diff --git a/jp.go b/jp.go
index e467481..aefc91a 100644
--- a/jp.go
+++ b/jp.go
@@ -78,6 +78,21 @@ func runMain(c *cli.Context) int {
 		}
 		expression = c.Args()[0]
 	}
+	// NoColor defines if the output is colorized or not. It's dynamically set to
+	// false or true based on the stdout's file descriptor referring to a terminal
+	// or not. It's also set to true if the NO_COLOR environment variable is
+	// set (regardless of its value). This is a global option and affects all
+	// colors.
+	switch c.String("color") {
+	case "always":
+		color.NoColor = false
+	case "auto":
+		// this is the default in the library
+	case "never":
+		color.NoColor = true
+	default:
+		return errMsg("Invalid color specification. Must use always/auto/never")
+	}
 	if c.Bool("ast") {
 		parser := jmespath.NewParser()
 		parsed, err := parser.Parse(expression)
@@ -123,16 +138,17 @@ func runMain(c *cli.Context) int {
 		os.Stdout.WriteString(converted)
 	} else {
 		var toJSON []byte
-		if c.Bool("compact") {
-			toJSON, err = json.Marshal(result)
-		} else {
-			if color.NoColor {
-				// avoid doing the extra processing in jsoncolor
-				toJSON, err = json.MarshalIndent(result, "", "  ")
-			} else {
-				toJSON, err = jsoncolor.MarshalIndent(result, "", "  ")
-			}
+		var writers = [2][2]func(v interface{}) ([]byte, error){
+			{
+				func(v interface{}) ([]byte, error) { return jsoncolor.MarshalIndent(v, "", " ") },
+				jsoncolor.Marshal,
+			},
+			{
+				func(v interface{}) ([]byte, error) { return json.MarshalIndent(v, "", " ") },
+				json.Marshal,
+			},
 		}
+		toJSON, err = writers[bool2int(color.NoColor)][bool2int(c.Bool("compact"))](result)
 		if err != nil {
 			errMsg("Error marshalling result to JSON: %s\n", err)
 			return 3
@@ -142,3 +158,11 @@ func runMain(c *cli.Context) int {
 	os.Stdout.WriteString("\n")
 	return 0
 }
+
+func bool2int(b bool) int {
+	if b {
+		return 1
+	} else {
+		return 0
+	}
+}