How to join two Style[]d strings

Question

Does anyone know whether it is possible to combine\join two styled strings?

That is, while the following code works fine:

omega = "text";
omega<>omega

when I try to join my omegas into one string but having different colors like this

Style[omega,Lighter[Blue,.1]]<>Style[omega,Darker[LightBlue,.1]]

mma returns this error:

StringJoin::string: String expected at position 1

It's clear to me that the objects I'm trying to join have head Style not String, but may be there is a way to produce a string that has its parts painted in different colors?

Answer 1

Use Row to join them:

Omega = "text";
joined = Row[{Style[Omega, Lighter[Blue, .1]], Style[Omega, Darker[LightBlue, .1]]}];
Print[joined]

Answer 2

Given two styled items:

omega = "text"

items = { Style[omega,Lighter[Blue,.1]], Style[omega,Darker[LightBlue,.1]] }

We can produce a single string with both stylings if we convert each item into a StandardForm string prior to joining them:

Apply[StringJoin, ToString[#, StandardForm] & /@ items]

The following screenshot shows the results:

Answer 3

If you evaluate or print the following string you get what you want:

"\!\(\*StyleBox[\"text\",FontColor->RGBColor[1, 0, 0]]\) \!\(\*StyleBox[\"text\",FontColor->RGBColor[0, 0, 1]]\)"

This is a single string and it contains color information for different substrings.

Do[Print@"\!\(\*StyleBox[\"text\",FontColor->RGBColor[1, 0, 0]]\) \!\(\*StyleBox[\"text\",FontColor->RGBColor[0, 0, 1]]\)", {5}]