Why does my TMP text show literal color tags instead of color?

Rich Text checkbox is off. Enable Rich Text on the TMP Text/InputField/etc. Without it, tags display as literal text characters.

Style sheet alternative?

TMP Style Sheet for reusable color tokens. Reference via <style="Highlight">...</style>. Cleaner than inline tags for multilingual text.

Smart Strings in Unity Localization parse format tokens including TMP rich text. Set Format Provider to enable per-string colors.

Quick answer: Enable Rich Text on the TMP component. Tags then parse instead of rendering literally.

Display "<color=red>Hit</color>" as red. Shows the literal angle brackets instead. Rich Text was off.

TextMeshProUGUI inspector:
  Rich Text:    true

// or via script
text.richText = true;
text.text = "<color=red>Hit</color> Critical!";

Rich Text is per-component flag. Enable for any component that should parse formatting.

Color tags render colored. Without flag: tags appear as literal characters.

“Rich Text on. Tags parse.”

For TMP atlas missing glyph, see atlas glyph. For TMP InputField caret, see caret.

Rich Text on. Color renders.