How to change the output color of echo in Linux

Question

I am trying to print a text in the terminal using echo command    I want to print the text in a red color  How can I do that

User · Answer

some variables that you can use    Reset Color Off   033 0m          Text Reset    Regular Colors Black   033 0 30m           Black Red   033 0 31m             Red Green   033 0 32m           Green Yellow   033 0 33m          Yellow Blue   033 0 34m            Blue Purple   033 0 35m          Purple Cyan   033 0 36m            Cyan White   033 0 37m           White    Bold BBlack   033 1 30m          Black BRed   033 1 31m            Red BGreen   033 1 32m          Green BYellow   033 1 33m         Yellow BBlue   033 1 34m           Blue BPurple   033 1 35m         Purple BCyan   033 1 36m           Cyan BWhite   033 1 37m          White    Underline UBlack   033 4 30m          Black URed   033 4 31m            Red UGreen   033 4 32m          Green UYellow   033 4 33m         Yellow UBlue   033 4 34m           Blue UPurple   033 4 35m         Purple UCyan   033 4 36m           Cyan UWhite   033 4 37m          White    Background On Black   033 40m          Black On Red   033 41m            Red On Green   033 42m          Green On Yellow   033 43m         Yellow On Blue   033 44m           Blue On Purple   033 45m         Purple On Cyan   033 46m           Cyan On White   033 47m          White    High Intensity IBlack   033 0 90m          Black IRed   033 0 91m            Red IGreen   033 0 92m          Green IYellow   033 0 93m         Yellow IBlue   033 0 94m           Blue IPurple   033 0 95m         Purple ICyan   033 0 96m           Cyan IWhite   033 0 97m          White    Bold High Intensity BIBlack   033 1 90m         Black BIRed   033 1 91m           Red BIGreen   033 1 92m         Green BIYellow   033 1 93m        Yellow BIBlue   033 1 94m          Blue BIPurple   033 1 95m        Purple BICyan   033 1 96m          Cyan BIWhite   033 1 97m         White    High Intensity backgrounds On IBlack   033 0 100m      Black On IRed   033 0 101m        Red On IGreen   033 0 102m      Green On IYellow   033 0 103m     Yellow On IBlue   033 0 104m       Blue On IPurple   033 0 105m     Purple On ICyan   033 0 106m       Cyan On IWhite   033 0 107m      White    the escape character in bash  hex and octal respectively            bash    hex      octal     NOTE                            ------- ------- -------- --------- ------------------------------    start    e       x1b      033                                       start    E       x1B     -         x cannot be capital              end      e 0m    x1m0m    033 0m                                    end      e m     x1b m    033 m    0 is appended if you omit it                                                                        short example    color         bash           hex              octal            NOTE                                     ------------- -------------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------    start green    e 32m lt text gt     x1b 32m lt text gt     033 32m lt text gt    m is NOT optional                         reset          lt text gt  e 0m     lt text gt  1xb 0m     lt text gt  033 om    o is optional  do it as best practice                                                                                                             bash exception  If you are going to use these codes in your special bash variables  PS0 PS1 PS2    this is for prompting  PS4  you should add extra escape characters so that bash can interpret them correctly  Without this adding extra escape characters it works but you will face problems when you use Ctrl   r for search in your history  exception rule for bash You should add    before any starting ANSI code and add    after any ending ones  Example  in regular usage    033 32mThis is in green 033 0m for PS0 1 2 4         033 32m  This is in green   033 m      is for start of a sequence of non-printable characters    is for end of a sequence of non-printable characters Tip  for memorize it you can first add      and then put your ANSI code between them     start-ANSI-code     end-ANSI-code    type of color sequence   3 4 bit 8 bit 24 bit  Before diving into these colors  you should know about 4 modes with these codes  1  color-mode It modifies the style of color NOT text  For example make the color bright or darker   0  reset 1   lighter than normal 2  darker than normal  This mode is not supported widely  It is fully support on Gnome-Terminal  2  text-mode This mode is for modifying the style of text NOT color   3  italic 4  underline 5  blinking  slow  6  blinking  fast  7  reverse 8  hide 9  cross-out  and are almost supported  For example KDE-Konsole supports 5  but Gnome-Terminal does not and Gnome supports 8  but KDE does not  3  foreground mode This mode is for colorizing the foreground  4  background mode This mode is for colorizing the background    The below table shows a summary of 3 4 bit version of ANSI-color  ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------    color-mode   octal      hex       bash    description        example    in octal            NOTE                                    ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------             0    033 0m     x1b 0m    e 0m   reset any affect   echo -e  quot  033 0m quot               0m equals to m                                    1    033 1m                      light    bright    echo -e  quot  033 1m     033 m quot     -                                                 2    033 2m                      dark    fade       echo -e  quot  033 2m     033 m quot     -                                       ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------     text-mode                                                                                                                          ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------             3    033 3m                      italic             echo -e  quot  033 3m     033 m quot                                                       4    033 4m                      underline          echo -e  quot  033 4m     033 m quot                                                       5    033 5m                      blink  slow        echo -e  quot  033 3m     033 m quot                                                       6    033 6m                      blink  fast                                       not wildly support                                7    003 7m                      reverse            echo -e  quot  033 7m     033 m quot     it affects the background foreground              8    033 8m                      hide               echo -e  quot  033 8m     033 m quot     it affects the background foreground              9    033 9m                      cross              echo -e  quot  033 9m     033 m quot                                             ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------    foreground                                                                                                                          ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------            30    033 30m                     black              echo -e  quot  033 30m     033 m quot                                                     31    033 31m                     red                echo -e  quot  033 31m     033 m quot                                                     32    033 32m                     green              echo -e  quot  033 32m     033 m quot                                                     33    033 33m                     yellow             echo -e  quot  033 33m     033 m quot                                                     34    033 34m                     blue               echo -e  quot  033 34m     033 m quot                                                     35    033 35m                     purple             echo -e  quot  033 35m     033 m quot    real name  magenta   reddish-purple              36    033 36m                     cyan               echo -e  quot  033 36m     033 m quot                                                     37    033 37m                     white              echo -e  quot  033 37m     033 m quot                                            ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------            38   8 24                          This is for special use of 8-bit or 24-bit                                               ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------    background                                                                                                                          ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------            40    033 40m                     black              echo -e  quot  033 40m     033 m quot                                                     41    033 41m                     red                echo -e  quot  033 41m     033 m quot                                                     42    033 42m                     green              echo -e  quot  033 42m     033 m quot                                                     43    033 43m                     yellow             echo -e  quot  033 43m     033 m quot                                                     44    033 44m                     blue               echo -e  quot  033 44m     033 m quot                                                     45    033 45m                     purple             echo -e  quot  033 45m     033 m quot    real name  magenta   reddish-purple              46    033 46m                     cyan               echo -e  quot  033 46m     033 m quot                                                     47    033 47m                     white              echo -e  quot  033 47m     033 m quot                                            ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------            48   8 24                          This is for special use of 8-bit or 24-bit                                                                                                                                       ------------ ---------- --------- ------- ------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------      The below table shows a summary of 8 bit version of ANSI-color  ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------------ ------------------------------------ -------------------------    foreground   octal       hex         bash      description        example                              NOTE                       ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------------ ------------------------------------ -------------------------           0-7    033 38 5    x1b 38 5    e 38 5   standard  normal   echo -e   033 38 5 1m     033 m                                        8-15                                     standard  light    echo -e   033 38 5 9m     033 m                                      16-231                                     more resolution    echo -e   033 38 5 45m     033 m     has no specific pattern        232-255                                                        echo -e   033 38 5 242m     033 m    from black to white        ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------------ ------------------------------------ -------------------------    foreground   octal       hex         bash      description        example                              NOTE                       ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------------ ------------------------------------ -------------------------           0-7                                     standard  normal   echo -e   033 48 5 1m     033 m                                        8-15                                     standard  light    echo -e   033 48 5 9m     033 m                                      16-231                                     more resolution    echo -e   033 48 5 45m     033 m                                    232-255                                                        echo -e   033 48 5 242m     033 m    from black to white        ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------------ ------------------------------------ -------------------------   The 8-bit fast test  for code in  0  255   do echo -e  quot  e 38 05   code m  code  Test quot   done   The below table shows a summary of 24 bit version of ANSI-color  ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------- ------------------------------------------ -----------------    foreground   octal       hex         bash      description   example                                    NOTE               ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------- ------------------------------------------ -----------------         0-255    033 38 2    x1b 38 2    e 38 2   R   red       echo -e   033 38 2 255 0 02m     033 m     R 255  G 0  B 0          0-255    033 38 2    x1b 38 2    e 38 2   G   green     echo -e   033 38 2  0 255 02m     033 m    R 0  G 255  B 0          0-255    033 38 2    x1b 38 2    e 38 2   B   blue      echo -e   033 38 2 0 0 2552m     033 m     R 0  G 0  B 255    ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------- ------------------------------------------ -----------------    background   octal       hex         bash      description   example                                    NOTE               ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------- ------------------------------------------ -----------------         0-255    033 48 2    x1b 48 2    e 48 2   R   red       echo -e   033 48 2 255 0 02m     033 m     R 255  G 0  B 0          0-255    033 48 2    x1b 48 2    e 48 2   G   green     echo -e   033 48 2  0 255 02m     033 m    R 0  G 255  B 0          0-255    033 48 2    x1b 48 2    e 48 2   B   blue      echo -e   033 48 2 0 0 2552m     033 m     R 0  G 0  B 255    ------------ ----------- ----------- --------- ------------- ------------------------------------------ -----------------     some screen-shots foreground 8-bit summary in a  gif  background 8-bit summary in a  gif  color summary with their values     blinking on KDE-Terminal    a simple  C  code that shows you more     a more advanced tool that I developed to deal with these colors        color-mode shot  text mode shot  combining is OK  more shots  Tips and Tricks for Advanced Users and Programmers  Can we use these codes in a programming language  Yes  you can  I experienced in bash  c  c    d perl  python Do they slow down the speed of a program  I think  NO  Can we use these on Windows  3 4-bit Yes  if you compile the code with gcc some screen-shots on Win-7 How to calculate the length of code   033    2  other parts 1 Where can we use these codes  Anywhere that has a tty interpreter xterm  gnome-terminal  kde-terminal  mysql-client-CLI and so on  For example if you want to colorize your output with mysql you can use Perl    usr bin perl -n print  quot  033 1m 033 31m 1 033 36m 2 033 32m 3 033 33m 4 033 m quot  while      -      0-9      a-zA-Z         w   g   store this code in a file name  pcc    Perl Colorize Character  and then put the file a in valid PATH then use it anywhere you like  ls   pcc df   pcc inside mysql first register it for pager and then try   user2 db2  pager pcc PAGER set to  pcc   user2 db2  select   from table-name    It does NOT handle Unicode  Do these codes only do colorizing  No  they can do a lot of interesting things  Try  echo -e   033 2K     clear the screen and do not move the position  or  echo -e   033 2J 033 u    clear the screen and reset the position  There are a lot of beginners that want to clear the screen with system   quot clear quot    so you can use this instead of system 3  call Are they available in Unicode  Yes   u001b Which version of these colors is preferable  It is easy to use 3 4-bit  but it is much accurate and beautiful to use 24-bit  If you do not have experience with html so here is a quick tutorial  24 bits means   00000000 and 00000000 and 00000000  Each 8-bit is for a specific color  1  8 is for  and 9  16 for  and 17  24 for  So in html  FF0000 means  and here it is  255 0 0 in html  00FF00 means  which here is  0 255 0 Does that make sense  what color you want combine it with these three 8-bit values   reference  Wikipedia ANSI escape sequences tldp org tldp org misc flogisoft com some blogs web-pages that I do not remember

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I instead of hard coding escape codes that are specific to your current terminal  you should use tput   This is my favorite demo script      bin bash  tput init  end       tput colors -1    w 8 for c in   seq 0  end   do     eval    printf  tput setaf  3s       c     echo -n              c -ge     w 2        amp  amp  offset 2    offset 0            c offset     w-offset    -eq     w-offset -1       amp  amp  echo done  tput init

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To expand on this answer  for the lazy of us   function echocolor        1   string     COLOR   033 1 33m      NC   033 0m      printf    COLOR  1  NC  n     echo  This won t be colored  echocolor  This will be colorful

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I found Shakiba Moshiri s awesome answer while I was looking info on that topic    then I had an idea    and it ended up in a quite nice function extremely easy to use  So I ve to share it   https   github com ppo bash-colors  Usage    c  lt flags gt   inside an echo -e or printf    ------------------------------------     ------------------------------------      Code     Style              Octal            Code     Style              Octal         ------- ----------------- ----------      ------- ----------------- ----------         -      Foreground          033 3             B      Bold                033 1m                  Background          033 4             U      Underline           033 4m       ------- ----------------- ----------          F      Flash blink         033 5m           k      Black                    0m           N      Negative            033 7m           r      Red                      1m       ------- ----------------- ----------         g      Green                    2m           L      Normal  unbold      033 22m          y      Yellow                   3m           0      Reset               033 0m           b      Blue                     4m       ------------------------------------        m      Magenta                  5m          c      Cyan                     6m          w      White                    7m      ------------------------------------    Examples   echo -e    c 0wB Bold white  c  and normal  echo -e  Normal text      c r yB BOLD red text on yellow background      c  w now on   white background      c 0U  reset and underline      c  and back to normal

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I ve written swag to achieve just that  You can just do pip install swag  Now you can install all the escape commands as txt files to a given destination via  swag install -d  lt colorsdir gt   Or even easier via  swag install  Which will install the colors to    colors  Either you use them like this  echo   cat    colors blue txt  This will be blue  Or this way  which I find actually more interesting  swag print -c red -t underline  quot I will turn red and be underlined quot   Check it out on asciinema

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echo -e   033 31m Hello World    The  31m controls the text color    30-37 sets foreground color 40-47 sets background color   A more complete list of color codes can be found here   It is good practice to reset the text color back to  033 0m at the end of the string

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Use tput with the setaf capability and a parameter of 1   echo    tput setaf 1 Hello  world  tput sgr0

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to show the message output with diffrent color you can make    echo -e   033 31 1mYour Message 033 0m       -Black        0 30     Dark Gray     1 30      -Red          0 31     Light Red     1 31      -Green        0 32     Light Green   1 32      -Brown Orange 0 33     Yellow        1 33      -Blue         0 34     Light Blue    1 34      -Purple       0 35     Light Purple  1 35      -Cyan         0 36     Light Cyan    1 36      -Light Gray   0 37     White         1 37

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This question has been answered over and over again  -  but why not   First using tput is more portable in modern environments than manually injecting ASCII codes through echo -E   Here s a quick bash function    say          echo        sed                -e  s        red  green  yellow  blue  magenta  cyan  white  reset  b  u             2             2    1 4 reset g                 -e  s  red   tput setaf 1  g                 -e  s  green   tput setaf 2  g                 -e  s  yellow   tput setaf 3  g                 -e  s  blue   tput setaf 4  g                 -e  s  magenta   tput setaf 5  g                 -e  s  cyan   tput setaf 6  g                 -e  s  white   tput setaf 7  g                 -e  s  reset   tput sgr0  g                 -e  s  b   tput bold  g                 -e  s  u   tput sgr 0 1  g        Now you can use    say  b green  Success      to get     Notes on portability of tput  First time tput 1  source code was uploaded in September 1986  tput 1  has been available in X Open curses semantics in 1990s  1997 standard has the semantics mentioned below    So  it s  quite  ubiquitous

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For readability If you want to improve the readability of the code  you can echo the string first then add the color later by using sed  echo  Hello World     sed   s World  e 1m amp  e 0m

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A neat way to change color only for one echo is to define such function   function coloredEcho        local exp  1      local color  2      if       color       0-9         then        case   echo  color   tr    upper       lower     in         black  color 0            red  color 1            green  color 2            yellow  color 3            blue  color 4            magenta  color 5            cyan  color 6            white    color 7      white or invalid color        esac     fi     tput setaf  color      echo  exp      tput sgr0      Usage   coloredEcho  This text is green  green   Or you could directly use color codes mentioned in Drew s answer   coloredEcho  This text is green  2

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red   e 0 31m  NC   e 0m    No Color echo -e    red Hello Stackoverflow  NC     This answer correct  except that the call to colors should not be inside the quotes   echo -e   red  Hello Stackoverflow   NC    Should do the trick

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If you are using zsh or bash  black         echo -e   e 30m  1  e 0m     red         echo -e   e 31m  1  e 0m     green         echo -e   e 32m  1  e 0m     yellow         echo -e   e 33m  1  e 0m     blue         echo -e   e 34m  1  e 0m     magenta         echo -e   e 35m  1  e 0m     cyan         echo -e   e 36m  1  e 0m     gray         echo -e   e 90m  1  e 0m     black  BLACK  red  RED  green  GREEN  yellow  YELLOW  blue  BLUE  magenta  MAGENTA  cyan  CYAN  gray  GRAY    Try online

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I have just amalgamated the good catches in all solutions and ended up with   cecho        RED   033 0 31m      GREEN   033 0 32m      YELLOW   033 1 33m            ADD MORE COLORS     NC   033 0m    No Color      printf     1   2    NC  n      And you can just call it as   cecho  RED   Helloworld

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These codes work on my Ubuntu box     echo -e   x1B 31m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 32m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 96m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 96m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 95m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 94m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 93m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 91m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 90m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 89m foobar  x1B 0m  echo -e   x1B 01 36m foobar  x1B 0m    This prints the letters a b c d all in different colors   echo -e   x1B 0 93m a  x1B 0m b  x1B 0 92m c  x1B 0 93m d  x1B 0 94m    For loop   for    i   0  i  lt  17  i        do echo    tput setaf  i This is   i    tput sgr0     done

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This is the color switch  033   See history   Color codes are like 1 32  Light Green   0 34  Blue   1 34  Light Blue   etc   We terminate color sequences with a color switch  033  and 0m  the no-color code  Just like opening and closing tabs in a markup language     SWITCH   033     NORMAL    SWITCH 0m    YELLOW    SWITCH 1 33m    echo    YELLOW hello  yellow  NORMAL     Simple color echo function solution   cecho       local code   033     case   1  in     black    bk  color    code 0 30m        red       r  color    code 1 31m        green     g  color    code 1 32m        yellow    y  color    code 1 33m        blue      b  color    code 1 34m        purple    p  color    code 1 35m        cyan      c  color    code 1 36m        gray     gr  color    code 0 37m           local text   1    esac     -z   text     amp  amp  local text   color 2  code 0m    echo   text     cecho  Normal  cecho y  Yellow

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Use tput to calculate color codes  Avoid using the ANSI escape code  e g   E 31 1m for red  because it s less portable  Bash on OS X  for example  does not support it   BLACK  tput setaf 0  RED  tput setaf 1  GREEN  tput setaf 2  YELLOW  tput setaf 3  BLUE  tput setaf 4  MAGENTA  tput setaf 5  CYAN  tput setaf 6  WHITE  tput setaf 7   BOLD  tput bold  RESET  tput sgr0   echo -e  hello   RED some red text  RESET  world

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You should definitely use tput over raw ANSI control sequences      Because there s a large number of different terminal control   languages  usually a system has an intermediate communication layer    The real codes are looked up in a database for the currently detected   terminal type and you give standardized requests to an API or  from   the shell  to a command       One of these commands is tput   tput accepts a set of acronyms called   capability names and any parameters  if appropriate  then looks up the   correct escape sequences for the detected terminal in the terminfo   database and prints the correct codes  the terminal hopefully   understands     from http   wiki bash-hackers org scripting terminalcodes  That said  I wrote a small helper library called bash-tint  which adds another layer on top of tput  making it even simpler to use  imho    Example   tint  white Cyan T Magenta I Yellow N Black T   is bold really  easy to use     Would give the following result

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Here there is a simple script to easily manage the text style in bash shell promt  https   github com ferromauro bash-palette Import the code using  source bash-palette sh  Use the imported variable in echo command  use the -e option    echo -e   PALETTE GREEN Color Green  PALETTE RESET   It is possible to combine more elements  echo -e   PALETTE GREEN   PALETTE BLINK   PALETTE RED U Green Blinking Text over Red Background  PALETTE RESET

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My riff on Tobias  answer    Color RED   033 0 31m  GREEN   033 0 32m  YELLOW   033 0 33m  NC   033 0m    No Color  function red       printf  quot   RED     NC  n quot     function green       printf  quot   GREEN     NC  n quot     function yellow       printf  quot   YELLOW     NC  n quot

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I m using this for color printing     bin bash  --------------------------------------------------------------------   Color picker  usage  printf  BLD CUR RED BBLU Hello World   DEF        ------------------------- -------------------------------- ---------          Text color                Background color                      ----------- ------------- -------------- -----------------              Base color Lighter shade  Base color     Lighter shade                ----------- ------------- -------------- -----------------            BLK   e 30m   blk   e 90m   BBLK   e 40m   bblk   e 100m     Black     RED   e 31m   red   e 91m   BRED   e 41m   bred   e 101m     Red       GRN   e 32m   grn   e 92m   BGRN   e 42m   bgrn   e 102m     Green     YLW   e 33m   ylw   e 93m   BYLW   e 43m   bylw   e 103m     Yellow    BLU   e 34m   blu   e 94m   BBLU   e 44m   bblu   e 104m     Blue      MGN   e 35m   mgn   e 95m   BMGN   e 45m   bmgn   e 105m     Magenta   CYN   e 36m   cyn   e 96m   BCYN   e 46m   bcyn   e 106m     Cyan      WHT   e 37m   wht   e 97m   BWHT   e 47m   bwht   e 107m     White      -------------------------  Effects  ---------------------- ---------  DEF   e 0m     Default color and effects                               BLD   e 1m     Bold brighter                                           DIM   e 2m     Dim darker                                              CUR   e 3m     Italic font                                             UND   e 4m     Underline                                               INV   e 7m     Inverted                                                COF   e  25l   Cursor Off                                              CON   e  25h   Cursor On                                                ------------------------  Functions  -------------------------------    Text positioning  usage  XY 10 10  Hello World                       XY      printf   e  2   1 H 3                                            Print line  usage  line - 10   line -  20   line  Hello World   20   line      printf -v  L   2s  printf --     L     1                       Create sequence like  0   X-1                                        que      printf -v  N   1s   N     N     1    printf      N             --------------------------------------------------------------------    All basic colors set as vars and also there are some usefull functions  XY  line and que  Source this script in one of yours and use all color vars and functions

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You can use these ANSI escape codes  Black        0 30     Dark Gray     1 30 Red          0 31     Light Red     1 31 Green        0 32     Light Green   1 32 Brown Orange 0 33     Yellow        1 33 Blue         0 34     Light Blue    1 34 Purple       0 35     Light Purple  1 35 Cyan         0 36     Light Cyan    1 36 Light Gray   0 37     White         1 37  And then use them like this in your script        ---------- constant part       vvvv vvvv-- the code from above RED   033 0 31m  NC   033 0m    No Color printf  quot I   RED love  NC  Stack Overflow n quot   which prints love in red  From  james-lim s comment  if you are using the echo command  be sure to use the -e flag to allow backslash escapes    Continued from above example echo -e  quot I   RED love  NC  Stack Overflow quot    don t add  quot  n quot  when using echo unless you want to add an additional empty line

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My favourite answer so far is coloredEcho   Just to post another option  you can check out this little tool xcol  https   ownyourbits com 2017 01 23 colorize-your-stdout-with-xcol   you use it just like grep  and it will colorize its stdin with a different color for each argument  for instance  sudo netstat -putan   xcol httpd sshd dnsmasq pulseaudio conky tor Telegram firefox     digit         digit         digit         digit           digit       tcp    udp   LISTEN ESTABLISHED TIME WAIT     Note that it accepts any regular expression that sed will accept   This tool uses the following definitions   normal   tput sgr0                         normal text normal    e 0m                               works better sometimes  bold   tput bold                            make colors bold bright red   bold  tput setaf 1                    bright red text green   tput setaf 2                        dim green text fawn   tput setaf 3   beige   fawn          dark yellow text yellow   bold fawn                          bright yellow text darkblue   tput setaf 4                     dim blue text blue   bold darkblue                        bright blue text purple   tput setaf 5   magenta   purple    magenta text pink   bold purple                          bright magenta text darkcyan   tput setaf 6                     dim cyan text cyan   bold darkcyan                        bright cyan text gray   tput setaf 7                         dim white text darkgray   bold   tput setaf 0              bold black   dark gray text white   bold gray                           bright white text   I use these variables in my scripts like so  echo    red hello   yellow this is   green coloured  normal

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You can use the awesome tput command  suggested in Ignacio s answer  to produce terminal control codes for all kinds of things     Usage  Specific tput sub-commands are discussed later   Direct  Call tput as part of a sequence of commands   tput setaf 1  echo  this is red text    Use   instead of  amp  amp  so if tput errors the text still shows   Shell variables  Another option is to use shell variables   red  tput setaf 1  green  tput setaf 2  reset  tput sgr0  echo    red red text   green green text  reset     tput produces character sequences that are interpreted by the terminal as having a special meaning  They will not be shown themselves  Note that they can still be saved into files or processed as input by programs other than the terminal   Command substitution  It may be more convenient to insert tput s output directly into your echo strings using command substitution   echo    tput setaf 1 Red text   tput setab 7 and white background  tput sgr 0       Example  The above command produces this on Ubuntu       Foreground  amp  background colour commands  tput setab  1-7    Set the background colour using ANSI escape tput setaf  1-7    Set the foreground colour using ANSI escape   Colours are as follows   Num  Colour     define         R G B  0    black     COLOR BLACK     0 0 0 1    red       COLOR RED       1 0 0 2    green     COLOR GREEN     0 1 0 3    yellow    COLOR YELLOW    1 1 0 4    blue      COLOR BLUE      0 0 1 5    magenta   COLOR MAGENTA   1 0 1 6    cyan      COLOR CYAN      0 1 1 7    white     COLOR WHITE     1 1 1   There are also non-ANSI versions of the colour setting functions  setb instead of setab  and setf instead of setaf  which use different numbers  not given here   Text mode commands  tput bold      Select bold mode tput dim       Select dim  half-bright  mode tput smul      Enable underline mode tput rmul      Disable underline mode tput rev       Turn on reverse video mode tput smso      Enter standout  bold  mode tput rmso      Exit standout mode   Cursor movement commands  tput cup Y X   Move cursor to screen postion X Y  top left is 0 0  tput cuf N     Move N characters forward  right  tput cub N     Move N characters back  left  tput cuu N     Move N lines up tput ll        Move to last line  first column  if no cup  tput sc        Save the cursor position tput rc        Restore the cursor position tput lines     Output the number of lines of the terminal tput cols      Output the number of columns of the terminal   Clear and insert commands  tput ech N     Erase N characters tput clear     Clear screen and move the cursor to 0 0 tput el 1      Clear to beginning of line tput el        Clear to end of line tput ed        Clear to end of screen tput ich N     Insert N characters  moves rest of line forward   tput il N      Insert N lines   Other commands  tput sgr0      Reset text format to the terminal s default tput bel       Play a bell   With compiz wobbly windows  the bel command makes the terminal wobble for a second to draw the user s attention     Scripts  tput accepts scripts containing one command per line  which are executed in order before tput exits   Avoid temporary files by echoing a multiline string and piping it   echo -e  setf 7 nsetb 1    tput -S    set fg white and bg red     See also   See man 1 tput See man 5 terminfo for the complete list of commands and more details on these options   The corresponding tput command is listed in the Cap-name column of the huge table that starts at line 81

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Here is the simplest and readable solution   With bashj  https   sourceforge net projects bashj    you would simply choose one of these lines      usr bin bash  W  Hello world   echo  W  R 130 G 60 B 190  echo u colored  R  G  B  W   echo u colored 255 127 0  W  echo u red  W  echo u bold  W  echo u italic  W   Y u yellow  W  echo  Y echo u bold  Y    256x256x256 colors are available if you have the color support in your terminal application

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And this what I used to see all combination and decide which reads cool   for    i   0  i  lt  8  i       do     for    j   0  j  lt  8  j       do         printf    tput setab  i   tput setaf  j  b  i  f  j   tput sgr0  n      done done

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We can use 24 Bits RGB true colors for both text and background    ESC 38 2  r   g   b m    Foreground color    ESC 48 2  r   g   b m    Background color     Example red text and closing tag    echo -e   e 38 2 255 0 0mHello world e 0m    Generator   x000D   x000D  text addEventListener  input  update  x000D  back addEventListener  input  update  x000D   x000D  function update    x000D    let a   text value substr 1  match    1 2  g  x000D    let b   back value substr 1  match    1 2  g  x000D    out1 textContent    echo -e          033 38 2   parseInt a 0  16     parseInt a 1  16     parseInt a 2  16  mHello    x000D    out2 textContent    echo -e          033 48 2   parseInt b 0  16     parseInt b 1  16     parseInt b 2  16  mWorld     x000D    x000D  div  padding 1rem font-size larger  x000D  TEXT COLOR   lt input type  color  id  text  value   23233  gt  x000D   lt br gt  lt div id  out1  gt  lt  div gt  x000D  BACK COLOR   lt input type  color  id  back  value   FFFF00  gt  x000D   lt br gt  lt div id  out2  gt  x000D   x000D   x000D       24-bit  As  true color  graphic cards with 16 to 24 bits of color   became common  Xterm KDE s Konsole  as well as all libvte   based terminals  including GNOME  Terminal  support 24-bit   foreground and background color setting   https   en wikipedia org wiki ANSI escape code 24-bit   Is it safe to use in my scripts   Yes  8 and 16 bits terminals will just display as fallback a color on the range of the available palette  keeping the best contrast  no breakages      Also  nobody noticed the usefulness of the ANSI code 7 reversed video   It stay readable on any terminal schemes colors  black or white backgrounds  or other fancies palettes  by swapping foreground and background colors   Example  for a red background that works everywhere   echo -e   033 31 7mHello world e 0m     This is how it looks when changing the terminal built-in schemes     This is the loop script used for the gif   for i in  30  49  do echo -e   033  i 7mReversed color code  i e 0m Hello world   done   See https   en wikipedia org wiki ANSI escape code SGR  Select Graphic Rendition  parameters

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Thanks to  k-five for this answer declare -A colors  curl www bunlongheng com code colors png    Reset colors Color Off    033 0m          Text Reset    Regular Colors colors Black    033 0 30m           Black colors Red    033 0 31m             Red colors Green    033 0 32m           Green colors Yellow    033 0 33m          Yellow colors Blue    033 0 34m            Blue colors Purple    033 0 35m          Purple colors Cyan    033 0 36m            Cyan colors White    033 0 37m           White    Bold colors BBlack    033 1 30m          Black colors BRed    033 1 31m            Red colors BGreen    033 1 32m          Green colors BYellow    033 1 33m         Yellow colors BBlue    033 1 34m           Blue colors BPurple    033 1 35m         Purple colors BCyan    033 1 36m           Cyan colors BWhite    033 1 37m          White    Underline colors UBlack    033 4 30m          Black colors URed    033 4 31m            Red colors UGreen    033 4 32m          Green colors UYellow    033 4 33m         Yellow colors UBlue    033 4 34m           Blue colors UPurple    033 4 35m         Purple colors UCyan    033 4 36m           Cyan colors UWhite    033 4 37m          White    Background colors On Black    033 40m          Black colors On Red    033 41m            Red colors On Green    033 42m          Green colors On Yellow    033 43m         Yellow colors On Blue    033 44m           Blue colors On Purple    033 45m         Purple colors On Cyan    033 46m           Cyan colors On White    033 47m          White    High Intensity colors IBlack    033 0 90m          Black colors IRed    033 0 91m            Red colors IGreen    033 0 92m          Green colors IYellow    033 0 93m         Yellow colors IBlue    033 0 94m           Blue colors IPurple    033 0 95m         Purple colors ICyan    033 0 96m           Cyan colors IWhite    033 0 97m          White    Bold High Intensity colors BIBlack    033 1 90m         Black colors BIRed    033 1 91m           Red colors BIGreen    033 1 92m         Green colors BIYellow    033 1 93m        Yellow colors BIBlue    033 1 94m          Blue colors BIPurple    033 1 95m        Purple colors BICyan    033 1 96m          Cyan colors BIWhite    033 1 97m         White    High Intensity backgrounds colors On IBlack    033 0 100m      Black colors On IRed    033 0 101m        Red colors On IGreen    033 0 102m      Green colors On IYellow    033 0 103m     Yellow colors On IBlue    033 0 104m       Blue colors On IPurple    033 0 105m     Purple colors On ICyan    033 0 106m       Cyan colors On IWhite    033 0 107m      White   color   colors  input color   white   colors White     echo  white    for i in  quot    colors     quot  do   echo -e  quot  i     colors  i  I love you white quot  done   Result  Hope this image help you to pick your color for your bash  D

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You may  quot combined quot  colours and text-mode     bin bash  echo red text   black background   Reverse   echo  quot  033 31 7mHello world e 0m quot   echo -e  quot  033 31 7mHello world e 0m quot   echo  echo yellow text   red background echo  quot  033 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo -e  quot  033 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo  quot  033 0 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo -e  quot  033 0 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo  echo yellow BOLD text   red background echo  quot  033 1 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo -e  quot  033 1 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo  echo yellow BOLD text underline   red background echo  quot  033 1 4 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo -e  quot  033 1 4 32 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo  quot  033 1 32 4 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo -e  quot  033 1 32 4 41mHello world e 0m quot   echo  quot  033 4 32 41 1mHello world e 0m quot   echo -e  quot  033 4 32 41 1mHello world e 0m quot   echo

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Inspired by  nachoparker s answer  I have this in my  bashrc       colours source xcol sh      tput foreground export tpfn    e 0m    normal export tpfb   tput bold      normal colours export tpf0   tput setaf 0    black export tpf1   tput setaf 1    red export tpf2   tput setaf 2    green export tpf3   tput setaf 3    yellow export tpf4   tput setaf 4    blue export tpf5   tput setaf 5    magenta export tpf6   tput setaf 6    cyan export tpf7   tput setaf 7    white   echo  quot   tpf0 black   tpf1 red   tpf2 green   tpf3 yellow   tpf4 blue   tpf5 magenta   tpf6 cyan   tpf7 white  tpfn  quot      bold colours export tpf0b  quot  tpfb tpf0 quot    bold black export tpf1b  quot  tpfb tpf1 quot    bold red export tpf2b  quot  tpfb tpf2 quot    bold green export tpf3b  quot  tpfb tpf3 quot    bold yellow export tpf4b  quot  tpfb tpf4 quot    bold blue export tpf5b  quot  tpfb tpf5 quot    bold magenta export tpf6b  quot  tpfb tpf6 quot    bold cyan export tpf7b  quot  tpfb tpf7 quot    bold white   echo  quot   tpf0b black   tpf1b red   tpf2b green   tpf3b yellow   tpf4b blue   tpf5b magenta   tpf6b cyan   tpf7b white  tpfn  quot   The export allows me to use those tpf   in Bash scripts

[linux] How to change the output color of echo in Linux

some variables that you can use:

the escape character in bash, hex and octal respectively:

short example:

bash exception:

exception rule for bash

type of color sequence:

1. color-mode

2. text-mode

3. foreground mode

4. background mode

some screen-shots

color summary with their values

`blinking` on KDE-Terminal

color-mode shot

text mode shot

combining is OK

more shots

Tips and Tricks for Advanced Users and Programmers:

Can we use these codes in a programming language?

Do they slow down the speed of a program?

Can we use these on Windows?

How to calculate the length of code?

Where can we use these codes?

Do these codes only do colorizing?

Are they available in Unicode?

Which version of these colors is preferable?

Examples related to linux

Examples related to bash

Examples related to command-line

Examples related to echo

Examples related to terminal-color