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Bright fg colors (SGR 90-97)

Category: sgr · Baseline: modern · Tags: Xterm Extensions · Specification ↗

ESC [ 90–97 m
SGR 90-97 set the foreground to one of 8 bright (high-intensity) colors, corresponding to the standard colors at higher intensity. Originally an xterm extension, now universally supported. These provide 8 additional named colors beyond SGR 30-37 without requiring 256-color or truecolor support.
How this is testedautomated
Send \x1b[91mX (bright red), verify the foreground red channel > 150.

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 Modern TUI baseline. Notes: vt100.js: Not in VT100/VT220 — only 8 standard colors supported.

Supported by 12 of 14 backends (86%)

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
vterm0.2.0✓ yes
xterm.js5.5.0✓ yes
WezTerm0.1.0-fork.5~ partialBackend returns palette index instead of resolved RGB
vt100.js0.2.1✗ noNot in VT100/VT220 — only 8 standard colors supported