Color man pages

I came across this tip in the Arch wiki today. Turns out you can render man pages in gorgeous colors (tweak-able as well) using the less utility in the background. Settings for bash and fish follow.

bash

Add the following lines in your ~/.bashrc:

man() {
    env \
    LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$'\e[01;31m' \
    LESS_TERMCAP_md=$'\e[01;31m' \
    LESS_TERMCAP_me=$'\e[0m' \
    LESS_TERMCAP_se=$'\e[0m' \
    LESS_TERMCAP_so=$'\e[01;44;33m' \
    LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$'\e[0m' \
    LESS_TERMCAP_us=$'\e[01;32m' \
    man "$@"
}

fish

Add the following in ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

set -xU LESS_TERMCAP_mb (printf "\e[01;31m")      # begin blinking
set -xU LESS_TERMCAP_md (printf "\e[01;31m")      # begin bold
set -xU LESS_TERMCAP_me (printf "\e[0m")          # end mode
set -xU LESS_TERMCAP_se (printf "\e[0m")          # end standout-mode
set -xU LESS_TERMCAP_so (printf "\e[01;44;33m")   # begin standout-mode - info box
set -xU LESS_TERMCAP_ue (printf "\e[0m")          # end underline
set -xU LESS_TERMCAP_us (printf "\e[01;32m")      # begin underline

To customize further, refer to man termcap, section String capabilities. Color codes:

#########################################
 # Black       0;30     Dark Gray     1;30
 # Red         0;31     Light Red     1;31
 # Green       0;32     Light Green   1;32
 # Brown       0;33     Yellow        1;33
 # Blue        0;34     Light Blue    1;34
 # Purple      0;35     Light Purple  1;35
 # Cyan        0;36     Light Cyan    1;36
 # Light Gray  0;37     White         1;37
 #########################################