Ren'Py Auto Name Highlighter

Want character names to be colored in your script, but tired of manually adding {color=#ff0000}Bob{/color} every time a name appears? Want important plot-related words to always stand out?

With this plugin, your Ren'Py dialogue automatically highlights character names and specific words in different colors.

✨ Features

• Automatic Character Name Highlighting – Pulls names directly from your script and recolors them.
• Custom Keyword Highlighting – Define a list of important words to always appear in a specific color, separately to the recolored names.
• Easily enable, disable, or customize highlighting settings.
• Highlights names only when they appear as full words, so "Tom" won’t highlight in "Tomato."

✨ Automatic Character Name Highlighting Example

This plugin automatically creates a list of names based on your characters.

define e = Character("Eileen")
define b = Character("Bill")
define j = Character("James")
define b = Character("Bob")

label start:
    $ character_names = get_all_character_names()
 
    "Bob and James won't be joining her."
    "Bob bob Bobby"

Then, it will highlight the names in your text in a color of your choosing!

It will only highlight the name if it appears as a full word. 

✨ Manual Highlighting Example

Optionally, you can also add whatever words you would like to a list, and these words will highlight in a color of your choosing, too.

define highlight_words = {"Placeholder1", "Placeholder2"}  # Change/add words here to change their color

✨ How do I use it?

1. Drop the script file (auto_highlighter.rpy) into your Ren'Py project's game/ folder.

2. Open the script and modify the settings to your liking:

define enable_character_name_highlighting = True  
define highlight_words = {"Placeholder1", "Placeholder2"}  
define highlight_color_words = "#ff0000"  
define highlight_color_names = "#ff0000" 

3. Make sure this line is included in your start label to update character names:

$ persistent.character_names = get_all_character_names()

4. Done! All character names will now be automatically highlighted, plus any words you put in 'highlight_words'.

✨ Terms of Use

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 – Feel free to use, modify, and share with credit!

Feel free to:

• Use this code for any project you'd like - commercial or otherwise.
• Modify/edit the code to your liking