Introduction
Color attributes for terminal emulation types is always somewhat foggy on how they could/should work. This is in part true because many terminal types do not support color (the old green or amber characters on a black background were about your only options). However, still other terminal types, such as SCO ANSI, dictate exact colors and specify what text is in what color. Under a Windows GUI environment, where there are lots of colors and color shades, not all colored text will look good, nor will it appeal to each individuals preferences.
Within AnzioWin and Anzio Lite, we have tried to accommodate each terminal type, color and attribute, and yet remain simple for the user. Colors in Anzio are based on two different controls. The first is a color translation table with multiple color palettes for translating specific attributes to color combinations. The second is the handling of host requests for the terminal type to use specific colors.
The Color tables in Anzio
Found under the view menu, you can set default colors for the current session of AnzioWin or Anzio Lite. The standard colors may be predetermined by your terminal type if you are using a terminal type that dictates colors. If you are using a monochrome terminal type, we have set the colors to be the easiest on the eyes in a normal Windows setup.
Colors are determined by the screen text attribute (control sequence) sent from the host to the terminal emulator, or by the host explicitly setting colors (in the case of an emulation that supports color).
By clicking on the colored 'X' in front of an attribute, you can get the following screens whereby you can "map" different colors combinations to a specific attribute:
Even if your host terminal emulation actually does support color, you can still do some color substitutions. Click on the "Change color map" button and you will see the following color map.
To remap a color, simply click on the colored box and pick from the Windows color chooser:
Host Color Settings
Along with cursor positioning and screen attribute control and escape sequences, many terminal emulations can support color directly, sending control or escape sequences to set a color. So changing colors inside Anzio, may or may not have an overall affect as anticipated.
You need to know if your terminal emulation setting supports color, if your host login sets any colors and then if your host application you are running sets any color attributes explicitly. To learn this, you may need to contact your application vendor.
An example of this is SCO ANSI which does support colors and will tell Anzio (from the host end) what text should be in what color when logging in. An application that supports SCO ANSI, may also manipulate color settings. If this is all taking place, no matter what you do to the color table, you may see no effects on the live screen.
Additional information on color and color changes can be found in the AnzioWin manual.