Simple method of coloured text?

I'm writing a console application in DevC++ 4, I want to do coloured text.
I've searched the forum, but it's pretty much just left me more confused.
I don't want to use conio because it's non-standard, and I'd rather not use windows.h because I don't understand it.
Is there another way?
If not, could someone explain the windows.h method?

Well, I hate to break it to you, but those are the two easiest ways of doing the colors. windows method is fairly easy:

SetConsoleTextAttribute(HANDLE handle, WORD color);

Parameter 1: HANDLE handle -
This is a HANDLE to the window's output buffer (that does sound confusing, doesn't it?). To make this simple, make a global variable like so:

Code:

---

HANDLE stdOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

---

Now you've got the handle to the output so you can manipulate the text.

Parameter 2:
This parameter is the foreground/background color of the text. The colors are as follows:

Code:

---

FOREGROUND_RED // A dark red for the text
FOREGROUND_GREEN // A dark green
FOREGROUND_BLUE // A dark blue
FOREGROUND_INTENSITY // Makes the text colors brighter (so dark red would become red)
BACKGROUND_RED // A dark red for the text background
BACKGROUND_GREEN
BACKGROUND_BLUE
BACKGROUND_INTENSITY // Brightens the text background color

---

Those are very basic colors. You can combine them to make more. Like, if you wanted yellow text on a blue background, here would be the code:

Code:

---

SetConsoleTextAttribute(stdOut, FOREGROUND_RED | FOREGROUND_GREEN | FOREGROUND_INTENSITY | BACKGROUND_BLUE | BACKGROUND_INTENSITY);

---

Finally, here's my last example:

Code:

---

#include <iostream.h>
#include <windows.h>

// The HANDLE
HANDLE stdOut = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);

int main()
{
    // Make red text
    SetConsoleTextAttribute(stdOut, FOREGROUND_RED | FOREGROUND_INTENSITY);
    cout << "Red text!\n";
    return 0;
}

---

I hope that helps a little. Just ask if you need clarification.

Brendan

Thanks!
I pretty much understand that now, you've been a big help.
I'll play with it a bit then come back if I need more help.
Also, does windows.h work on other platforms?

I'm not sure...I don't think it will work for Linux, but it might work for a pure MS-DOS Operating System...

Hehe, all this OS talk makes me look smart!