If anyone is still looking for a way to change the font/colors in the message
area of the IDE - here's how - in Windows7, at least.
Edit the file Theme.txt found here:
C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Tech\Arduino\arduino-0022\lib\theme
I changed the colors and text size by making these changes:
Original:
GUI - CONSOLE
console.font = Monospaced,plain,11
console.font.macosx = Monaco,plain,10
console.color = #000000
console.output.color = #cccccc
console.error.color = #ff3000
New:
GUI - CONSOLE
console.font = Monospaced,plain,18
console.font.macosx = Monaco,plain,10
console.color = #ffffff
console.output.color = #cccccc
console.error.color = #000000
Of course you should save the original file under a name like theme.original.