4

[roberthawdon]

I think the source has changed a lot since 1.0.0, and I can't get this patch to apply at all.

EDIT:

Scratch that, I've updated the patch to work on the latest #tip build:

diff --git a/src/config/Config.zig b/src/config/Config.zig
index ecdcee7f..3a27db67 100644
--- a/src/config/Config.zig
+++ b/src/config/Config.zig
@@ -2255,6 +2255,9 @@ keybind: Keybinds = .{},
 /// If `true`, the bold text will use the bright color palette.
 @"bold-is-bright": bool = false,
 
+/// Set color to be used for foreground while rendering bold text.
+@"bold-color": ?Color = null,
+
 /// This will be used to set the `TERM` environment variable.
 /// HACK: We set this with an `xterm` prefix because vim uses that to enable key
 /// protocols (specifically this will enable `modifyOtherKeys`), among other
diff --git a/src/renderer/Metal.zig b/src/renderer/Metal.zig
index e6f77216..ec81b2d1 100644
--- a/src/renderer/Metal.zig
+++ b/src/renderer/Metal.zig
@@ -434,6 +434,7 @@ pub const DerivedConfig = struct {
     selection_foreground: ?terminal.color.RGB,
     invert_selection_fg_bg: bool,
     bold_is_bright: bool,
+    bold_color: ?terminal.color.RGB,
     min_contrast: f32,
     padding_color: configpkg.WindowPaddingColor,
     custom_shaders: configpkg.RepeatablePath,
@@ -508,6 +509,11 @@ pub const DerivedConfig = struct {
             else
                 null,
 
+            .bold_color = if (config.@"bold-color") |bg|
+                bg.toTerminalRGB()
+            else
+                null,
+
             .custom_shaders = custom_shaders,
             .links = links,
             .vsync = config.@"window-vsync",
@@ -2668,7 +2674,7 @@ fn rebuildCells(
                 false;
 
             const bg_style = style.bg(cell, color_palette);
-            const fg_style = style.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color;
+            const fg_style = style.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color);
 
             // The final background color for the cell.
             const bg = bg: {
@@ -2915,7 +2921,7 @@ fn rebuildCells(
                     // If the cell is reversed, use background color instead.
                     (sty.bg(screen.cursor.page_cell, color_palette) orelse self.background_color orelse self.default_background_color)
                 else
-                    (sty.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color);
+                    (sty.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color));
             } else {
                 break :color self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color;
             }
@@ -2948,7 +2954,7 @@ fn rebuildCells(
                 const sty = screen.cursor.page_pin.style(screen.cursor.page_cell);
                 break :blk if (sty.flags.inverse)
                     // If the cell is reversed, use foreground color instead.
-                    (sty.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color)
+                    (sty.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color))
                 else
                     (sty.bg(screen.cursor.page_cell, color_palette) orelse self.background_color orelse self.default_background_color);
             } else if (self.config.cursor_text) |txt|
diff --git a/src/renderer/OpenGL.zig b/src/renderer/OpenGL.zig
index ba9e5d81..3d47ee8a 100644
--- a/src/renderer/OpenGL.zig
+++ b/src/renderer/OpenGL.zig
@@ -286,6 +286,7 @@ pub const DerivedConfig = struct {
     selection_foreground: ?terminal.color.RGB,
     invert_selection_fg_bg: bool,
     bold_is_bright: bool,
+    bold_color: ?terminal.color.RGB,
     min_contrast: f32,
     padding_color: configpkg.WindowPaddingColor,
     custom_shaders: configpkg.RepeatablePath,
@@ -357,6 +358,11 @@ pub const DerivedConfig = struct {
             else
                 null,
 
+            .bold_color = if (config.@"bold-color") |bg|
+                bg.toTerminalRGB()
+            else
+                null,
+
             .custom_shaders = custom_shaders,
             .links = links,
 
@@ -1453,7 +1459,7 @@ pub fn rebuildCells(
                 false;
 
             const bg_style = style.bg(cell, color_palette);
-            const fg_style = style.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color;
+            const fg_style = style.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color);
 
             // The final background color for the cell.
             const bg = bg: {
@@ -1748,7 +1754,7 @@ pub fn rebuildCells(
                     // If the cell is reversed, use background color instead.
                     (sty.bg(screen.cursor.page_cell, color_palette) orelse self.background_color orelse self.default_background_color)
                 else
-                    (sty.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color);
+                    (sty.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color));
             } else {
                 break :color self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color;
             }
@@ -1762,7 +1768,7 @@ pub fn rebuildCells(
                     const sty = screen.cursor.page_pin.style(screen.cursor.page_cell);
                     break :blk if (sty.flags.inverse)
                         // If the cell is reversed, use foreground color instead.
-                        (sty.fg(color_palette, self.config.bold_is_bright) orelse self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color)
+                        (sty.fg(color_palette, self.foreground_color orelse self.default_foreground_color, self.config.bold_is_bright, self.config.bold_color))
                     else
                         (sty.bg(screen.cursor.page_cell, color_palette) orelse self.background_color orelse self.default_background_color);
                 } else if (self.config.cursor_text) |txt|
diff --git a/src/terminal/style.zig b/src/terminal/style.zig
index 7f176561..5f16dee3 100644
--- a/src/terminal/style.zig
+++ b/src/terminal/style.zig
@@ -123,10 +123,17 @@ pub const Style = struct {
     pub fn fg(
         self: Style,
         palette: *const color.Palette,
+        default_color: color.RGB,
         bold_is_bright: bool,
-    ) ?color.RGB {
+        bold_color: ?color.RGB,
+    ) color.RGB {
         return switch (self.fg_color) {
-            .none => null,
+            .none => default: {
+                if (self.flags.bold) {
+                    break :default bold_color orelse default_color;
+                }
+                break :default default_color;
+            },
             .palette => |idx| palette: {
                 if (bold_is_bright and self.flags.bold) {
                     const bright_offset = @intFromEnum(color.Name.bright_black);
@@ -136,7 +143,12 @@ pub const Style = struct {
 
                 break :palette palette[idx];
             },
-            .rgb => |rgb| rgb,
+            .rgb => |rgb| rgb: {
+                if (self.flags.bold and rgb.eql(default_color)) {
+                    break :rgb bold_color orelse rgb;
+                }
+                break :rgb rgb;
+            },
         };
     }
 

[roberthawdon]

It's not.

@mitchellh do you think it could be integrated? Patch by @roberthawdon works great.

I've already raised a Pull Request here: #7168

[00-kat]

Just an FYI, as there is no associated accepted Issue, as per the CONTRIBUTING.md there is no guarantee that it would be reviewed in a timely fashion. You are free to take that risk, though.

[roberthawdon]

Just an FYI, as there is no associated accepted Issue, as per the CONTRIBUTING.md there is no guarantee that it would be reviewed in a timely fashion. You are free to take that risk, though.

I honestly don't get understand how to actually contribute to this project, as there was an issue for this (#3410), but it was closed in favour of this discussion thread. What is the process to try and get this discussion raised as an accepted issue?

[00-kat]

Presumably, based on the tags assigned to this Discussion, there is still some feature design to be done…?

I guess the only thing I can see stopping this from getting accepted is whether a maintainer has checked this thread recently to convert it, since as far as I can tell there's nothing stopping it from being converted.

[mitchellh]

There was previously an issue because it predated our switch to discussions. This one simply hasn’t been reviewed.

[mitchellh]

Done with #7168

[Rohit-Bevinahally]

Hi @mitchellh
Regarding this PR, as you noted, bold-is-bright winning over bold-color was actually intentional. Moreover the addition of bold-color was not meant to be mutually exclusive to bold-is-bright. The reasoning behind this is that it is very hard to distinguish between the default foreground color in bold and regular. With the bold-is-bright option, we had the ability to modify the color of bold text for the palette colors, but no such option existed for the default foreground color.
Although, looking back at the wording of this discussion, it seems to convey that all bold text needs to be rendered with the same color. Sorry about that!
Is it possible for us to go with having the bold-color option affect only the default foreground color instead of all bold text ?

[roberthawdon]

Hi @mitchellh, I've just noticed the notifications on the PR and merge which I didn't get a chance to test until today. Your changes seem to have broken the functionality the PR was aiming to achieve, as it now sets all bold text to the over-ride colour, rather than just the default foreground colour.

[roberthawdon]

I have created a new PR to change the functionality to only affect the default foreground colour: #7871

[rhodes-b]

Since #7871 has been merged is this feature closable now?

[ftpd]

@roberthawdon @mitchellh can we please discuss the It will set the rest of the bold colors to bright part again? Can we maybe have 3 different settings/scenarios, so the two available now plus a new one, when only foreground color is affected?

I'm using all my 16 'standard' colors deliberately and with current tip version when I set bold-color (which I was waiting for a long time and I'm grateful for it!), my other colors change in some of CLI tools, because these tools use bold :(