How to change editor theme colors using IDE 1.6.8?

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

I can't seem to get anything to change when editing theme.txt .
The file I am editing is program files/ardunio/lib/theme

I have great difficulty in reading these colors that I see when using IDE 1.6.8

When I use IDE 1.0.6 I an able to alter the color theme but not with 1.6.8

I guess I may have to consider a different editor if I can find a way to alter these colors
as I simply can't read much of the code unless I blow it way up.

I can't imagine how these default colors were picked.
Putting light blue on a white background for coment lines is just plain crazy.
and lite green for uintt8_t and void makes them very difficult to see.

Sorry to vent my frustration, but I can see I am not the only one with these issues.
I know I am old, but things like this make me grumpy.
Thanks for looking.

2

I have written documentation for as many of the theme properties as I could decipher and also put together a sketch/library to make it easy to test theme modifications:

Please let me know if you discover any missing or incorrect information there and I will update the project.

Some of the theme properties are now set in program files/arduino/lib/theme/syntax/default.xml but many are still in program files/arduino/lib/theme/theme.txt.

I also have put together a collection of custom themes that are compatible with Arduino 1.6.8, I'm not sure if any of them will be more usable for you:

3

Thanks for quick reply. I will have a look.

4

Hello
I have the same issue and found this very impressive example and documentation here by pert.
However, I cannot find the theme files on my mac. I run IDE 1.6.8 and just want to change the color of the error text when compiling, not the whole theme.

Can anyone just tell me how to apply this on a mac

Thank You

5

On Mac I believe the theme files are at:
Arduino.app/Contents/Resources/Java/lib/theme/theme.txt
and
Arduino.app/Contents/Resources/Java/lib/theme/syntax/default.xml

Arduino.app folder is wherever you installed the Arduino IDE to.

6

Also, this isn't specific to Arduino IDE 1.6.8, you can use any recent version of the IDE.

7

The colors are not all that pretty but if the colors of your monitor are set up a bit right they don't look that bad. And I mean, the comments are in dark grey, and block comments in light grey (alright, not great) but not in light blue. And variable type names are in aqua, not green. So looks like the colors on your screen are pretty off :slight_smile:

And why do you use an already pretty old version of the IDE?