Rainbow Terminal Output With lolcat

Pipe text through lolcat to colorize it with a rainbow gradient.

macOSTerminalASCII artLow risk

Pipe any command into lolcat, for example ls -la | lolcat, to colorize its output.

01Command

Command

$ ls -la | lolcat

02What it does

lolcat reads standard input and applies a moving rainbow gradient. It works on any text stream — ls, log files, figlet banners — and only affects display, never the underlying data. Use -a for an animated fill and -f to force color when piping to a file.

03Risk

RiskLow risk

Requirementsbrew install lolcat

CompatibilitymacOS with Homebrew installed

!Warning: Color codes are added to the stream, so avoid lolcat when the output is parsed by another program.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

Homebrew formula: lolcat
Homebrew · vendor-doc · 2026-09-20
Evidence: Installs lolcat, which adds a rainbow gradient to piped terminal text.
busyloop/lolcat
GitHub · vendor-doc · 2026-09-20
Evidence: Lolcat source and options including -a animation and -f force color.

Last verified: 2026-09-20 · Category: Developer