[BUG] First style of assembled text affects subsequent non-styled Text

[antoine-gallix]

• [ x] I've checked docs and closed issues for possible solutions.
• [ x] I can't find my issue in the FAQ.

Describe the bug

I build a Text instance by adding multiple Text together with +. When the first element has a color style, it becomes the default for subsequent non-styled elements. This does not happen when the first element has no style. The following code reproduces this:

from rich import print
from rich.text import Text

# works as expected
print(
    Text("normal") # white
    + Text("red", style="red") # red
    + Text("blue", style="blue") # blue
    + Text("normal") # white
)

# first style becomes default for non-styled elements
print(
    Text("red", style="red") # red
    + Text("normal") # also red!
    + Text("blue", style="blue") # blue
    + Text("normal") # red again!
)

# workaround; start with empty text
print(
    Text() # invisible
    + Text("red", style="red") # red
    + Text("normal") # white
    + Text("blue", style="blue") # blue
    + Text("normal") # white
)

Platform

Click to expand

platform: Fedora Linux 42 (Workstation Edition)
terminal: alacritty 0.15.1
python: 3.13.7
rich: 14.1.0

rich diagnose

╭───────────────────────── <class 'rich.console.Console'> ─────────────────────────╮
│ A high level console interface. │
│ │
│ ╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ │ │ │
│ ╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│ │
│ color_system = None │
│ encoding = 'utf-8' │
│ file = <_io.TextIOWrapper name='' mode='w' encoding='utf-8'> │
│ height = 38 │
│ is_alt_screen = False │
│ is_dumb_terminal = False │
│ is_interactive = False │
│ is_jupyter = False │
│ is_terminal = False │
│ legacy_windows = False │
│ no_color = False │
│ options = ConsoleOptions( │
│ size=ConsoleDimensions(width=169, height=38), │
│ legacy_windows=False, │
│ min_width=1, │
│ max_width=169, │
│ is_terminal=False, │
│ encoding='utf-8', │
│ max_height=38, │
│ justify=None, │
│ overflow=None, │
│ no_wrap=False, │
│ highlight=None, │
│ markup=None, │
│ height=None │
│ ) │
│ quiet = False │
│ record = False │
│ safe_box = True │
│ size = ConsoleDimensions(width=169, height=38) │
│ soft_wrap = False │
│ stderr = False │
│ style = None │
│ tab_size = 8 │
│ width = 169 │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─── <class 'rich._windows.WindowsConsoleFeatures'> ────╮
│ Windows features available. │
│ │
│ ╭───────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ │ WindowsConsoleFeatures(vt=False, truecolor=False) │ │
│ ╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│ │
│ truecolor = False │
│ vt = False │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭────── Environment Variables ───────╮
│ { │
│ 'CLICOLOR': None, │
│ 'COLORTERM': 'truecolor', │
│ 'COLUMNS': None, │
│ 'JPY_PARENT_PID': None, │
│ 'JUPYTER_COLUMNS': None, │
│ 'JUPYTER_LINES': None, │
│ 'LINES': None, │
│ 'NO_COLOR': None, │
│ 'TERM_PROGRAM': None, │
│ 'TERM': 'alacritty', │
│ 'TTY_COMPATIBLE': None, │
│ 'TTY_INTERACTIVE': None, │
│ 'VSCODE_VERBOSE_LOGGING': None │
│ } │
╰────────────────────────────────────╯
platform="Linux"

[github-actions]

Thank you for your issue. Give us a little time to review it.

PS. You might want to check the FAQ if you haven't done so already.

Rich was created by Will McGugan. Consider sponsoring Will's work on Rich.

This is an automated reply, generated by FAQtory

[TomJGooding]

I think this is expected behaviour?

Text("red", style="red") creates a Text instance with a base style of red. When you append Text("normal") without any style, the new text will be rendered with this base style.

You could start with empty Text as you've already done, or maybe useText.assemble instead if appropriate:

from rich.console import Console
from rich.text import Text

console = Console()

# Text append but specifying the "default" styles
text_appended = (
    Text("red", style="red")
    + Text("normal", style="default")
    + Text("blue", style="blue")
    + Text("normal", style="default")
)
console.print(text_appended)

# Text.assemble combines a sequence of strings with optional styles
text_assembled = Text.assemble(
    ("red", "red"),
    "normal",
    ("blue", "blue"),
    "normal",
)
console.print(text_assembled)

[willmcgugan]

@TomJGooding is correct as usual. The style attribute applies to the entire object. Text.assemble is the way to go. It is also more efficient.

[github-actions]

I hope I helped!

Consider sponsoring my work on Rich. I give tech support for free, in addition to maintaining Rich and Textual.

If you like using Rich, you might also enjoy Textual.

Will McGugan

[antoine-gallix]

First thanks for the fast reaction. Then, understood; adding Text to an existing Text assumes the first instance style as being the default.
Nevertheless, I was surprised by the behavior, and didn't find any explanation for it in the documentation. Do you think it might justify to add a mention of it in the documentation? Maybe something like:

When composing 'Text' instances together with '+', or using 'assemble', the style of the first element becomes the default style for subsequent elements. Specifying another style in an element overrides this default style. To ensure a neutral default style, start the assembly with an empty Text

I imagine the design decision for the documentation might be to keep it compact; but having this little paragraph might prevent some future head scratching.

What do you think? Should I try to make a doc PR?

[TomJGooding]

Sorry just to clarify, assemble is actually different from append (the equivalent using the + operator):

from rich.console import Console
from rich.text import Text

console = Console()

red_text = Text("red", style="red")
normal_text = Text("normal")

text_appended = red_text + normal_text
console.print(text_appended)
console.print(repr(text_appended))
# <text 'rednormal' [] 'red'>

text_assembled = Text.assemble(red_text, normal_text)
# NOTE: The parts can also be a tuple of string + style:
# text_assembled = Text.assemble(("red", "red"), "normal")
console.print(text_assembled)
console.print(repr(text_assembled))
# <text 'rednormal' [Span(0, 3, 'red')] ''>

[TomJGooding]

Perhaps some explanation of the base style vs spans would be helpful, but I'm not sure how this could be included without over-complicating the docs.