here's a C program which does exactly that. I'm sure you could adapt it to be perlish.

#define RESET        0
#define BRIGHT         1
#define DIM        2
#define UNDERLINE     3
#define BLINK        4
#define REVERSE        7
#define HIDDEN        8

#define BLACK         0
#define RED        1
#define GREEN        2
#define YELLOW        3
#define BLUE        4
#define MAGENTA        5
#define CYAN        6
#define    WHITE        7

void textcolor(int attr, int fg, int bg);
int main()
{    textcolor(RESET, RED, BLACK);    
    printf("In color");
    textcolor(RESET, WHITE, BLACK);    
    return 0;
}

void textcolor(int attr, int fg, int bg)
{    char command[13];

    /* Command is the control command to the terminal */
    sprintf(command, "%c[%d;%d;%dm", 0x1B, attr, fg + 30, bg + 40);
    printf("%s", command);
}

[download]

In reply to Re: using colors with print() by gri6507
in thread using colors with print() by drwxrwxrwx

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.