I have just installed the Arduino IDE on a Ubuntu 12.04 installation. The menu background/foreground colours for the file menu are very similar making the menu difficult to see. Is there a simple way to change the menu colours used by the IDE. I have had a quick look though the preferences.txt file but found nothing obviously connected to the menu colour scheme.
The IDE version is 1.0 installed from the Ubuntu Software Centre.
Thanks.
Rob.
(color colors - Included for non UK users that might find the thread useful)
Thanks for the reply. I have found the file you referred to, but unfortunately I don't think this file controls the menu colours. I had a good look though and was unable to see a setting that would control this feature. I think this may be a problem with Java apps in general rather than just the Arduino IDE. This has come from a little research on the net. I think I may be looking for a Java config file rather than a file specific to the Arduino software.
Thanks for your help, but I think the search for a fix will have to go on, unless I'm missing something in the file you specified. (Which is quite possible.....)
You can change the colors around the buttons and menu bar etc.. I don't remember what name they are but go through them and start changing colors, eventually you'll find the right one like I did. The buttons themselves are the gif files. You will have to open them in a paint software and color them manually.
I have had a look at the button gifs. They are the buttons for verify/upload/new etc. These all seem fine. The colours I wish to change are the File/Edit/Sketch/Tools/Help menu foreground and background colours.
I have gone though the theme.txt file and changed every colour to either black or white. (#000000 or #FFFFFF). While this changes colours in the tab and edit areas of the window it does not affect the File menu colours.
I have installed a colour picker tool and checked the hex values for the colours I wish to change. These come out as #4C4C4C for the foreground menu text and #3C3B37 for the background when the menus are unselected. When selected the menus are easily visible. White foreground with an orange background.
I have tried to grep for these values. I am pretty new to grep but have used the following command to find the values. Not sure if its correct though.
grep -r -o -i '4c4c4c' /usr/share/arduino/*
This command gave no output so i assume the value 4c4c4c is not in any file under the arduino install directory. I tried the same command with 3c3b37 with the same result. It did give output for my edited theme.txt file when looking for #FFFFFF showing both upper and lower case so I assume it is working.
On the off chance I just changed theme in Ubuntu. Ambiance if the default theme. I change to Radiance and up pops the Arduino IDE with a much more usable menu colour. It would seem its down to the desktop theme rather than the arduino ide setup.
Might be time to have a poke around the Ambiance theme and see if I can match up the colours anywhere.
The simple fix seems to be, just change to a different desktop theme. Radiance works for me.
Thanks for all your help.
Rob
( The post progressed as I played with the problem and as such its a bit long winded, but if anyone knows a different way to change the menu colours I'd be interested to hear. )
The colours I wish to change are the File/Edit/Sketch/Tools/Help menu foreground and background colours.
Ah, I call that the toolbar.. But I honestly don't know the true name for it.. Yea, I don't know how to change those. I think you are right in the assumption it's in Java somewhere. I know that the Arduino IDE is based off of Processing. You might want to try Googling "Processing GUI mods" or the like. Might turn up some info.