Well yes like I said on Windows you can access the terminal and set its properties without encoding terminal escape sequences in the output stream. On Linux afa

Well yes like I said on Windows you can access the terminal and set its properties without encoding terminal escape sequences in the output stream. On Linux afaik escape sequences are the only way. On MacOS i have no idea. Generally speaking the escape sequences aren't "standard" but different terminals (and these days terminal emulators) all have their own codes. Hence ncurses which tries to encapsulate this and provide a uniform API so that the application doesn't have to deal with these murky details. Have you double checked with s hex editor what is in the txt file? Suppose it could also be your text editor that doesn't want to render those codes.