Originally Posted On Harner Designs | Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
In Chrome and Firefox (>31) you can add CSS styles to your console.log() messages. It's fairly simple and straightforward.
All you need to do is include a %c string before your log message and then pass your CSS as a parameter to the console.log( ) function. Like so:
console.log("%c{{Log Message}}", "{{CSS}}");
For example, this code runs on my portfolio:
console.log("%cHarner Designs", "color:#233E82; font-family:'Ubuntu'; display: block;font-weight:bold; font-size:48px; background:#fff;");
console.log("%cLike to dig into the meaty bits of the website?\nThanks for looking! Hit us up on Twitter @harnerdesigns!", "color:#222; font-family:'Ubuntu'; font-weight:100; font-size:24px; background:#fff;");
console.log("%cDid you know you can style your console output?!", "color:#333; font-family:'Ubuntu'; font-weight:100; font-size:18px; background:#fff;");
console.log("%cCheck our blog to learn how: https://harnerdesigns.com/blog/style-your-console-log-with-css/", "line-height: 3em; padding: 0.5em; text-align: center; border: 1px dotted #aaa; background:#fff; font-size: 14px;");
and outputs like this to the console:
Styling Multiple Strings In One Log
It's also possible to include multiple strings in one command and style them differently. Check it out:
console.log("%cString1" + "%cString2", "{{CSS for String1}}", "{{CSS for String2}}");
Reusing Styles Across Log Messages
You can also store the CSS You want to apply to a variable and then pass that to multiple console.logs:
var consoleStyle = "{{Reusable CSS}}";
console.log("%cString1", consoleStyle);
console.log("%cString2", consoleStyle);
Conclusion
Do you leave any little easter eggs in your console? Could you see a use case for this in your own projects? I'd love to know down in the comments! Show me some examples of cool things you've found in console messages.
Top comments (9)
Not sure anyone still use IE <= v9 but if so, it would need the workaround described by Andy E on stackoverflow.com/questions/547293... in order to print to the console
Oh and of course a screenshot of our upcoming open source editor for presentations ๐
"hmmm... sounds weirdly familiar"
Nice one I've seen this on a couple of sites but had never looked into how to do it
I don't think I've ever stumbled across a styled console like this in the wild yet. At least not that I can remember.
I see ASCII Art all the time though. I.e. from Facebook:
Dev.to does it as well!
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing
No problem!
Under-utilized feature of the browser for sure.
Future reading:
node.js: Console Colors 101
Mรณricz Gergล ใป Apr 5 '17 ใป 2 min read
Love it!