---
id: inform
version: "1.37"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# inform — print & logging utilities for communicating with user

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 84.9K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Inform is a print and logging utility that replaces basic print statements with specialized functions that produce formatted, consistent output for user communication. It provides informants—functions like display, warn, error, debug, and others—that work like Python's built-in print but add headers, colors, and logging integration. The package also includes an Inform class for configuration (setting log files, program names, verbosity levels) and an Error exception class that preserves all arguments for later inspection and reporting.

The package includes utility functions for text manipulation (dedent, indent, conjoin, did_you_mean, plural, title_case, format_range) and message assembly (fmt, render, join). It supports custom informants via InformantFactory, allowing you to create conditional output based on verbosity or other criteria. The design keeps error handling and user communication consistent across an application, with the ability to track error counts and control output behavior through a single configuration point.

Use it for:

- Build CLI tools that display warnings and errors with consistent formatting and color coding without manual ANSI escape sequences.
- Centralize application logging and error reporting so all messages go through a single configurable output system.
- Create custom informants for verbosity-controlled debug output that can be toggled on or off at runtime.
- Catch and report exceptions with preserved arguments so error handlers can access the original data for recovery or detailed logging.
- Format and present complex data structures (lists, dicts, sets) to users in readable, Python-interpretable form.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Inform provides specialized print functions for displaying formatted messages to users, with built-in support for logging, colored output (warnings in yellow, errors in red), and custom exception handling.

Yes. Inform is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries no known vulnerabilities, and solves a real problem—replacing ad-hoc print statements with a unified, configurable logging and output system. It's particularly useful for CLI applications and scripts where consistent error presentation and logging matter. The permissive MIT license removes any legal friction.

## Install

pip install inform
uv add inform
poetry add inform

## Installing inform

Before you install: Low install friction with only two runtime dependencies (arrow and six). The package is actively maintained with a recent release on 2026-06-28, and the repository shows ongoing activity.

License in practice: Licensed under MIT (permissive), which allows free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install inform

from inform import display, warn, error

display('Display is like print')
warn('warnings get a header that is printed in yellow.')
error('errors get a header that is printed in red.')

Requires Python 3.6 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the colored output (yellow warnings, red errors) works consistently across different terminal emulators and operating systems beyond POSIX Linux.
- Performance characteristics when logging high-volume messages or with large file outputs.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 84.9K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

colored console output, print logging utilities, formatted error messages, user-friendly logging, terminal message formatting, application logging, exception reporting, cli-output, logging

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/inform) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/inform/)