Features›SGR (Text Styling)›Hidden/invisible (SGR 8)

Hidden/invisible (SGR 8)

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

ESC [ 8 m

SGR 8 renders text invisible by setting the foreground color to match the background. The sequence is ESC [ 8 m. The text is still present and selectable — it is hidden visually but not removed from the terminal buffer. Reset with SGR 28.

How this is testedautomated
Send \x1b[8mX, verify hidden=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 11 of 12 terminals (92%). Not supported by: vt100.js. Part of the Core TUI baseline. Notes: vt100.js: SGR 8 (hidden/invisible) not implemented in vt100.js baseline emulator.

Supported by 9 of 14 backends (64%)

Terminal Applications

Terminal	Version	Support	Notes
iTerm2	3.6.9	✓ yes
Ghostty	1.3.1	✓ yes
VS Code		✓ yes
Warp		✓ yes
Cursor		✓ yes
Terminal.app		✓ yes

Headless Backends

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

Backend	Version	Support	Notes
vterm	0.2.0	✓ yes
Alacritty	0.26.0	~ partial	Not exposed via alacritty_terminal API
Kitty	0.40.0	~ partial	Not exposed via Python batch bridge
WezTerm	0.1.0-fork.5	~ partial	Not exposed via wezterm-term API
xterm.js	5.5.0	~ partial	Parser handles SGR 8 but headless mode doesn't expose hidden attribute
vt100.js	0.2.1	✗ no	SGR 8 (hidden/invisible) not implemented in vt100.js baseline emulator

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