How to change the output color of echo in Linux

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?

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 "I ${RED}love${NC} Stack Overflow\n"

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 "I ${RED}love${NC} Stack Overflow"

(don’t add "\n" when using echo unless you want to add an additional empty line)


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 bashhex 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<text> | \x1b[32m<text> | \033[32m<text> | m is NOT optional                     |
| reset       | <text>\e[0m  | <text>\1xb[0m  | <text>\033[om  | o is optional (do it as best practice |
|             |              |                |                |                                       |

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5947742/how-to-change-the-output-color-of-echo-in-linux

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