wow-api-escape-sequences

WoW UI Escape Sequences

This skill documents the UI escape sequences available in World of Warcraft addon development. Many UI elements that display text on screen support special sequences starting with the | (pipe) character. These sequences enable inline coloring, texture/atlas rendering, grammar inflection, word-wrapping hints, and more — all within ordinary Lua strings.

Source of truth: https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/UI_escape_sequences Current as of: Patch 12.0.0 (Retail only) Scope: All | escape sequences recognized by the WoW UI text renderer.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Embed color codes in chat messages, tooltips, or FontStrings
• Use named global colors (|cn) or item-quality colors (|cnIQ)
• Insert inline textures or atlas icons into text
• Apply localized grammar rules (Korean, French, Russian, plurals, articles)
• Understand word-wrap hints (|W) or Kstring obfuscation (|K)
• Use helper functions like WrapTextInColorCode(), CreateTextureMarkup(), CreateSimpleTextureMarkup(), or CreateAtlasMarkup()

Relationship to Other Skills

Skill	Relationship
wow-api-framexml	Covers utility functions (WrapTextInColorCode, CreateTextureMarkup, CreateSimpleTextureMarkup, CreateAtlasMarkup) that generate escape-sequence markup from Lua.
wow-api-widget	FontString, EditBox, SimpleHTML, GameTooltip and other text-displaying widgets render these sequences.
wow-lua-api	Lua string.format, print(), and chat functions emit strings that can contain these sequences.

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Important: The Pipe Character

In Lua source code you can use | directly:

print("|cFFFF0000Red text|r normal")

In the chat window or in-game text editors, the literal | is escaped. Use \124 (the ASCII code for pipe) instead:

/run print("\124cFFFF0000Red text\124r normal")

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Coloring

ARGB Hex Color

|cAARRGGBBtext|r

• AA — Alpha (currently ignored; always use FF).
• RR GG BB — Red, green, blue channels as two hex digits each.
• |r — Pops the most recent color, restoring the previous one (since Patch 9.0.1). Previously it reset to the default color entirely.

Nesting example:

print("white |cFFFF0000red |cFF00FF00green|r back to red|r back to white")

Global Named Colors (|cn)

|cnCOLOR_NAME:text|r

Renders text using a named GlobalColor. The color name comes from the GlobalColor database table.

print("|cnPURE_GREEN_COLOR:Green text|r normal")

Item Quality Colors (|cnIQ)

|cnIQn:text|r

Renders text using the color for item quality n, where n is a numeric Enum.ItemQuality value (0 = Poor/gray, 1 = Common/white, 2 = Uncommon/green, 3 = Rare/blue, 4 = Epic/purple, 5 = Legendary/orange, …). The color updates to match the user's color-override settings.

print("|cnIQ4:Epic quality text|r")

Added in Patch 11.1.5. Named colors (|cn) added in Patch 10.0.0.

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Textures

Inline Texture

|Tpath:height[:width[:offsetX:offsetY[:textureWidth:textureHeight:leftTexel:rightTexel:topTexel:bottomTexel[:rVertexColor:gVertexColor:bVertexColor]]]]|t

Inserts an image into a FontString. path may be a file path (with / or \\ separators) or a numeric FileDataID.

Size Rules

height	width	Result
0	omitted	Square icon at text line height (TextHeight × TextHeight)
> 0	omitted	Square icon (height × height)
0	0	Square at TextHeight
> 0	0	TextHeight wide, height tall
0	> 0	width is treated as an aspect ratio: Width = width × TextHeight, Height = TextHeight
> 0	> 0	Explicit width × height

Optional Parameters

Parameter	Purpose
offsetX, offsetY	Pixel offset from the natural position
textureWidth, textureHeight	Source image dimensions in pixels
leftTexel, rightTexel, topTexel, bottomTexel	Crop coordinates in pixels (non-normalized x1 x2 y1 y2; see Texture:SetTexCoord)
rVertexColor, gVertexColor, bVertexColor	RGB tint values, each 0–255

Common Patterns

-- Square icon at text size (most common for spell/item icons)
"|T133784:0|t"
"|TInterface/Icons/INV_Misc_Coin_01:0|t"

-- Explicit 16×16 icon
"|TInterface/Icons/INV_Misc_Coin_01:16|t"

-- Rectangular image with aspect ratio
"|TInterface/Glues/LoadingBar/Loading-BarFill:0:2|t"

-- Cropped texture (4px border removed from a 64×64 source)
"|TInterface/Icons/INV_Misc_Coin_01:16:16:0:0:64:64:4:60:4:60|t"

-- Tinted texture (green tint: 73,177,73)
"|TInterface/ChatFrame/UI-ChatIcon-ArmoryChat:14:14:0:0:16:16:0:16:0:16:73:177:73|t"

Texture Atlas

|A:atlas:height:width[:offsetX:offsetY[:rVertexColor:gVertexColor:bVertexColor]]|a

Inserts a texture atlas region. The atlas may be a name string or a numeric atlas ID. Note the : after |A.

-- Atlas by name
"|A:groupfinder-icon-role-large-tank:19:19|a Tank"

-- Atlas by numeric ID
"|A:4259:19:19|a Tank"

See also: AtlasID

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Kstrings

|Kq1|k

Kstrings are opaque string placeholders that prevent addon parsing of confidential or protected text. They are rendered by the client as the actual display string but cannot be read as plaintext by addons.

Prefix	Usage
q	Battle.net account names (C_BattleNet.GetFriendAccountInfo)
r	Group finder listing names/comments (C_LFGList.GetSearchResultInfo, C_LFGList.GetActiveEntryInfo)
u	Communities message content (C_Club.GetMessageInfo, C_Club.GetMessagesInRange)
v	Communities channel chat (CHAT_MSG_COMMUNITIES_CHANNEL event)

Added in Patch 4.0.1.

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Grammar / Localization Sequences

These sequences handle language-specific inflection so that a single localization string can produce grammatically correct output.

|1 — Korean Postpositions

text|1A;B;

Selects postposition A (after consonant) or B (after vowel).

print("라면|1을;를;")  -- 라면을 (ramyeoneul)
print("나무|1을;를;")  -- 나무를 (namureul)

|2 — French Prepositions

|2 text

Outputs de text before a consonant, d'text before a vowel. Trailing spaces after |2 are ignored.

print("|2 fraise") -- de fraise
print("|2 avion")  -- d'avion

|3 — Russian Noun Declension

|3-id(text)

Declines a Russian noun into one of 5 cases (id = 1–5).

print("|3-1(Кролик)") -- Кролика   (Genitive)
print("|3-2(Кролик)") -- Кролику   (Dative)
print("|3-3(Кролик)") -- Кролика   (Accusative)
print("|3-4(Кролик)") -- Кроликом  (Instrumental)
print("|3-5(Кролик)") -- Кролике   (Prepositional)

See also: DeclineName() API.

|4 — Plural Forms

number |4singular:plural;
number |4singular:plural1:plural2;   -- ruRU has three forms

Selects singular or plural based on the preceding number.

print("1 |4car:cars;")      -- 1 car
print("2 |4car:cars;")      -- 2 cars
print("3 blue |4car:cars;") -- 3 blue cars

|7 — Plural (Large Numbers / Non-English)

Same behavior as |4 but used specifically with large numbers on certain non-English locales.

print("1 |7Million:Millionen;") -- 1 Million
print("2 |7Million:Millionen;") -- 2 Millionen

|5 — Indefinite Article (a / an)

|5 text
|5^ text   -- uppercase article

Inserts a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds.

print("|5 banana")  -- a banana
print("|5 apple")   -- an apple
print("|5^ apple")  -- An apple

|6 — Lowercase

|6 TEXT
|6(TEXT MORE)

Converts the next word (or parenthesized group) to lowercase.

print("|6 HELLO WORLD")  -- hello WORLD
print("|6(HELLO WORLD)") -- hello world

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Word Wrapping

|Wtext|w

Hints that the enclosed text should not be broken across lines. If the text would require wrapping, the client prefers to wrap before the |W start instead of splitting inside it. If the text is still too wide, the hint may be ignored.

Added in Patch 5.4.1.

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Other Sequences

Sequence	Effect
|n	Newline (if the widget supports it). Equivalent to \n or \r.
||	Literal pipe character |.
Any invalid |X	Displayed as-is (undefined behavior).

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Utility Functions (FrameXML)

These FrameXML helper functions generate escape-sequence markup:

Function	Output
WrapTextInColorCode(text, colorHexString)	|cFFRRGGBBtext|r
CreateTextureMarkup(file, fileW, fileH, width, height, left, right, top, bottom)	|T...|t with tex coords
CreateSimpleTextureMarkup(file, width, height)	|Tfile:height:width|t
CreateAtlasMarkup(atlasName, height, width, offsetX, offsetY)	|A:atlas:height:width:...|a

-- Color a string red
WrapTextInColorCode("Critical!", "FFFF0000")
-- "|cFFFF0000Critical!|r"

-- Inline 16×16 coin icon
CreateSimpleTextureMarkup("Interface/Icons/INV_Misc_Coin_01", 16, 16)
-- "|TInterface/Icons/INV_Misc_Coin_01:16:16|t"

-- Atlas tank icon
CreateAtlasMarkup("groupfinder-icon-role-large-tank", 16, 16)
-- "|A:groupfinder-icon-role-large-tank:16:16|a"

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Patch History

Patch	Change
11.1.5	Added |cnIQ item quality color sequences.
10.0.0	Added |cn named color sequences.
9.0.1	|r now pops nested colors in-order instead of resetting to default.
5.4.1	Added |W word-wrapping hint.
4.0.1	Added |K Kstrings.

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See Also

• Hyperlinks — related pipe-delimited link sequences (|H...|h...|h).
• wow-api-framexml skill — covers WrapTextInColorCode, CreateTextureMarkup, CreateSimpleTextureMarkup, CreateAtlasMarkup in detail.
• wow-api-widget skill — covers FontString, GameTooltip, and other widgets that render these sequences.