ANSIcapable

ANSIcapable is a label used in technical documentation to describe software, hardware, or systems that adhere to or support one or more standards published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In computing, the term most often refers to conformance with ANSI standards related to text handling, character encoding, or terminal control sequences. A device or program that is ANSIcapable can interpret and/or emit features defined by these standards, enabling interoperability across compliant components.

In practical terms, ANSIcapable commonly denotes support for ANSI-based character encoding and for ANSI escape codes—control sequences used to manipulate cursor position, colors, and text formatting in text terminals and terminal emulators. This makes it possible to render formatted text, navigate within a display, or interact with software that expects a standard terminal interface. Printers, editors, terminal emulators, and development libraries may all carry the ANSIcapable designation when they implement these features, at least in part or in full.

Because ANSI standards cover a broad range of specifications, the degree of compatibility may vary. Some implementations support a subset of ANSI escape sequences or a subset of encoding rules, and certain environments may filter or modify these sequences for security or compatibility reasons. As a result, ANSIcapable does not guarantee complete, uniform compliance across all ANSI-related standards.

See also: ANSI escape codes, character encoding standards, terminal emulator, ASCII, ANSI C.