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Inverse video (SGR 7)

Category: sgr · Baseline: core · Tags: ECMA-48 Standard, VT100 · Specification ↗

ESC [ 7 m
SGR 7 swaps the foreground and background colors of the text. The sequence is ESC [ 7 m. Universally supported. Commonly used for selection highlighting, cursor rendering, and visual emphasis in TUI applications. Reset with SGR 27.
How this is testedautomated
Send \x1b[7mX, verify inverse=true on the cell.

The same probe runs against headless backends (via Termless) and real terminal apps (via a daemon launched in each terminal). This lets us distinguish parser correctness from rendering correctness.

Analysis2026-04-06

Supported by all 12 tested terminals — universal adoption. Part of the Core TUI baseline.

Supported by 14 of 14 backends (100%)

Terminal Applications

TerminalVersionSupportNotes
iTerm23.6.9✓ yes
Ghostty1.3.1✓ yes
VS Code✓ yes
Warp✓ yes
Cursor✓ yes
Terminal.app✓ yes

Headless Backends

Parser correctness only — a means the parser accepts the sequence.

BackendVersionSupportNotes
Alacritty0.26.0✓ yes
Kitty0.40.0✓ yes
vt100.js0.2.1✓ yes
vterm0.2.0✓ yes
WezTerm0.1.0-fork.5✓ yes
xterm.js5.5.0✓ yes