Sick Console Bro! How To Style Your console.log with CSS

#javascript #css

Originally Posted On Harner Designs | Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

In Chrome and Firefox (>31) you can add CSS styles to your console.log() messages. It's fairly simple and straightforward.

All you need to do is include a %c string before your log message and then pass your CSS as a parameter to the console.log( ) function. Like so:

console.log("%c{{Log Message}}", "{{CSS}}");

For example, this code runs on my portfolio:

console.log("%cHarner Designs", "color:#233E82; font-family:'Ubuntu'; display: block;font-weight:bold; font-size:48px; background:#fff;");
    console.log("%cLike to dig into the meaty bits of the website?\nThanks for looking! Hit us up on Twitter @harnerdesigns!", "color:#222; font-family:'Ubuntu'; font-weight:100; font-size:24px; background:#fff;");
    console.log("%cDid you know you can style your console output?!", "color:#333; font-family:'Ubuntu'; font-weight:100; font-size:18px; background:#fff;");
    console.log("%cCheck our blog to learn how: https://harnerdesigns.com/blog/style-your-console-log-with-css/", "line-height: 3em; padding: 0.5em; text-align: center; border: 1px dotted #aaa; background:#fff; font-size: 14px;");

and outputs like this to the console:

Styling Multiple Strings In One Log

It's also possible to include multiple strings in one command and style them differently. Check it out:

console.log("%cString1" + "%cString2", "{{CSS for String1}}", "{{CSS for String2}}");

Reusing Styles Across Log Messages

You can also store the CSS You want to apply to a variable and then pass that to multiple console.logs:

var consoleStyle = "{{Reusable CSS}}";
console.log("%cString1", consoleStyle);
console.log("%cString2", consoleStyle);

Conclusion

Do you leave any little easter eggs in your console? Could you see a use case for this in your own projects? I'd love to know down in the comments! Show me some examples of cool things you've found in console messages.

Recent Blog Posts

Top comments (9)

David Dal Busco • Jun 18 '19

Not sure anyone still use IE <= v9 but if so, it would need the workaround described by Andy E on stackoverflow.com/questions/547293... in order to print to the console