Is there a way to use html in the pattern for the title?

Drupal core does not allow HTML in node titles, so I don't think this is the right module for your use case...

I think the way I would do it is the following:
1) create a field which corresponds to your color
2) modify the node template file, read the field value and assign a node-class respectively.
3) style the title color based on the set node-class.

Instead of modifying the node template file, there may also be a preprocessing function which you can override instead.

I think this can be considered fixed :)

I would like to reopen this one because I think this module shouldn’t care about saving HTML in the title. According to Handle text in a secure fashion modules should not sanitize data when saving it to the database. It should be sanitized when displayed. Over at Automatic Node Titles the same discussion has taken place, see #878570: Do not sanitize title in function _auto_nodetitle_patternprocessor.

According to this, the line:
$output = preg_replace('/[\t\n\r\0\x0B]/', '', strip_tags($output));
could be dropped.

The consequence of dropping this particular line is that it is possible to use the HTML Title module to control the display of (certain) HTML-tags.

This issue might be related with the solution proposed in #2120055: Trim auto-generated labels.

Added a patch.

As it might be related to #2120055: Trim auto-generated labels, it may be wise to “formalize” this relation.

I don't think we should simply delete the line due to the fact that it has been part of the module for a long time and some sites might rely on it, e.g. if the use custom PHP code and don't clean up the label on their own.

However, we could definitely add a configuration option which allows to disable sanitation of labels... That option should probably include trimming as well (as described in the related issue).

Ah yes, I hadn’t thought about backwards compatibility. You’re right, although it makes it quit a bit more complicated. I don’t have a patch for that at hand, but I see what I can do.

Deleting the line $output = preg_replace('/[\t\n\r\0\x0B]/', '', strip_tags($output)); works for me. But I want a href to a file on a network drive. The html is in the title, but is readable as plain text, not as a link.

I want to have a working link with some kind of url like this one: <a href='file:///Q:\INFO\Inside\inside_55.pdf'>test</a>

Here's a patch that adds an option to strip HTML tags and only strips if the option is enabled.

it adds the option to strip HTML tags. patch is good to go.