This might not fit your actual use case, but instead of creating a single JSON string in jq, just use a shell command group.

echo '{"foo":"bar", "baz":[1,2,3]}' | { echo "My value is:"; jq .; echo "Some other stuff"; }

I ended up writing a simple formatting function:

#   9 = \t
#  10 = \n
#  13 = \r
#  32 = (space)
#  34 = "
#  44 = ,
#  58 = :
#  91 = [
#  92 = \
#  93 = ]
# 123 = {
# 125 = }

def pretty:
  explode | reduce .[] as $char (
    {out: [], indent: [], string: false, escape: false};
    if .string == true then
      .out += [$char]
      | if $char == 34 and .escape == false then .string = false else . end
      | if $char == 92 and .escape == false then .escape = true else .escape = false end
    elif $char == 91 or $char == 123 then
      .indent += [32, 32] | .out += [$char, 10] + .indent
    elif $char == 93 or $char == 125 then
      .indent = .indent[2:] | .out += [10] + .indent + [$char]
    elif $char == 34 then
      .out += [$char] | .string = true
    elif $char == 58 then
      .out += [$char, 32]
    elif $char == 44 then
      .out += [$char, 10] + .indent
    elif $char == 9 or $char == 10 or $char == 13 or $char == 32 then
      .
    else
      .out += [$char]
    end
  ) | .out | implode;

It adds unnecessary empty lines inside empty objects and arrays, but it's good enough for my purpose. For example (used on its own):

jq -Rr 'include "pretty"; pretty' test.json

where the function is saved in pretty.jq and test.json file is:

{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[{"type":"Feature","properties":{"key":"string with \"quotes\" and \\"},"geometry":{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[24.2578125,55.178867663281984],[22.67578125,50.958426723359935],[28.125,50.62507306341435],[30.322265625000004,53.80065082633023],[24.2578125,55.178867663281984]]]}}]}

gives:

{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "key": "string with \"quotes\" and \\"
      },
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Polygon",
        "coordinates": [
          [
            [
              24.2578125,
              55.178867663281984
            ],
            [
              22.67578125,
              50.958426723359935
            ],
            [
              28.125,
              50.62507306341435
            ],
            [
              30.322265625000004,
              53.80065082633023
            ],
            [
              24.2578125,
              55.178867663281984
            ]
          ]
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

You can use: jq

It's very simple to use and it works great! It can handle very large JSON structures, including streams. You can find their tutorials here.

Usage examples:

$ jq --color-output . file1.json file1.json | less -R

$ command_with_json_output | jq .

$ jq # stdin/"interactive" mode, just enter some JSON

$ jq <<< '{ "foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum" }'
{
  "bar": "ipsum",
  "foo": "lorem"
}

Or use jq with identity filter:

$ jq '.foo' <<< '{ "foo": "lorem", "bar": "ipsum" }'
"lorem"