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Pygments VS Chroma (Syntax Highlighter)

Compare Pygments VS Chroma (Syntax Highlighter) and see what are their differences

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Contents:
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  2. » Reviews
  3. » Alternatives

Pygments logo Pygments

Generic syntax highlighter suitable for use in code hosting, forums, wikis or other applications...

Chroma (Syntax Highlighter) logo Chroma (Syntax Highlighter)

Chroma takes source code and other structured text and converts it into syntax highlighted HTML, ANSI-coloured text, etc.
  • Pygments Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15
Not present

Pygments features and specs

  • Wide Language Support
    Pygments supports a broad range of programming languages and file formats, making it highly versatile for developers working in diverse environments.
  • High-Quality Output
    The library produces highly readable and aesthetically pleasing highlighted code, which is crucial for documentation and presentation.
  • Easy Integration
    Pygments is designed to integrate easily with a variety of web frameworks, content management systems, and text editors.
  • Customization Options
    Users can customize styles, themes, and output formats to meet specific needs, providing flexibility for different aesthetic requirements.
  • Active Community
    A strong, active community contributes to its continuous development and improvement, ensuring it stays updated with the latest languages and features.

Possible disadvantages of Pygments

  • Performance Overhead
    For large codebases or high-frequency requests, using Pygments can introduce performance overhead, potentially slowing down applications.
  • Dependency Management
    As with any library, integrating Pygments means managing its dependencies and ensuring compatibility with other project components.
  • Complexity in Advanced Use
    While basic usage is straightforward, more advanced features and customizations can introduce complexity, requiring a deeper understanding of the library.
  • Limited Built-In Features
    Pygments primarily focuses on syntax highlighting, so additional functionality (like code execution or detailed analysis) has to be handled by other tools or custom development.

Chroma (Syntax Highlighter) features and specs

  • Language Support
    Chroma offers extensive support for many programming languages, making it a versatile choice for syntax highlighting in diverse projects.
  • Go Implementation
    Implemented in Go, Chroma ensures fast performance and seamless integration in Go-based projects, benefiting developers working in the Go ecosystem.
  • Ease of Use
    Chroma is designed with simplicity in mind, allowing users to easily implement syntax highlighting in their applications without a steep learning curve.
  • Compatibility
    It's compatible with styles from popular syntax highlighters, such as Pygments, which eases the transition for users migrating from those tools.
  • Playground Feature
    The Chroma Playground allows users to test and experiment with syntax highlighting in real-time, facilitating easier customization and evaluation of results.

Possible disadvantages of Chroma (Syntax Highlighter)

  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to some long-established syntax highlighters, Chroma's ecosystem of plugins and community contributions is more limited, potentially affecting feature richness.
  • Go Dependency
    For projects not using Go, incorporating Chroma might introduce an additional dependency, which could be cumbersome for some development environments.
  • Less Community Support
    Being a relatively newer tool, Chroma might not have as extensive community support or documentation as older, more established syntax highlighters.
  • Customization Complexity
    While it offers many styles, deeply customizing these styles may require more effort and understanding of its workings than some other highlighters.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pygments and Chroma (Syntax Highlighter))

Pygments

Chroma (Syntax Highlighter)

Documentation
63 63%
Documentation
37% 37
Customer Feedback
47 47%
Customer Feedback
53% 53
App Reviews
46 46%
App Reviews
54% 54
Marketing Tools
39 39%
Marketing Tools
61% 61

User comments

Share your experience with using Pygments and Chroma (Syntax Highlighter). For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Pygments seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 10 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Pygments mentions (10)

  • Ask HN: Printing Code to Paper?
    Some starter ideas[0] beyond spacing/line numbers. BNF format is used to describe a programming language. treesitter as a text editor plug in makes use of a language BNF description to be able to know how to parse & format a given lanuage in a text editor (aka pygments[1], gnu source code hightlights, [2] neovim with treesitter[3]). Aka searching google "treesitter work with microsoft notepade" --- [0] :... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Marcel the Shell
    I suspect Pygments will be to your liking. https://pygments.org/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Blog in django
    It's not clear exactly what you want, but if you mean syntax highlighting, you could use pygments https://pygments.org/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • I'm looking for a way to display live changes to a text file with Python
    Https://pygments.org/ - never tried it though. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Markdown, Asciidoc, or reStructuredText - a tale of docs-as-code
    Sphinx is incredibly powerful and can offer a table of contents, automatic links for functions, automatic code highlighting using Pygments, and other capabilities using built-in or third-party extensions. If you'd like to use (a flavor of) Markdown with Sphinx, you can do so using MyST-parser - a Sphinx and Docutils extension to parse MyST. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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Chroma (Syntax Highlighter) mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Chroma (Syntax Highlighter) yet. Tracking of Chroma (Syntax Highlighter) recommendations started around May 2025.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pygments and Chroma (Syntax Highlighter), you can also consider the following products

prism.js - Prism is a lightweight, extensible syntax highlighter, built with modern web standards in mind.

Shiki - A beautiful syntax highlighter based on TextMate grammar, accurate and powerful.

Re-Highlight - Re-Highlight is a powerful text syntax highlighting library.

highlight.js - Highlight.js is a syntax highlighter written in JavaScript. It works in the browser as well as on the server.

Torchlight.dev - Torchlight is a VS Code-compatible syntax highlighter that requires no JavaScript, supports every language, every VS Code theme, line highlighting, git diffing, and more.

Speed-highlight JS - A lightweight syntax highlighter written in JavaScript.

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