monitor

Monitors are a block which act as a terminal, displaying information on one side. This allows them to be read and interacted with in-world without opening a GUI.

Monitors act as terminal redirects and so expose the same methods, as well as several additional ones, which are documented below.

If the monitor is resized (by adding new blocks to the monitor, or by calling setTextScale), then a monitor_resize event will be queued.

Like computers, monitors come in both normal (no colour) and advanced (colour) varieties. Advanced monitors be right clicked, which will trigger a monitor_touch event.

Recipes

Monitor

Advanced Monitor

4

Usage

• Write "Hello, world!" to an adjacent monitor:

  local monitor = peripheral.find("monitor")
  monitor.setCursorPos(1, 1)
  monitor.write("Hello, world!")

See also

• monitor_resize Queued when a monitor is resized.
• monitor_touch Queued when an advanced monitor is clicked.

setTextScale(scale)Source

Set the scale of this monitor. A larger scale will result in the monitor having a lower resolution, but display text much larger.

Parameters

1. scale number The monitor's scale. This must be a multiple of 0.5 between 0.5 and 5.

Throws

• If the scale is out of range.

See also

• getTextScale

getTextScale()Source

Get the monitor's current text scale.

Returns

1. number The monitor's current scale.

Throws

• If the monitor cannot be found.

Changes

• New in version 1.81.0

write(text)Source

Write text at the current cursor position, moving the cursor to the end of the text.

Unlike functions like write and print, this does not wrap the text - it simply copies the text to the current terminal line.

Parameters

1. text string The text to write.

scroll(y)Source

Move all positions up (or down) by y pixels.

Every pixel in the terminal will be replaced by the line y pixels below it. If y is negative, it will copy pixels from above instead.

Parameters

1. y number The number of lines to move up by. This may be a negative number.

getCursorPos()Source

Get the position of the cursor.

Returns

1. number The x position of the cursor.
2. number The y position of the cursor.

setCursorPos(x, y)Source

Set the position of the cursor. terminal writes will begin from this position.

Parameters

1. x number The new x position of the cursor.
2. y number The new y position of the cursor.

getCursorBlink()Source

Checks if the cursor is currently blinking.

Returns

1. boolean If the cursor is blinking.

Changes

• New in version 1.80pr1.9

setCursorBlink(blink)Source

Sets whether the cursor should be visible (and blinking) at the current cursor position.

Parameters

1. blink boolean Whether the cursor should blink.

getSize()Source

Get the size of the terminal.

Returns

1. number The terminal's width.
2. number The terminal's height.

clear()Source

Clears the terminal, filling it with the current background colour.

clearLine()Source

Clears the line the cursor is currently on, filling it with the current background colour.

getTextColour()Source

Return the colour that new text will be written as.

Returns

1. number The current text colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants, returned by this function.

Changes

• New in version 1.74

getTextColor()Source

Return the colour that new text will be written as.

Returns

1. number The current text colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants, returned by this function.

Changes

• New in version 1.74

setTextColour(colour)Source

Set the colour that new text will be written as.

Parameters

1. colour number The new text colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants.

Changes

• New in version 1.45
• Changed in version 1.80pr1: Standard computers can now use all 16 colors, being changed to grayscale on screen.

setTextColor(colour)Source

Set the colour that new text will be written as.

Parameters

1. colour number The new text colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants.

Changes

• New in version 1.45
• Changed in version 1.80pr1: Standard computers can now use all 16 colors, being changed to grayscale on screen.

getBackgroundColour()Source

Return the current background colour. This is used when writing text and clearing the terminal.

Returns

1. number The current background colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants, returned by this function.

Changes

• New in version 1.74

getBackgroundColor()Source

Return the current background colour. This is used when writing text and clearing the terminal.

Returns

1. number The current background colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants, returned by this function.

Changes

• New in version 1.74

setBackgroundColour(colour)Source

Set the current background colour. This is used when writing text and clearing the terminal.

Parameters

1. colour number The new background colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants.

Changes

• New in version 1.45
• Changed in version 1.80pr1: Standard computers can now use all 16 colors, being changed to grayscale on screen.

setBackgroundColor(colour)Source

Set the current background colour. This is used when writing text and clearing the terminal.

Parameters

1. colour number The new background colour.

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants.

Changes

• New in version 1.45
• Changed in version 1.80pr1: Standard computers can now use all 16 colors, being changed to grayscale on screen.

isColour()Source

Determine if this terminal supports colour.

Terminals which do not support colour will still allow writing coloured text/backgrounds, but it will be displayed in greyscale.

Returns

1. boolean Whether this terminal supports colour.

Changes

• New in version 1.45

isColor()Source

Determine if this terminal supports colour.

Terminals which do not support colour will still allow writing coloured text/backgrounds, but it will be displayed in greyscale.

Returns

1. boolean Whether this terminal supports colour.

Changes

• New in version 1.45

blit(text, textColour, backgroundColour)Source

Writes text to the terminal with the specific foreground and background colours.

As with write, the text will be written at the current cursor location, with the cursor moving to the end of the text.

textColour and backgroundColour must both be strings the same length as text. All characters represent a single hexadecimal digit, which is converted to one of CC's colours. For instance, "a" corresponds to purple.

Parameters

1. text string The text to write.
2. textColour string The corresponding text colours.
3. backgroundColour string The corresponding background colours.

Throws

• If the three inputs are not the same length.

Usage

• Prints "Hello, world!" in rainbow text.

  term.blit("Hello, world!","01234456789ab","0000000000000")

See also

• colors For a list of colour constants, and their hexadecimal values.

Changes

• New in version 1.74
• Changed in version 1.80pr1: Standard computers can now use all 16 colors, being changed to grayscale on screen.

setPaletteColour(...)Source

Set the palette for a specific colour.

ComputerCraft's palette system allows you to change how a specific colour should be displayed. For instance, you can make colors.red more red by setting its palette to #FF0000. This does now allow you to draw more colours - you are still limited to 16 on the screen at one time - but you can change which colours are used.

Parameters

1. index number The colour whose palette should be changed.
2. colour number A 24-bit integer representing the RGB value of the colour. For instance the integer 0xFF0000 corresponds to the colour #FF0000.

Or

1. index number The colour whose palette should be changed.
2. r number The intensity of the red channel, between 0 and 1.
3. g number The intensity of the green channel, between 0 and 1.
4. b number The intensity of the blue channel, between 0 and 1.

Usage

• Change the red colour from the default #CC4C4C to #FF0000.

  term.setPaletteColour(colors.red, 0xFF0000)
  term.setTextColour(colors.red)
  print("Hello, world!")

• As above, but specifying each colour channel separately.

  term.setPaletteColour(colors.red, 1, 0, 0)
  term.setTextColour(colors.red)
  print("Hello, world!")

See also

• colors.unpackRGB To convert from the 24-bit format to three separate channels.
• colors.packRGB To convert from three separate channels to the 24-bit format.

Changes

• New in version 1.80pr1

setPaletteColor(...)Source

Set the palette for a specific colour.

ComputerCraft's palette system allows you to change how a specific colour should be displayed. For instance, you can make colors.red more red by setting its palette to #FF0000. This does now allow you to draw more colours - you are still limited to 16 on the screen at one time - but you can change which colours are used.

Parameters

1. index number The colour whose palette should be changed.
2. colour number A 24-bit integer representing the RGB value of the colour. For instance the integer 0xFF0000 corresponds to the colour #FF0000.

Or

1. index number The colour whose palette should be changed.
2. r number The intensity of the red channel, between 0 and 1.
3. g number The intensity of the green channel, between 0 and 1.
4. b number The intensity of the blue channel, between 0 and 1.

Usage

• Change the red colour from the default #CC4C4C to #FF0000.

  term.setPaletteColour(colors.red, 0xFF0000)
  term.setTextColour(colors.red)
  print("Hello, world!")

• As above, but specifying each colour channel separately.

  term.setPaletteColour(colors.red, 1, 0, 0)
  term.setTextColour(colors.red)
  print("Hello, world!")

See also

• colors.unpackRGB To convert from the 24-bit format to three separate channels.
• colors.packRGB To convert from three separate channels to the 24-bit format.

Changes

• New in version 1.80pr1

getPaletteColour(colour)Source

Get the current palette for a specific colour.

Parameters

1. colour number The colour whose palette should be fetched.

Returns

1. number The red channel, will be between 0 and 1.
2. number The green channel, will be between 0 and 1.
3. number The blue channel, will be between 0 and 1.

Changes

• New in version 1.80pr1

getPaletteColor(colour)Source

Get the current palette for a specific colour.

Parameters

1. colour number The colour whose palette should be fetched.

Returns

1. number The red channel, will be between 0 and 1.
2. number The green channel, will be between 0 and 1.
3. number The blue channel, will be between 0 and 1.

Changes

• New in version 1.80pr1