Python Rich

Skill: Python Rich

What I do

Create rich, formatted terminal output with Python Rich library - including colored text, tables, progress bars, syntax highlighting, and beautiful console applications.

When to use me

When enhancing terminal output with colors, tables, progress bars, Markdown rendering, or building rich CLI applications without a full TUI framework.

Installation

pip install rich

Basic Usage

Simple Colored Output

from rich import print as rprint
from rich.console import Console
from rich.theme import Theme

console = Console()

# Simple colored text
rprint("[red]This is red[/red]")
rprint("[bold blue]Bold blue[/bold blue]")
rprint("[yellow on black]Yellow on black[/yellow on black]")

# Combinations
rprint("[bold][italic][underline]All styles[/underline][/italic][/bold]")

Console Object

from rich.console import Console

console = Console()

# Print with styling
console.print("Hello, World!", style="bold green")

# Different output streams
console_err = Console(stderr=True)  # For warnings/errors
console_err.print("[red]Error![/red]", stderr=True)

# Width control
console = Console(width=80)
console = Console(force_terminal=True)

Color Reference

Named Colors

black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white
bright_black (gray), bright_red, bright_green, bright_yellow
bright_blue, bright_magenta, bright_cyan, bright_white

RGB & Hex Colors

from rich.color import Color

# RGB
console.print("[color(255,128,0)]Orange text[/color]")

# Hex
console.print("[#FF8800]Orange text[/#FF8800]")

# With Color class
color = Color.from_rgb(255, 128, 0)
console.print(f"[{color}]Orange text[/{color}]")

Text Styles

Combinations

console.print("[bold red]Bold Red[/bold red]")
console.print("[bold italic underline]All combined[/bold italic underline]")

Tables

Basic Table

from rich.console import Console
from rich.table import Table

console = Console()

table = Table(title="Users")
table.add_column("Name", style="cyan", no_wrap=True)
table.add_column("Email", style="magenta")
table.add_column("Role", style="green")

table.add_row("Alice", "alice@example.com", "Admin")
table.add_row("Bob", "bob@example.com", "User")
table.add_row("Charlie", "charlie@example.com", "User")

console.print(table)

Advanced Table

from rich.table import Table

table = Table(
    title="Sales Report",
    show_header=True,
    header_style="bold magenta",
    border_style="bright_blue",
    row_styles=["", "dim"]
)

table.add_column("Product", justify="left")
table.add_column("Q1", justify="right")
table.add_column("Q2", justify="right")
table.add_column("Total", justify="right", style="bold green")

table.add_row("Widget A", "$10,000", "$12,000", "$22,000")
table.add_row("Widget B", "$8,000", "$9,500", "$17,500")
table.add_row("Widget C", "$15,000", "$14,000", "$29,000")

console.print(table)

Progress Bars

Simple Progress

from rich.progress import Progress

with Progress() as progress:
    task = progress.add_task("[cyan]Processing...", total=100)
    for i in range(100):
        progress.advance(task)
        # Do work...

Multiple Tracks

from rich.progress import Progress, SpinnerColumn, TextColumn, BarColumn

with Progress(
    SpinnerColumn(),
    TextColumn("[progress.description]{task.description}"),
    BarColumn(),
    TextColumn("[progress.percentage]{task.percentage:>3.0f}%"),
    console=console
) as progress:
    
    task1 = progress.add_task("[red]Download", total=100)
    task2 = progress.add_task("[green]Process", total=100)
    
    for i in range(100):
        progress.advance(task1)
        if i % 2 == 0:
            progress.advance(task2)

File Download Simulation

from rich.progress import Progress, DownloadColumn, TransferSpeedColumn

with Progress(
    TextColumn("[bold blue]{task.description}"),
    BarColumn(),
    DownloadColumn(),
    TransferSpeedColumn(),
    console=console
) as progress:
    task = progress.add_task("Download", total=1000000)
    for chunk in download_chunks():
        progress.advance(task, len(chunk))

Syntax Highlighting

Code Highlighting

from rich.syntax import Syntax
from rich.console import Console

console = Console()

code = """
def fibonacci(n):
    if n <= 1:
        return n
    return fibonacci(n-1) + fibonacci(n-2)

result = fibonacci(10)
print(f"Result: {result}")
"""

syntax = Syntax(code, "python", theme="monokai", line_numbers=True)
console.print(syntax)

Themes

monokai, github-dark, dracula, nord, one-dark, vim, etc.

Panels & Boxes

Panels

from rich.panel import Panel
from rich.text import Text

console = Console()

text = Text("Welcome to my application!", style="bold green")
panel = Panel(text, title="Info", border_style="blue")
console.print(panel)

# Without title
console.print(Panel("Simple panel", style="red"))

Boxes

from rich.box import Box, DOUBLE, ROUNDED

console.print(
    "Content in rounded box",
    box=ROUNDED,
    border_style="cyan"
)

Tree View

from rich.tree import Tree
from rich.console import Console

console = Console()

tree = Tree("📁 Project", guide_style="bold blue")

src = tree.add("📂 src", style="cyan")
src.add("📄 main.py")
src.add("📂 utils", style="green")
src.add("📄 helpers.py")

tests = tree.add("📂 tests", style="yellow")
tests.add("📄 test_main.py")

console.print(tree)

Markdown Rendering

from rich.console import Console
from rich.markdown import Markdown

console = Console()

md = """
# Heading 1
## Heading 2

This is **bold** and this is *italic*.

- List item 1
- List item 2

```python
print("code block")

"""

console.print(Markdown(md))

## Logging

```python
from rich.logging import RichHandler
import logging

logging.basicConfig(
    level=logging.DEBUG,
    format="%(message)s",
    handlers=[RichHandler(rich_tracebacks=True)]
)

log = logging.getLogger("myapp")
log.debug("Debug message")
log.info("Info message")
log.warning("Warning message")
log.error("Error message")

Live Display

Dynamic Updates

from rich.live import Live
from rich.table import Table

with Live(build_table(), refresh_per_second=4) as live:
    for _ in range(10):
        # Update table
        live.update(build_table())

Status Spinner

from rich.console import Console
from rich.progress import Progress, SpinnerColumn

console = Console()

with console.status("[bold green]Working on something..."):
    time.sleep(2)
    console.print("[green]Done!")

Pretty Printing

Dict/Object Pretty Print

from rich.pretty import pprint
from rich.console import Console

console = Console()

data = {
    "name": "Alice",
    "age": 30,
    "skills": ["Python", "JavaScript"],
    "active": True
}

pprint(data, console=console, expand_all=True)

Bar Charts

from rich.console import Console
from rich.bar import Bar

console = Console()

console.print(Bar(50, width=30, color="cyan"))

Column Layout

from rich.console import Console
from rich.columns import Columns

console = Console()

columns = Columns([
    "[bold]Name[/bold]\nAlice\nBob\nCharlie",
    "[bold]Role[/bold]\nAdmin\nUser\nUser"
], equal=True, expand=True)

console.print(columns)

Best Practices

1. Use Console object for consistent styling
2. Close tags properly [/red] or use context manager
3. Test terminal compatibility - not all terminals support all styles
4. Respect user preferences - check Console.options.no_color
5. Width matters - use console.width for responsive layouts
6. Combine with Click/Typer for complete CLI applications