Important Notice
The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software,
purely for historical purposes.
If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming,
you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully
out of date.
ANSI.SYS
◄Notes► ◄Example►
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ANSI.SYS
Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and
reassign keys. The ANSI.SYS device driver supports ANSI terminal emulation
of escape sequences to control your system's screen and keyboard. An ANSI
escape sequence is a sequence of ASCII characters, the first two of which
are the escape character (1Bh) and the left-bracket character (5Bh). The
character or characters following the escape and left-bracket characters
specify an alphanumeric code that controls a keyboard or display function.
ANSI escape sequences distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters;
for example,"A" and "a" have completely different meanings.
This device driver must be loaded by a <DEVICE> or <DEVICEHIGH> command in
your CONFIG.SYS file.
Note: In this topic bold letters in syntax and ANSI escape sequences
indicate text you must type exactly as it appears.
Syntax
DEVICE=[drive:][path]ANSI.SYS [/X] [/K] [/R]
Parameter
[drive:][path]
Specifies the location of the ANSI.SYS file.
Switches
/X
Remaps extended keys independently on 101-key keyboards.
/K
Causes ANSI.SYS to treat a 101-key keyboard like an 84-key
keyboard. This is equivalent to the command SWITCHES=/K.
If you usually use the SWITCHES=/K command, you will need
to use the /K switch with ANSI.SYS.
/R
Adjusts line scrolling to improve readability when ANSI.SYS
is used with screen-reading programs (which make computers
more accessible to people with disabilities).
Parameters used in ANSI escape sequences
Pn
Numeric parameter. Specifies a decimal number.
Ps
Selective parameter. Specifies a decimal number that you use to select
a function. You can specify more than one function by separating the
parameters with semicolons.
PL
Line parameter. Specifies a decimal number that represents one of the
lines on your display or on another device.
Pc
Column parameter. Specifies a decimal number that represents one of the
columns on your screen or on another device.
ANSI escape sequences for cursor movement, graphics, and keyboard settings
In the following list of ANSI escape sequences, the abbreviation ESC
represents the ASCII escape character 27 (1Bh), which appears at the
beginning of each escape sequence.
ESC[PL;PcH
Cursor Position: Moves the cursor to the specified position
(coordinates). If you do not specify a position, the cursor moves to the
home position──the upper-left corner of the screen (line 0, column
0). This escape sequence works the same way as the following Cursor
Position escape sequence.
ESC[PL;Pcf
Cursor Position: Works the same way as the preceding Cursor Position
escape sequence.
ESC[PnA
Cursor Up: Moves the cursor up by the specified number of lines without
changing columns. If the cursor is already on the top line, ANSI.SYS
ignores this sequence.
ESC[PnB
Cursor Down: Moves the cursor down by the specified number of lines
without changing columns. If the cursor is already on the bottom line,
ANSI.SYS ignores this sequence.
ESC[PnC
Cursor Forward: Moves the cursor forward by the specified number of
columns without changing lines. If the cursor is already in the
rightmost column, ANSI.SYS ignores this sequence.
ESC[PnD
Cursor Backward: Moves the cursor back by the specified number of
columns without changing lines. If the cursor is already in the leftmost
column, ANSI.SYS ignores this sequence.
ESC[s
Save Cursor Position: Saves the current cursor position. You can move
the cursor to the saved cursor position by using the Restore Cursor
Position sequence.
ESC[u
Restore Cursor Position: Returns the cursor to the position stored
by the Save Cursor Position sequence.
ESC[2J
Erase Display: Clears the screen and moves the cursor to the home
position (line 0, column 0).
ESC[K
Erase Line: Clears all characters from the cursor position to the
end of the line (including the character at the cursor position).
ESC[Ps;...;Psm
Set Graphics Mode: Calls the graphics functions specified by the
following values. These specified functions remain active until the next
occurrence of this escape sequence. Graphics mode changes the colors and
attributes of text (such as bold and underline) displayed on the
screen.
Text attributes
0 All attributes off
1 Bold on
4 Underscore (on monochrome display adapter only)
5 Blink on
7 Reverse video on
8 Concealed on
Foreground colors
30 Black
31 Red
32 Green
33 Yellow
34 Blue
35 Magenta
36 Cyan
37 White
Background colors
40 Black
41 Red
42 Green
43 Yellow
44 Blue
45 Magenta
46 Cyan
47 White
Parameters 30 through 47 meet the ISO 6429 standard.
ESC[=psh
Set Mode: Changes the screen width or type to the mode specified
by one of the following values:
0 40 x 148 x 25 monochrome (text)
1 40 x 148 x 25 color (text)
2 80 x 148 x 25 monochrome (text)
3 80 x 148 x 25 color (text)
4 320 x 148 x 200 4-color (graphics)
5 320 x 148 x 200 monochrome (graphics)
6 640 x 148 x 200 monochrome (graphics)
7 Enables line wrapping
13 320 x 148 x 200 color (graphics)
14 640 x 148 x 200 color (16-color graphics)
15 640 x 148 x 350 monochrome (2-color graphics)
16 640 x 148 x 350 color (16-color graphics)
17 640 x 148 x 480 monochrome (2-color graphics)
18 640 x 148 x 480 color (16-color graphics)
19 320 x 148 x 200 color (256-color graphics)
ESC[=Psl
Reset Mode: Resets the mode by using the same values that Set Mode
uses, except for 7, which disables line wrapping. The last character
in this escape sequence is a lowercase L.
ESC[code;string;...p
Set Keyboard Strings: Redefines a keyboard key to a specified string.
The parameters for this escape sequence are defined as follows:
♦ Code is one or more of the values listed in the following table.
These values represent keyboard keys and key combinations. When using
these values in a command, you must type the semicolons shown in this
table in addition to the semicolons required by the escape sequence.
The codes in parentheses are not available on some keyboards.
ANSI.SYS will not interpret the codes in parentheses for those
keyboards unless you specify the /X switch in the DEVICE command for
ANSI.SYS.
♦ String is either the ASCII code for a single character or a string
contained in quotation marks. For example, both 65 and "A" can be
used to represent an uppercase A.
IMPORTANT: Some of the values in the following table are not valid for all
computers. Check your computer's documentation for values that
are different.
Key Code SHIFT+code CTRL+code ALT+code
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
F1 0;59 0;84 0;94 0;104
F2 0;60 0;85 0;95 0;105
F3 0;61 0;86 0;96 0;106
F4 0;62 0;87 0;97 0;107
F5 0;63 0;88 0;98 0;108
F6 0;64 0;89 0;99 0;109
F7 0;65 0;90 0;100 0;110
F8 0;66 0;91 0;101 0;111
F9 0;67 0;92 0;102 0;112
F10 0;68 0;93 0;103 0;113
F11 0;133 0;135 0;137 0;139
F12 0;134 0;136 0;138 0;140
HOME (num keypad) 0;71 55 0;119 ──
UP ARROW (num keypad) 0;72 56 (0;141) ──
PAGE UP (num keypad) 0;73 57 0;132 ──
LEFT ARROW (num keypad) 0;75 52 0;115 ──
RIGHT ARROW (num 0;77 54 0;116 ──
keypad)
END (num keypad) 0;79 49 0;117 ──
DOWN ARROW (num keypad) 0;80 50 (0;145) ──
PAGE DOWN (num keypad) 0;81 51 0;118 ──
INSERT (num keypad) 0;82 48 (0;146) ──
DELETE (num keypad) 0;83 46 (0;147) ──
HOME (224;71) (224;71) (224;119) (224;151)
UP ARROW (224;72) (224;72) (224;141) (224;152)
PAGE UP (224;73) (224;73) (224;132) (224;153)
LEFT ARROW (224;75) (224;75) (224;115) (224;155)
RIGHT ARROW (224;77) (224;77) (224;116) (224;157)
END (224;79) (224;79) (224;117) (224;159)
DOWN ARROW (224;80) (224;80) (224;145) (224;154)
PAGE DOWN (224;81) (224;81) (224;118) (224;161)
INSERT (224;82) (224;82) (224;146) (224;162)
DELETE (224;83) (224;83) (224;147) (224;163)
PRINT SCREEN ── ── 0;114 ──
PAUSE/BREAK ── ── 0;0 ──
BACKSPACE 8 8 127 (0)
ENTER 13 ── 10 (0
TAB 9 0;15 (0;148) (0;165)
NULL 0;3 ── ── ──
A 97 65 1 0;30
B 98 66 2 0;48
C 99 66 3 0;46
D 100 68 4 0;32
E 101 69 5 0;18
F 102 70 6 0;33
G 103 71 7 0;34
H 104 72 8 0;35
I 105 73 9 0;23
J 106 74 10 0;36
K 107 75 11 0;37
L 108 76 12 0;38
M 109 77 13 0;50
N 110 78 14 0;49
O 111 79 15 0;24
P 112 80 16 0;25
Q 113 81 17 0;16
R 114 82 18 0;19
S 115 83 19 0;31
T 116 84 20 0;20
U 117 85 21 0;22
V 118 86 22 0;47
W 119 87 23 0;17
X 120 88 24 0;45
Y 121 89 25 0;21
Z 122 90 26 0;44
1 49 33 ── 0;120
2 50 64 0 0;121
3 51 35 ── 0;122
4 52 36 ── 0;123
5 53 37 ── 0;124
6 54 94 30 0;125
7 55 38 ── 0;126
8 56 42 ── 0;126
9 57 40 ── 0;127
0 48 41 ── 0;129
- 45 95 31 0;130
= 61 43 ──- 0;131
[ 91 123 27 0;26
] 93 125 29 0;27
92 124 28 0;43
; 59 58 ── 0;39
' 39 34 ── 0;40
, 44 60 ── 0;51
. 46 62 ── 0;52
/ 47 63 ── 0;53
` 96 126 ── (0;41)
ENTER (keypad) 13 ── 10 (0;166)
/ (keypad) 47 47 (0;142) (0;74)
* (keypad) 42 (0;144) (0;78) ──
- (keypad) 45 45 (0;149) (0;164)
+ (keypad) 43 43 (0;150) (0;55)
5 (keypad) (0;76) 53 (0;143) ──
♦