ActionScript 3.0 :: Making A Console Window Component?

I'm trying to make a console for text based i/o. The output window needs to be able to print char by char in multiple colors, wrap horizontally and scroll vertically.Most of that isn't a problem with the default TextField class, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting the colors right.If I use the htmlText property and wrap each character with "<font color=000000></font>" it starts a new line each time I add text.TextFormats don't seem to work at all for some reason. I do something like this:

ActionScript Code:
var tf : TextFormat = new TextFormat();
tf.color = FFFFF0;
textField.setTextFormat(tf);

...and then add the new text but nothing changes. Even if it worked, could I even use multiple TextFormats in a single textfield?I've been reading about this new "Flash Text Engine", and I'm wondering if there's some way that can help me, but I'm having trouble finding enough examples to understand how it works.