zcol — Single-header C++23 colored terminal output & logging

A minimal, modern C++ header-only library for colored terminal output and source-location logging.

Requirements

• C++23 compiler (MSVC 2022 17.6+, GCC 14+, Clang 18+)
• CMake 4.0+ (optional — the header can be used directly)

Integration

Option 1: CMake FetchContent (recommended)

include(FetchContent)

FetchContent_Declare(
    zcol
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/cmixed/zcol.git
    GIT_TAG        main
)

FetchContent_MakeAvailable(zcol)

target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE zcol::zcol)

Option 2: Copy the header

Just drop zcol.hpp into your project and include it.

Usage

#include <zcol.hpp>
using namespace zcol::literals;

// One-shot colored print
zcol::println(zcol::Color::Red, "error message");

// RAII scope color guard
{
    zcol::ScopedColor guard(zcol::Color::Blue);
    // terminal is blue within this scope
}

// Log with source location (file:line)
zcol::log("starting process...", zcol::Color::Cyan);

// Deferred log via UDL
auto log = "warning"_log;
log.display();

// UDL shorthand for colored println (yellow)
"hello"_col;

// Low-level
zcol::set_color(zcol::Color::Green);

API

Function / Class	Description
ansi(Color)	Get raw ANSI escape code string
set_color(Color)	Immediately set terminal color
println(Color, string_view)	One-shot colored println
ScopedColor(Color, restore = Reset)	RAII: set color, auto-restore on scope exit
log(message, color, source_location)	One-shot log with file:line prefix
BasicLogger<true/false>	Template with compile-time toggle
Logger	Alias for BasicLogger<log_enabled>
""_log	UDL returning a Logger
""_col	UDL for yellow println shortcut

Compile-time disable

Define ZCOL_LOG_ENABLED=0 before including the header to eliminate all logging code at compile time.

#define ZCOL_LOG_ENABLED 0
#include <col_zzj.hpp>
// Logger = BasicLogger<false>, zero overhead