diff --git a/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.cpp b/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.cpp
index 94c103427..cc5f85dc0 100644
--- a/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.cpp
+++ b/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.cpp
@@ -21,9 +21,27 @@
 #include <opm/common/OpmLog/Logger.hpp>
 #include <opm/common/OpmLog/StreamLog.hpp>
 #include <iostream>
+#include <errno.h>  // For errno
+#include <stdio.h>  // For fileno() and stdout
+#include <unistd.h> // For isatty()
 
 namespace Opm {
 
+    namespace {
+        bool stdoutIsTerminal()
+        {
+            const int errno_save = errno; // For playing nice with C error handling.
+            const int file_descriptor = fileno(stdout);
+            if (file_descriptor == -1) {
+                // stdout is an invalid stream
+                errno = errno_save;
+                return false;
+            } else {
+                return isatty(file_descriptor);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
 
     std::shared_ptr<Logger> OpmLog::getLogger() {
         if (!m_logger)
@@ -176,12 +194,14 @@ namespace Opm {
 
 
 
-    void OpmLog::setupSimpleDefaultLogging(const bool use_prefix)
+    void OpmLog::setupSimpleDefaultLogging(const bool use_prefix,
+                                           const bool use_color_coding,
+                                           const int message_limit)
     {
          std::shared_ptr<StreamLog> streamLog = std::make_shared<StreamLog>(std::cout, Log::DefaultMessageTypes);
          OpmLog::addBackend( "SimpleDefaultLog", streamLog);
-         streamLog->setMessageLimiter(std::make_shared<MessageLimiter>(10));
-         streamLog->setMessageFormatter(std::make_shared<SimpleMessageFormatter>(use_prefix, true));
+         streamLog->setMessageLimiter(std::make_shared<MessageLimiter>(message_limit));
+         streamLog->setMessageFormatter(std::make_shared<SimpleMessageFormatter>(use_prefix, use_color_coding && stdoutIsTerminal()));
     }
 /******************************************************************/
 
diff --git a/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.hpp b/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.hpp
index 655da9da1..0b42876ad 100644
--- a/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.hpp
+++ b/opm/common/OpmLog/OpmLog.hpp
@@ -64,7 +64,16 @@ public:
     static void removeAllBackends();
     static bool enabledMessageType( int64_t messageType );
     static void addMessageType( int64_t messageType , const std::string& prefix);
-    static void setupSimpleDefaultLogging(const bool use_prefix);
+
+    /// Create a basic logging setup that will send all log messages to standard output.
+    ///
+    /// By default category prefixes will be printed (i.e. Error: or
+    /// Warning:), color coding will be used, and a maximum of 10
+    /// messages with the same tag will be printed. These settings can
+    /// be controlled by the function parameters.
+    static void setupSimpleDefaultLogging(const bool use_prefix = true,
+                                          const bool use_color_coding = true,
+                                          const int message_limit = 10);
 
     template <class BackendType>
     static std::shared_ptr<BackendType> getBackend(const std::string& name) {