This script permits one to stylise their nickname with colours. It also defines a representation for colourful nicknames that is compatible with all IRC networks and is completely invisible to most IRC clients; If others are using this script, they will also be able to see the colours one defines.

A similar script has been developed for XChat by Sir_Burpalot of irc.icq.com.

On 22/06/2011 I updated this; It now has a mechanism for spanning colours across multiple characters. Still bug testing. Let me know if anything unexpected happens.

; Colourful nicknames :) version 0.2 by seb@geekycode.net

; To set colours you'll need to /set the %nickcolour_list variable, eg: /set %nickcolour_list 0407080911
; Each colour spans one character in your nickname, unless you specify a number in the "background colour"
; field; The "background colour" field is instead a length/span modifier. You can use it to cause colours to span
; multiple characters. For example:
; 04 would represent red.
; 04,0307 would represent 3 characters of red followed by orange.
; 04,0307,0608 would represent 3 characters of red followed by 6 characters of orange followed by yellow.
; The last colour spans all remaining characters of the nickname.

alias show_prefixes {
  ; Returning $false here will hide nickname prefixes in channel messages (eg. @ % +)
  return $true
}

alias Colourise {
  var %colours = $remtok({,{,},}) $3 45,56 0 32
  var %nick = $6

  noop $iif(1 == 1,$v1 $v2,$v1 $v2)
  echo -ctlbfmr $1-2 $+({,{,},}) $4 $5 $regsubex($str(*,$len(%nick)),/[*]/g,$gettok($gettok(%colours,\n,32),1,44) $+ $mid(%nick,$v1,$iif($v1 + $gettok($gettok(%colours,\n,32),2,44) == $v1 + 0,$iif($calc($v1 + 1) == 1,1,1),$iif($v1 $gettok($gettok(%colours,\n,32),2,44) == $v1 $null,$iif($calc($v1 1) == 1,1,1),$iif($calc($v1) == $gettok($gettok(%colours,\n,32),2,44),$v2,$v2))))) $7 $8
  haltdef
}

alias RemoteColourise {
  var %reColour = /(\x03\d{1,2}(?:,\d{1,2})?)(?=\x03|$)/g
  var %text = $1
  var %destination = $iif($chan != $null,$chan,$2)
  var %colour = $3
  var %begin = $4
  var %end = $5
  var %prefix = $iif($show_prefixes == $true && $left($nick($chan,$nick).pnick,1) isin $prefix,$v1,$null)
  noop $regsubex($1,%reColour,$iif(\n == 1,$Colourise(%colour,%destination,\a,%begin,%prefix,$nick,%end,%text)))
}

on ^1:TEXT:*:*: {
  noop $RemoteColourise($1-,$nick,Normal,<,>)
}

on ^1:NOTICE:*:*: {
  noop $RemoteColourise($1-,$nick,Notice,-,$+(,$iif($chan != $null,: $+ $chan),-))
}

on ^1:ACTION:*:*: {
  noop $RemoteColourise($1-,$nick,Action,* ,)
}

on 1:INPUT:*: {
  var %reException = /^\/(me|notice)$/
  if ($chan == #c || %nickcolour_list == $null || $ctrlenter == $true || ($left($1,1) == / && $regex($1,%reException) == 0)) {
    return
  }
  else if ($1 == /me) {
    noop $RemoteColourise($2- %nickcolour_list,$target,Action,* ,)
    .describe $target $+({,{,{) $2- 45,56 %nickcolour_list
  }
  else if ($1 == /notice) {
    .notice $2 $+({,{,{) $3- 45,56 %nickcolour_list
    echo -> $+(-,$2,-) $3-
  }
  else {
    noop $RemoteColourise($1- %nickcolour_list,$target,Own,<,>)
    .msg $target $+({,{,{) $1- 45,56 %nickcolour_list
  }
  halt
}