Hi Guys,
Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum.
Just started to play with the Arduino Uno, having fun, just sorry I never found this hobby years ago.
Using Arduino IDE editor to program the Uno under Windows 10.
My 73 year old eyes have a problem trying to read the compiler error messages because the print is Red on Black.
Is it possible to change the background colour to White? I have looked in the preferences and the preferences text file but can't see where to change it.
Also when printing from the IDE editor (File/Print) the font on the printer is too large and a small amount of text will need 3 x A4 pages.
How can I print text smaller?
johnny-g:
Is it possible to change the background colour to White? I have looked in the preferences and the preferences text file but can't see where to change it.
Yes, but not from the preferences. You need to customize the Arduino IDE theme. I documented all I know about that here:
According to my notes, the background color of the console (where the compiler error messages and other output is displayed) is defined in the "console.color" property of the theme.txt file.
It's possible you might find a pre-made theme that meets your needs. I think most of them tend to focus on providing a "dark" theme though, so perhaps the opposite of what you seek. Here is the list of themes I'm aware of:
johnny-g:
Also when printing from the IDE editor (File/Print) the font on the printer is too large and a small amount of text will need 3 x A4 pages.
How can I print text smaller?
As you discovered, the Arduino IDE's print functionality is very limited. The workaround that has been discovered is to convert your sketch into HTML format, open that HTML in your web browser, then use the web browser's more capable print functionality to print the sketch:
Open the sketch you want to print in the Arduino IDE.
Edit > Copy as HTML
Open a text editor.
Paste the copied HTML-formatted sketch into the text editor.
Save the file, using a .html file extension.
Open the saved file. Usually the .html files will be associated with your web browser, so it will open in your browser as a web page. If .html files are not associated with the browser, just open the file directly from the browser.
Another alternative is to just cut the text and paste it in any better application for printing.
Or. (working on this myself, not too critical): Use an external editor for your code… there’s enough wrong with the built in one to justify ditching it. I’ll cop to being somewhat lazy, just suffer the constant indignities that the IDE visits upon me.
Nice pointers to the theme stuff, THX. I’ve also not liked the color scheme. Now that graphics have caught up with the real world, black text ona white background, e.g., actually works well.
I can’t believe I no longer see any pixels unless a droplet of water forms a tiny lens right on the screen. I can get my face right up on in there, ditched my computer prescription eyeglasses with the arrival of the so-called retina displays.
Yeah, the HTML approach is only needed if you care about printing in color. That's what people are usually complaining about when they talk about printing sketches, but probably johnny-g doesn't care about color prints.