Spectre.Console Documentation

The Markup widget renders text with colors and decorations using an inline tag syntax like [bold red]text[/].

When to Use

Use Markup when you want inline styling with readable syntax. Common scenarios:

Status messages: Quick colored output like [green]Success[/] or [red]Error[/]
Formatted output: Mix styles naturally within text
Static styling: When styles are known at compile time

For programmatic control over styling or when styles are determined at runtime, use Text instead.

Basic Usage

Use AnsiConsole.MarkupLine() for quick styled output.

public static void BasicMarkupExample()
{
    // Simple colored text
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[green]Success![/]");
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[red]Error occurred[/]");
  
    // Multiple colors in one line
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[blue]Info:[/] Processing [yellow]3[/] items...");
  
    // Text decorations
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[bold]Bold text[/]");
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[italic]Italic text[/]");
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[underline]Underlined text[/]");
  
    // Combined styles
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[bold red]Critical error[/]");
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[bold green on black]Highlighted success[/]");
}

Creating Markup Objects

Create Markup objects when you need to embed styled text in containers like panels, tables, or layouts.

public static void MarkupObjectExample()
{
    // Create a Markup object
    var message = new Markup("[bold blue]Important Notice[/]");
    AnsiConsole.Write(message);
    AnsiConsole.WriteLine();
  
    // Markup with multi-line content
    var multiLine = new Markup(
        "[yellow]Warning:[/] Multiple issues detected.\n" +
        "[dim]See log for details.[/]"
    );
    AnsiConsole.Write(multiLine);
}

Escaping Content

Use Markup.Escape() when working with user-provided or dynamic content that might contain bracket characters. Without escaping, brackets are interpreted as markup tags.

public static void MarkupEscapeExample()
{
    // User input that contains brackets
    var userInput = "Use [brackets] for arrays";
    var escaped = Markup.Escape(userInput);
  
    // Safe to use in markup string
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine($"[blue]User said:[/] {escaped}");
  
    // Without escaping, brackets would be interpreted as markup tags
    var fileName = "config[backup].json";
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine($"[green]Processing:[/] {Markup.Escape(fileName)}");
}

Working with Containers

Markup objects work well as content inside panels, tables, and other container widgets.

public static void MarkupInContainersExample()
{
    // Markup in a Panel
    var panel = new Panel(new Markup("[bold]Welcome![/]\n\nThis panel contains [green]styled[/] text."))
        .Header("Message")
        .BorderColor(Color.Blue);
  
    AnsiConsole.Write(panel);
    AnsiConsole.WriteLine();
  
    // Markup in a Table
    var table = new Table()
        .AddColumn("Status")
        .AddColumn("Message");
  
    table.AddRow(
        new Markup("[green]OK[/]"),
        new Markup("All systems operational")
    );
    table.AddRow(
        new Markup("[yellow]WARN[/]"),
        new Markup("High memory usage detected")
    );
    table.AddRow(
        new Markup("[red]ERROR[/]"),
        new Markup("[bold]Connection failed[/]")
    );
  
    AnsiConsole.Write(table);
}

Removing Markup

Use Markup.Remove() to strip all markup tags from a string, leaving only plain text.

public static void MarkupRemoveExample()
{
    var styled = "[bold red]Error:[/] File [underline]not found[/]";
  
    // Remove all markup tags to get plain text
    var plain = Markup.Remove(styled);
  
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[dim]Original:[/]");
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine(styled);
    AnsiConsole.WriteLine();
    AnsiConsole.MarkupLine("[dim]Without markup:[/]");
    AnsiConsole.WriteLine(plain);
}

API Reference

A renderable piece of markup text.

Constructors

Markup(string text, Style style)

Initializes a new instance of the class.

Parameters:

text (string)

The markup text.

style (Style)

The style of the text.

Properties

Justification : Nullable<Justify>

Length : int

Gets the character count.

Lines : int

Gets the number of lines.

Overflow : Nullable<Overflow>

Extension Methods

IEnumerable<Segment> GetSegments(IAnsiConsole console)

Gets the segments for a renderable using the specified console.

Parameters:

console (IAnsiConsole)

The console.

Returns:

An enumerable containing segments representing the specified .

Markup Widget