Writes log messages to the console with customizable coloring.

Supported in .NET and Mono ##Configuration Syntax

<targets>
  <target xsi:type="ColoredConsole"
          name="String"
          encoding="Encoding"
          layout="Layout"
          header="Layout"
          footer="Layout"
          useDefaultRowHighlightingRules="Boolean"
          errorStream="Boolean">
    <highlight-row backgroundColor="Enum" condition="Condition" foregroundColor="Enum"/><!-- repeated -->
    <highlight-word backgroundColor="Enum" foregroundColor="Enum" ignoreCase="Boolean"
                    regex="String" text="String" wholeWords="Boolean" compileRegex="Boolean"/><!-- repeated -->
  </target>
</targets>

Read more about using the [Configuration File](Configuration file). ##Parameters ###General Options name - Name of the target.

encoding - File encoding name like "utf-8", "ascii" or "utf-16". See Encoding class on MSDN. Defaults to Encoding.Default (UTF-8 on silverlight). Starting for NLog 4.0.

###Layout Options layout - Text to be rendered. Layout Required. Default: ${longdate}|${level:uppercase=true}|${logger}|${message}
header - Header. Layout
footer - Footer. Layout ###Highlighting Rules useDefaultRowHighlightingRules - Indicates whether to use default row highlighting rules. [Boolean](Data types) Default: True The default rules are:

condition - Condition that must be met in order to set the specified foreground and background color. Condition Required.

foregroundColor - Foreground color. Default: NoChange
Possible values:

• Black - Black Color (#000000).
• Blue - Blue Color (#0000FF).
• Cyan - Cyan Color (#00FFFF).
• DarkBlue - Dark blue Color (#000080).
• DarkCyan - Dark Cyan Color (#008080).
• DarkGray - Dark Gray Color (#808080).
• DarkGreen - Dark green Color (#008000).
• DarkMagenta - Dark Magenta Color (#800080).
• DarkRed - Dark Red Color (#800000).
• DarkYellow - Dark Yellow Color (#808000).
• Gray - Gray Color (#C0C0C0).
• Green - Green Color (#00FF00).
• Magenta - Magenta Color (#FF00FF).
• NoChange - Don't change the color.
• Red - Red Color (#FF0000).
• White - White Color (#FFFFFF).
• Yellow - Yellow Color (#FFFF00).

wordHighlightingRules - The word highlighting rules. [Collection](Data types)
Each collection item is represented by <highlight-word /> element with the following attributes:

• backgroundColor - Background color. Default: NoChange
  Possible values:
  • Black - Black Color (#000000).
  • Blue - Blue Color (#0000FF).
  • Cyan - Cyan Color (#00FFFF).
  • DarkBlue - Dark blue Color (#000080).
  • DarkCyan - Dark Cyan Color (#008080).
  • DarkGray - Dark Gray Color (#808080).
  • DarkGreen - Dark green Color (#008000).
  • DarkMagenta - Dark Magenta Color (#800080).
  • DarkRed - Dark Red Color (#800000).
  • DarkYellow - Dark Yellow Color (#808000).
  • Gray - Gray Color (#C0C0C0).
  • Green - Green Color (#00FF00).
  • Magenta - Magenta Color (#FF00FF).
  • NoChange - Don't change the color.
  • Red - Red Color (#FF0000).
  • White - White Color (#FFFFFF).
  • Yellow - Yellow Color (#FFFF00).

foregroundColor - Foreground color. Default: NoChange
Possible values:

• Black - Black Color (#000000).
• Blue - Blue Color (#0000FF).
• Cyan - Cyan Color (#00FFFF).
• DarkBlue - Dark blue Color (#000080).
• DarkCyan - Dark Cyan Color (#008080).
• DarkGray - Dark Gray Color (#808080).
• DarkGreen - Dark green Color (#008000).
• DarkMagenta - Dark Magenta Color (#800080).
• DarkRed - Dark Red Color (#800000).
• DarkYellow - Dark Yellow Color (#808000).
• Gray - Gray Color (#C0C0C0).
• Green - Green Color (#00FF00).
• Magenta - Magenta Color (#FF00FF).
• NoChange - Don't change the color.
• Red - Red Color (#FF0000).
• White - White Color (#FFFFFF).
• Yellow - Yellow Color (#FFFF00).

ignoreCase - Indicates whether to ignore case when comparing texts. [Boolean](Data types) Default: false regex - Regular expression to be matched. You must specify either text or regex.
text - Text to be matched. You must specify either text or regex.
wholeWords - Indicates whether to match whole words only. [Boolean](Data types) Default: false
compileRegex - Introduced in NLog 4.3. Compiles the Regex. If false, the regex cache is used. Setting this to true can improve performance, but costs memory. Default: false

###Output Options errorStream - Indicates whether the error stream (stderr) should be used instead of the output stream (stdout). [Boolean](Data types) Default: False

###Programmatic example

var consoleTarget = new ColoredConsoleTarget();

var highlightRule = new ConsoleRowHighlightingRule();
highlightRule.Condition = ConditionParser.ParseExpression("level == LogLevel.Info");
highlightRule.ForegroundColor = ConsoleOutputColor.Green;
consoleTarget.RowHighlightingRules.Add(highlightRule);