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?

Answer 1

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