Text

The text file consists of a newline separated list of formatting instructions controlling cell text styles including font weight, style, size, and family.

The novem text instruction has the following composition:

row_slice col_slice style <size> <family>

Where:

• style (required): Text style characters or font weight
• size (optional): Font size (named or numeric)
• family (optional): Font family

Text Styles

Text styles can be specified as single characters or combined together.

Style characters:

• b for bold
• i for italic
• s for strikethrough
• u for underline
• r for regular (no styling, removes underline for links)
• n for noop (no change)
• - for blank display (cell appears empty but value is preserved)

Combined styles: You can combine multiple style characters in a single instruction:

• bi for bold italic
• sib for strikethrough italic bold
• ub for underline bold

The order of characters doesn't matter - bi and ib produce the same result.

  0   :   b       -- bold the header row
 1:   :   i       -- italicize data rows
 -1   :   bi      -- bold italic for totals row

Blank Display

The - style makes cells display as empty while preserving the underlying data values. This is useful when you want to hide numeric values but still use them for calculations, color scales, or bar charts.

  :   1   -       -- hide values in column 2 (data preserved)
 1:  -1   -       -- hide values in last column for data rows
  :   :   - lg    -- blank display with large font (for bar chart labels)

Common use cases:

1. Bar charts without visible numbers - Apply - to columns with bar charts when you only want to show the visual bar, not the numeric value.

2. Color-coded cells - Hide the raw value but keep the background color that's calculated from it.

3. Calculations - The underlying value remains available for color scales, bar chart widths, and other calculations - only the display is affected.

Note: The blank display affects both HTML and terminal (ANSI) output.

Font Weights

For more precise control over text weight, you can specify numeric values from 100 to 900 (in increments of 100), following the CSS font-weight standard.

Common weight values:

• 100 - Thin
• 200 - Extra Light
• 300 - Light
• 400 - Regular (same as r)
• 500 - Medium
• 600 - Semi Bold
• 700 - Bold (similar to b)
• 800 - Extra Bold
• 900 - Black

  0   :   700     -- bold header (weight 700)
 1:   :   400     -- regular data rows
 -1   :   600     -- semi-bold totals

Font Sizes

Novem tables support Bootstrap-inspired named font sizes as well as custom pixel values for precise typography control.

Named sizes:

Special values:

• n - Noop (no size change, useful when you only want to set family)

Numeric sizes: Any number specifies the font size in pixels (e.g., 15 for 15px).

  0   :   b  xl      -- bold extra-large header
 1:   :   n  sm      -- small data rows (n = noop for style)
 -1   :   b  lg      -- bold large totals row
  :   :   n  14      -- 14px for entire table
  :   :   n  xxs     -- extra extra small (10px)

Font Families

Control the font family using shortcuts or specify custom font names.

Shortcuts:

• mono - Monospace font
• sans - Sans-serif font
• serif - Serif font

Custom fonts: Any other value is used as a font-family name (e.g., Arial, Georgia).

  :   :   n  base  mono   -- monospace for entire table
  0   :   b  lg    sans   -- bold large sans-serif header
 1:   :   n  sm    serif  -- small serif data rows
  :   :   b  n     mono   -- bold monospace, keep current size (n = noop)

Complete Examples

Combining style, size, and family for comprehensive text formatting:

  :   :   400  base  sans    -- base: regular 16px sans-serif
  0   :   700  xl    sans    -- header: bold 20px sans-serif
  :   0   i    sm    mono    -- first column: italic small monospace
 -1   :   bi   lg            -- totals: bold italic large
  :  -1   n    xs            -- last column: extra small