I have syntax color coding on my desktop which is great for my old eyes, but on my laptop it is black and white. I DID have color coding when I had version 2.1.0 but I updated that to 2.3.6 because of issues with HC12 (see my other post on that matter). As soon as I updated, I got black and white display. I can't read it well even with high contrast on (black) and it's very difficult to spot codes. . Any idea why this is so? There used to be an XML file where one could turn on many various options (including changing the default display). Where is it?
Open the IDE Settings and change the theme. It sounds light; you are on Light High Contrast, which does look like B&W. I am 83 and use Light.
Hi @queenidog.
That theme system is specific to Arduino IDE 1.x. Arduino IDE 2.x has a completely different theme system.
It is possible to create your own custom themes for Arduino IDE 2.x, or install existing 3rd party themes (of which there are thousands). However, those are somewhat complex endeavors so if you are happy with the default theme you were using in Arduino IDE 2.1.0, then I think the best solution will be to get that theme working again (the approach already recommended by @sonofcy) rather than unnecessarily going down the rabbit hole of using a custom or 3rd party theme as a bandaid workaround for the true problem you are experiencing.
I discovered that using a Microsoft dark display mode affects the mode chosen in Arduino. If I use Microsoft default mode and Arduino dark mode, I get "some color", strange colors, but there is some differentiation. With an older laptop running Win10 instead of Win11, there is no problem with dark modes. Go figure.
There is an intentional feature where the IDE's default theme is selected according the operating system theme. However, this only controls which theme is set by default on a fresh installation. Once the theme has been set, it should stay the same for that Arduino IDE installation after that, until such time as you manually change it in the Arduino IDE preferences. It is not expected that updating the IDE will change the theme.
Please try this:
- Select File > Preferences... from the Arduino IDE menus.
The "Preferences" dialog will open. - Select a different theme from the "Theme" menu.
The Arduino IDE UI will immediately change to show a preview of the theme you selected from the menu. - Continue selecting different themes from the menu until you find the one you like.
- Click the "OK" button.
The "Preferences" dialog will close.
The only way I can get color is if I put Windows in default mode (which is no background) and put Arduino in dark mode. But when I use Windows I like dark mode so I have to switch it back. Not efficient.
I spent some time trying to reproduce the fault, but was not able to do so. There are quite a few different Windows color/theme settings so it might be that I didn't configure Windows as required to produce the fault.
Please provide detailed step-by-step instructions I can follow to reproduce the "black and white" fault on my Windows 11 machine.
That was a little while ago and I don't exactly recall the steps, but I think it was my use of Windows dark mode in combination with either dark mode of normal mode in Arduino (don't recall which). I believe when I took the Windows dark mode off and used only Arduino, it worked okay. This was on an older laptop with not the best resolution. Windows dark mode seems to screw up other apps too so I use it sparingly.
Thanks for the update. I'm glad that you aren't experiencing the problem now.
If you happen to encounter the problem again later and are able to find a way to reliably reproduce it, then feel free to add the info here and I'll investigate further.
Regards, Per