Changing the background color of an intellij pane

Question

I've changed the color scheme in intellij so that the background of the Java editor pane is dark and the text is light. I'm not sure if this is directly related, however, in other windows such as the 'run' window, the background stays white but any system messages are displayed as white text. This is obviously a problem as I can't read white text on a white background unless I manually highlight the text to have the background a different color.

Is there a way to change the background color of other panes other than the editor pane in IntelliJ?

Answer 1

** Edit ** As of Intelli-J Idea 12, Dark is the default! See my points below for versions 10/11

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There is a way now - install the 'patch-ide' plugin in combination with the 'color-ide' plugin, and you will get your background colors across all the other panes and throughout the preferences of the application. If you just want to style your project tree also, use 'color-tree'

http://plugins.jetbrains.net/category/index?pr=webide&category_id=25

As a side note, here is an excellent dark color scheme, BlueForest

http://www.decodified.com/misc/2011/06/15/blueforest-a-dark-color-scheme-for-intellij-idea.html

Answer 2

I believe if you restart IntelliJ, it will update the background of all panes (tool windows).

If you are having trouble to revert back to light frames, there is a way to do that.

Locate the your IntelliJ settings folder (on Windows, it is typically C:\Users\{username}\.IdeaIC12\, on Mac, it is something like ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea13/options. Of course you have to select the appropriate IntelliJ folder)).

Go to the folder config\options\.

Edit the file options.xml.

Delete these lines:

    <component name="LafManager">
      <laf class-name="idea.dark.laf.classname" />
    </component>

Done.

Answer 3

How about this way.

File->Settings->Editor->Color & Fonts->General->Default text

Choose other color

then

Click the "Apply" button.

Answer 4

On Mac Ox and Idea 14 after changing back to Default theme you should also modify ~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdea14/options/laf.xml
and change
<laf class-name="com.intellij.ide.ui.laf.darcula.DarculaLaf" />
to
<laf class-name="com.apple.laf.AquaLookAndFeel" />

Answer 5

I found a solution:

Go to view -> Quick switch Scheme.... and change option 5. Look and feel to Dracula

Answer 6

Here's the latest 2016 that worked for me. I had changed the white background for editors but all the panes were still black. Selecting Quick Switch Scheme -> Look and feel -> default option - solved it for me, i.e. white panes.

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/2016.1/switching-between-schemes.html

Answer 7

For all using intellij IDEA 15

if the problem is inconsistent colors in different panes try this :

View -> Quick Switch Schemes - Look and Feel -> Intellij (Note : not same as default)

Problem might be that you said yes to 'set Dracula theme to be the default' earlier when changing to dracula from white theme.

Answer 8

There does not seem to be a way. I'll either have to revert my color scheme back to the default, keep the white on white text in the 'run' pane or convince my work to get me a mac so i can use the magic key combination to invert all colors on the screen!

Answer 9

I've managed to get everything with a black background + a nice skull wallpaper.

https://github.com/phackwer/DarkKnight_IntelliJ

I usually disable Tool Buttons, Tool Bar and Status Bar on the View Menu and also run the project on Full Screen mode. Looks sensational!

You can change the wallpaper to a different one by pressing shift twice and looking for Set Background Image.

Answer 10

I like to play around with different themes and installed a bunch of them. After a while when I switched back to IntelliJ Light, this happened -

The opened files bar in editor couldn't retrieve its default colors. I tried -

1. Switching between themes (View -> Quick switch scheme -> Theme -> Selecting another one

2. Restart the IDE

3. Finally I did this - Files -> Settings -> Plugins -> And disabled all installed themes and restart

And voila!

Hope this helps someone in a similar situation :)

Answer 11

Settings -> Editor -> Colors & Fonts

Set "Scheme" to "Default". Helps instantly, without restart