type \b(bold)

or

type -b \b(bold)

I get exactly "\b(bold)", in the script window or in a dialog box, and not "bold". Why can I then read in the LabTalk manual, about the type command, the following note?

Note: You can also use escape sequences to format the output of text. For a complete listing of the escape sequences, see the label command.

I have made a note here for our documentation group that the Note for the type command in the LabTalk manual needs to be removed. As you discovered, the only escape sequences (\n, \r, etc.) that you can use with the type command are the ones documented.

The Script Window, Results Log and Attention dialogs all do not allow for bold, superscript, etc (\b, \+).

Origin allows you to use these special formatting commands to control the display of text labels. All text labels (those created with the Text tool, the Add Text shortcut menu command, the LabTalk label command, as well as text plotted from a Label column will display according to the special formatting rules.