Colorize Spring Boot Logs in Sublime Text with the ANSIescape Plugin

Introduction

Spring Boot console logs include ANSI color codes that help differentiate log levels, but when opened in Sublime Text they appear as garbled characters such as [31m and [0;39m. Installing the ANSIescape plugin allows Sublime Text to interpret and display these colors correctly.

Preview

Before and after screenshots illustrate how the log looks without the plugin versus with colorized output.

Prerequisites

Make sure Sublime Text and Package Control are installed. If Package Control is missing, install it by opening the console ( Ctrl+ on Windows/Linux, Cmd+ on macOS), visiting the official installation page, copying the provided code, pasting it into the console, and restarting Sublime Text.

Install ANSIescape Plugin

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on macOS) to open the command palette. 2. Type Install Package and press Enter. 3. Type ANSIescape, select it from the list, and install.

Enable Colorized Logs

Open your Spring Boot .log file in Sublime Text.

Press Ctrl+Shift+P, type ANSI, and choose ANSIescape: Colorize. The log colors are rendered instantly, matching terminal output.

How to Revert to Plain Logs

Method 1: Close and Reopen

Close the file and reopen it with Sublime Text; the original ANSI codes become visible again.

Method 2: Undo

Press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z) to undo the ANSIescape: Colorize command.

Method 3: Uninstall Plugin

Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P), type Remove Package, press Enter.

Select ANSIescape and confirm removal.

Common Issues

Plugin Not Found

Ensure Package Control is correctly installed and that you can access packagecontrol.io.

No Color Change

Verify the log file actually contains ANSI escape sequences (e.g., [31m) and that you have executed ANSIescape: Colorize.

Disable Colors in Future Logs

Add the following line to application.properties to stop Spring Boot from emitting ANSI codes:

spring.output.ansi.enabled=never