pastel
Bring colors to your terminal.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need simple terminal coloring in a stable, mature project. Pastel is lightweight, has no dependencies, and works reliably for basic use cases. However, do not use it for new projects or active development—it is unmaintained since 2020 and will not receive updates. Consider alternatives that are actively maintained if you need ongoing support or compatibility with future Python versions.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Low install friction with no runtime dependencies.
- However, the package is abandoned—last release was 2020-09-16 and no commits since then.
- It remains functional for current Python versions but will not receive updates or security patches.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute pastel freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
last release 2020-09-16 (2158 days) · last repo commit 2020-09-16 · 54 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 7,539,811 downloads/mo, #1,724 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install pastel
import pastel
print(pastel.colorize('<fg=red;options=bold>This is bold red</>'))- Whether the package works reliably on modern Python versions (3.10+) despite being unmaintained since 2020
- Whether predefined styles (info, comment, question, error) remain the only bundled options or if custom style registration is fully documented
What it is and what it does
Pastel is a lightweight library for adding ANSI color formatting to terminal output. It provides a simple API to colorize strings using predefined styles (green for info, yellow for comment, black-on-cyan for question, white-on-red for error) or custom style definitions. The library automatically detects whether the output is a TTY and disables colors when appropriate, and allows manual color disabling via a configuration call.
The package has no runtime dependencies and installs easily. It is used internally by cleo and similar terminal UI libraries. However, it has been abandoned since September 2020 with no recent maintenance, meaning it will not receive updates for newer Python versions or address any issues that may arise.
Use it for
- Add colored output to CLI tools and scripts for better readability and user feedback
- Highlight error, warning, and info messages in terminal applications with predefined semantic styles
- Build terminal-based interfaces that gracefully degrade to plain text when output is not a TTY
- Integrate colored logging or status messages into existing command-line tools
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need simple terminal coloring in a stable, mature project.
Pastel is lightweight, has no dependencies, and works reliably for basic use cases. However, do not use it for new projects or active development—it is unmaintained since 2020 and will not receive updates. Consider alternatives that are actively maintained if you need ongoing support or compatibility with future Python versions.
Install
pastel on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. However, the package is abandoned—last release was 2020-09-16 and no commits since then. It remains functional for current Python versions but will not receive updates or security patches.
License in practice
MIT license is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute pastel freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
Quickstart
pip install pastel
import pastel
print(pastel.colorize('<fg=red;options=bold>This is bold red</>'))Verify before relying
- Whether the package works reliably on modern Python versions (3.10+) despite being unmaintained since 2020
- Whether predefined styles (info, comment, question, error) remain the only bundled options or if custom style registration is fully documented
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=2.7, !=3.0.*, !=3.1.*, !=3.2.*, !=3.3.* |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Abandoned 2,158 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 7,539,811 / month, #1,724 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 2Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.4Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: pastel-0.2.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “colorize text in terminal”
- pastelPastel adds colored text output to terminal applications using…
- tcolorpyApplies ANSI true color and text styles (bold, italic, underline,…
- coloredColored provides ANSI/VT100 escape sequences for terminal text…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
More Terminals packages
Wraps any iterable to display a real-time progress bar in the terminal or Jupyter notebook, showing iteration count, elapsed time, and estimated time remaining.
Rich renders styled text, tables, progress bars, syntax highlighting, markdown, and tracebacks to the terminal with minimal code.
Colorama makes ANSI escape sequences for colored terminal text work on Windows by intercepting and converting them to win32 API calls, while passing through unchanged on other platforms.
Install it if you need colored terminal output to work on Windows or want to use ANSI-based libraries portably; skip it only if you target non-Windows platforms…
Measures the displayed width of Unicode strings in terminals, accounting for wide characters, combining marks, and terminal escape sequences that standard Python string functions mishandle.
Install it if your application formats text for terminals and handles non-ASCII characters.
Run a subprocess in a pseudo terminal (pty) and interact with its input and output, enabling automation of interactive programs that require terminal features like password prompts or curses-style interfaces.
However, note that it is aging (last release 2020-12-28) and not actively maintained; it works well for its narrow, well-defined purpose but won't receive updates for…
Pexpect spawns and controls interactive console applications by sending input and matching output patterns, automating tasks that would otherwise require manual interaction.
See also simple-colors · sty · terminaltexteffects · clint · curtsies · ascii-colors · crayons · inform · autopage · ansimarkup