diff --git a/docs/Makefile b/docs/Makefile
--- a/docs/Makefile
+++ b/docs/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 SPHINXOPTS ?=
+SPHINXOPTCOLOR ?= --color
 SPHINXBUILD = sphinx-build
 SOURCEDIR = .
 BUILDDIR = _build
@@ -63,10 +64,10 @@
 help: sphinx/help
 
 sphinx/clean:
-	$(SPHINXBUILD) -M clean "$(SOURCEDIR)" "$(BUILDDIR)" $(SPHINXOPTS)
+	$(SPHINXBUILD) -M clean "$(SOURCEDIR)" "$(BUILDDIR)" $(SPHINXOPTS) $(SPHINXOPTCOLOR)
 
 sphinx/%:
-	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b $* "$(SOURCEDIR)" "$(BUILDDIR)/$*" $(SPHINXOPTS)
+	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b $* "$(SOURCEDIR)" "$(BUILDDIR)/$*" $(SPHINXOPTS) $(SPHINXOPTCOLOR)
 
 install: html
 	test -d $(HTMLDIR)
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 [testenv]
 basepython = python3
-passenv = SPHINXOPTS JAVA_HOME
+passenv = SPHINXOPTS SPHINXOPTCOLOR JAVA_HOME
 
 [testenv:sphinx]
 extras =