My i3status bar is a long line of numbers that aren't immediately meaningful. Is it possible to make certain things different colours (eg, make the time/date blue) to make it easier to find the info I want at a glance?
It is possible. The i3bar protocol descriptions explains how to do this in detail.
Without going into details, the input to i3bar has to be encoded in the JSON format. To change the color of a specific entry, you have to add the color attributed. For instance, in the following example, the date would be red and the time would be green:
...
{ "full_text": "Jun 2, 2015", "color": "#ff0000"},
{ "full_text": "19:59", "color": "#00ff00"},
...
Asked: 2015-06-02 19:56:38 +0000
Seen: 107 times
Last updated: Jun 03
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