Dark color scheme for Eclipse

Question

Is Eclipse at all theme-able? I would like to install a dark color scheme for it, since I much prefer white text on dark background than the other way around.

Yes, there is a way to do it, look here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/96981/color-themes-for-eclipse/1248204#1248204 — worbel, Aug 08 '09 at 22:17
That's the one advantage of OS X - you can just change the whole screen to high contrast and back with a keypress. Doesn't work the same way in Win XP, unfortunately :( — Uri, Jan 07 '10 at 18:42
This is one of quite a long list of basic omissions that make it hard to take Eclipse seriously. — Draemon, Jun 05 '10 at 10:48
There is now an easy way to do it: http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/eclipse-color-theme — Thomas Ferris Nicolaisen, Jan 26 '11 at 08:14
@user31273: that is great, but the problem with eclipse is that you have to define the colors for each editor separately. This sucks! I am using pydev and java perspectives, and I would like to have the colors set up once and for all (the same way it's done in netbeans). This will probably not happen anytime soon, though... — Bartosz Radaczyński, Jan 08 '10 at 13:05
@ThomasFerrisNicolaisen: This plugin only changes the source window, NOT the other windows, which still blind you with their white backgrounds. — SMBiggs, Jun 11 '12 at 05:36
@Uri: This solution on the macintosh also inverts the colors of the icons, which can be very confusing (like changing "debug - STOP" to the color green and "debug - GO" to red). Also, it can make debugging impossible if you're doing any graphics work as all that stuff is reversed as well. Lastly, there's simply NO WAY to change the default windows color on a mac. Guess the Eclipse dev team must be mac nuts, as they follow that idiotic lead. — SMBiggs, Jun 11 '12 at 05:40
A fully dark theme is now available with Eclipse 4.2 (Juno)! See https://github.com/eclipse-color-theme/eclipse-color-theme and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5053834/eclipse-ide-for-java-full-dark-theme — ignis, Nov 03 '12 at 20:19
you can add now https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/darkest-dark-theme — Mohsin AR, Feb 06 '17 at 21:38
I use NegativeScreen to turn on night mode for my entire desktop - see: https://stackoverflow.com/a/49370326/913223 — Daniel Sokolowski, Mar 19 '18 at 18:50

score 288 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 12 '11 at 02:17

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As posted to a few related questions already, I'm working on a plugin for easy, cross-editor color theme management:

http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/eclipse-color-theme

It is still work in progress, but already supports many editors and a few dark color themes.

answered Jan 12 '11 at 02:17

fhd

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BTW, pixeldude and I work together on the plugin and eclipsecolorthemes.org mentioned in another answer. It's fully compatible. – fhd Jan 26 '11 at 08:29
+1. I have referenced your work in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5053834/eclipse-ide-for-java-full-dark-theme/5349143#5349143 – VonC Mar 18 '11 at 07:24
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Is there any way of changing the color of the other views (such as projekt explorer, console, problems, etc.), too? – Bruiser May 26 '11 at 19:15
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The problem with this is obvious - while you can turn editor theme to "dark", the rest of Eclipse shines white incredibly bright, so it's even worse :( – Ivan G. Jun 08 '11 at 23:21
Just downloaded this, fantastic and works great. It'd definitely be nice if it were possibly to skin the rest of Eclipse as well, but that's likely a lot more difficult. Fantastic work solving a problem that didn't have a good solution before, though! – Ryan M Jun 20 '11 at 23:31
We are interested in theming all of Eclipse, as many people request it, but it's not trivial with Eclipse 3.x. I don't know when Eclipse 4 is going to arrive, but it will have theming and we will see if we can make our plugin work with that. – fhd Oct 18 '11 at 03:58
Very nice except for the fact that it only affects one window (the one with code). – Peter Ajtai Oct 22 '11 at 21:43
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This works (apparently) in MyEclipse 6.6 (don't ask, I was forced I don't like it one bit) will do further testing and post back in case anything breaks. – Luis Robles Jan 09 '12 at 17:28
For anyone with failing eyesight, this is a godsend. Thank you so much for developing this. – Philip Sheard Jul 14 '12 at 08:30
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I can't stand the lack of themeable windows in Eclipse. Aptana, which is basically a clone of Eclipse, themes EVERYTHING. This is why I use it for everything not Android SDK related...even as my word processor (but that's not recommended.) – o_O Aug 16 '12 at 18:59
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For Linux users, make Eclipse look beautiful in a dark theme by following my tips in Q&A here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12238773/ubuntu-eclipse-4-2-dark-theme-how-to-darken-sidebar-backgrounds/12238896#12238896 – KomodoDave Sep 02 '12 at 20:06
This works great if you use full screen editor window. You can popup other side windows only when you need it. Saves my eyes – gerrytan May 21 '13 at 00:33
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@aloneguid Change "Preferences -> General -> Appearance -> Theme" to "Dark". – mstuercke Feb 17 '16 at 13:50

score 88 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:47

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I've created my own dark color scheme (based on Oblivion from gedit), which I think is very nice to work with.

Preview & details at: http://www.rogerdudler.com/?p=362

We're happy to announce the beta of eclipsecolorthemes.org, a new website to download, create and maintain Eclipse color themes / schemes. The theme editor allows you to copy an existing theme and edit the colors with a live preview of your changes on specific editors. The downloadable themes support a lot of editors (PHP, Java, SQL, Ant, text, HTML, CSS, and more to follow)

There's a growing list of themes already available on the site:

Screenshot of eclipsecolorthemes.org

You can read more about the launch here.

edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:47

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 01 '10 at 11:06

Roger Dudler

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I love Oblivion in gedit, and your instructions were just what I wanted. A+ – defrex Jul 11 '10 at 15:37
wow, that was easy to set up and it worked instantly, thx ;) – kulpae Apr 11 '11 at 06:16
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These are awesome, but when I try to compare changes, the changes are highlighted in a dark color so I can't see them. I usually end up having to change colorthemes just to compare changes in files. – User1 Nov 13 '11 at 14:38
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Don't work on all the other windows, which now BLAST with their white backgrounds by comparison. – SMBiggs Jun 11 '12 at 05:43
http://eclipsecolorthemes.org/ <-- really nice, really easy: thanks! – Jeffrey Knight Aug 02 '12 at 13:21
Good Work! I'm using this page to change Eclipse preferences now :D – Ricardo Jul 02 '14 at 16:35
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pixeldude: Your sites are down now. – Xdg Feb 19 '15 at 13:32

score 51 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 19 '15 at 20:12

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Here's a guy that posted his Eclipse preferences for changing the colors like a theme:

http://blog.codefront.net/2006/09/28/vibrant-ink-textmate-theme-for-eclipse/

screenshot

And here's more about how to set the colors in the Ganymede Eclipse version (v. 3.4, mid 2008):

http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/concepts/accessibility/fontsandcolors.htm

edited Jun 19 '15 at 20:12

Spooky

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answered Sep 23 '08 at 12:24

devinmoore

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I posted up http://blog.codefront.net/2006/09/28/vibrant-ink-textmate-theme-for-eclipse/ way back in 2006 and while some people have had success with it, I think it doesn't quite work for recent versions of Eclipse (some readers have emailed me). YMMV! – Chu Yeow Jan 23 '09 at 01:49
I did this but used Consolas - very nice, thanks! – HaveAGuess Feb 15 '10 at 11:04
Mark Occurences can be reenabled if you are missing it (as I was) by going to Prefs -> General -> Editors -> Text Editors -> Annotations -> Occurrences and enabling "Text as Highlighted" – HaveAGuess Feb 15 '10 at 11:25

score 21 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:41

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For Linux users, assuming you run a compositing window manager (Compiz), you can just turn the window negative. I use Eclipse like this all the time, the normal (whitie) looks is blowing my eyes off.

edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:41

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 06 '10 at 12:48

skrat

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nice one. I actually tuned eclipse pretty well by now using all the links in the answers. But I also use a dark colorscheme in KDE... – Bartosz Radaczyński May 06 '10 at 20:27
found it, "Negative" plugin, I must say it looks much better on my dark linux theme – Ivan G. Jun 08 '11 at 23:18
thanks but still the completion window is white and each time that it is shown it hits my eyes. – Kamran Bigdely Sep 09 '11 at 06:44
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very nice idea, simple and effective, thanks! enable it though compizconfig-settings-manager (ccsm), note that rules ran be set (type=Eclipse) there to automatically apply the 'negative' effect. it should also be possible to set a rule for the completion window, use the grab-button from the config dialog and aim for it ;) – antiplex Jan 17 '12 at 20:06
Eclipse uses SWT, which uses native widgets; in the case of Linux this is typically gtk. If you pick a dark theme for gtk, all the non-editor Eclipse panes will pick that up. For an example dark gtk theme, see [OMG Suite](http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/OMG_Suite?content=149294) – srparish Jul 08 '12 at 23:26

matko.kvesic · Answer 5 · 2012-04-19T13:42:41.327

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These are the pleasing colors for my eyes during coding. Jazz music not included in theme.

Screenshot of LukinaJama3

Eclipse Color Themes Plugin file: LukinaJama3.xml on depositfiles

edited Apr 19 '12 at 13:42

answered Nov 24 '11 at 13:41

matko.kvesic

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score 9 · Answer 6 · edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:50

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This is the best place for Eclipse color themes:

http://www.eclipsecolorthemes.org/

edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:50

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 05 '11 at 18:57

Tudisco

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These are nice, but it only changes the code view and not all the windows. – Peter Ajtai Oct 22 '11 at 21:35

score 8 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 06 '09 at 17:38

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I have to say, this is one area where Eclipse is really weak. Specifically, the import/export of preferences applies to ALL preferences. There is no way to import say just the fonts/color preferences (like you can with Visual Studio) without mucking up my key binding preferences.

Also, I have tried several of these preference files referenced above, and they completely break my Eclipse install.

answered Feb 06 '09 at 17:38

helifreak

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you can import/export only the color prefs. But you have to edit the preferences file manually and delete everything besides the color-related entries – Bartosz Radaczyński Feb 06 '09 at 20:56

score 6 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 15 '09 at 21:23

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I've created several color themes, and a script to extract a new one from someone's color preferences. I'm currently using one I still have yet to post on the site, but I should eventually get to it.

http://eclipsecolorthemes.jottit.com

answered Jul 15 '09 at 21:23

Dwight Holman

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Thanks, I added a few words on how to export. – Gaël Marziou Jul 21 '09 at 18:15
Excellent. It would be nice if each of those themes had a screenshot! – Cal Jun 11 '10 at 04:09

score 6 · Answer 9 · edited Mar 22 '16 at 08:05

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Easiest way: change the Windows Display Properties main window background color. I went to Appearance tab, changed to Silver scheme, clicked Advanced, clicked on "Active Window" and changed Color 1 to a light gray. All Eclipse views softened.

Since Luna (4.4) there seems to be a full Dark them in

Window -> Preferences -> General -> Appearance -> Theme -> Dark

edited Mar 22 '16 at 08:05

malat

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answered Jan 19 '11 at 03:19

user580853

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No Advanced option in Juno under any selected Theme – bobtheowl2 Sep 17 '12 at 19:15

Dean J · Answer 10 · 2010-10-29T13:55:40.110

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For the quick hack, on Linux running GNOME with a Windows keyboard, Windows-Key-M will inverse-color all windows, and Windows-Key-N will inverse color a single window. It's an awesome feature, in my book.

edited Oct 29 '10 at 13:55

answered Oct 28 '10 at 17:23

Dean J

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score 3 · Answer 11 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

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As I replied to "Is there a simple, consistent way to change the color scheme of Eclipse editors?":

I've been looking for this too and after a bit of research found a workable solution. This is based on the FDT editor for Eclipse, but I'm sure you could apply the same logic to other editors.

My blog post: Howto create a color-scheme for FDT

Hope this helps!

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Jan 27 '09 at 12:01

Wijnand Warren

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It is not a real colorscheme... In netbeans you switch the colors once, and it works for all the languages at once. Eclipse has separate settings for every editor, and what's worse the annotations settings are common to all of them. – Bartosz Radaczyński Apr 14 '10 at 20:59

score 3 · Answer 12 · edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:54

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The best solution I've found is to leave Eclipse in normal bright mode, and use an OS level screen inverter.

On OS X you can do Command + Option + Ctrl + 8, inverts the whole screen.

On Linux with Compiz, it's even better, you can do Windows + N to darken windows selectively (or Windows + M to do the whole screen).

On Windows, the only decent solution I've found is powerstrip, but it's only free for one year... then it's like $30 or something...

Then you can invert the screen, adjust the syntax-level colours to your liking, and you're off to the races, with cool shades on.

edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:54

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 02 '11 at 19:41

cidermonkey

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I'm trying to use this on OS X, Eclipse looks good, some other programs look bit unusual. Correct keyboard combo seems to be ctrl+alt+cmd+8 (at least on version 10.6.8). – Arnost Valicek Nov 13 '11 at 10:07
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Also changes inverts the colors of the icons, which can be VERY misleading (eg: red for "go", green for "stop"). – SMBiggs Jun 11 '12 at 05:45

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 08 '10 at 15:16

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If you use Aptana then you can download a dark color theme! I have been looking for one recently and found the Aptana one. Thought others might be interested!

Check out: http://www.nightlion.net/themes/2009/aptana-dark-color-theme/

answered Jun 08 '10 at 15:16

Ryan Alberts

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What is this Aptana you speak of? – Peter Mortensen Dec 31 '16 at 00:42
@PeterMortensen Here is the link: http://www.aptana.com/ Enjoy! – Ryan Alberts Jan 01 '17 at 15:26

score 1 · Answer 14 · edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:39

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I have finally found exactly what I have been looking for, i.e. a dark theme for PyDev (although I still feel like Eclipse is missing out on this).

edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:39

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 16 '09 at 21:04

Bartosz Radaczyński

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score 1 · Answer 15 · edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:39

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This is another dark Eclipse theme: http://blog.prabir.me/post/Dark-Eclipse-Theme.aspx.

I have the Visual Studio equivalent of the theme.

edited Dec 31 '16 at 00:39

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 16 '09 at 11:34

prabir

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score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 05 '10 at 05:48

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Checkout this color scheme I created for Eclipse PDT. It is based on the Vim Zenburn color scheme developed by slinky

answered Jul 05 '10 at 05:48

moleculezz

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To import the file use File|Import|General|Preferences – johnk Dec 01 '10 at 17:42

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Aug 24 '11 at 17:53

Some people posted options for Linux and Mac, and the Windows (free) equivalent is, if you can deal with it globally:

Set Windows desktop appearance theme window background color. You can keep current/desired theme, just modify the background color of windows. By default, it is set to white. I change it to a shade of grey. I tried dark grey and black before, but then you have to change text font colors globally, and all that's painful.

But a simple shade of grey as background does the trick globally, works with any color text font as long as the shade of grey is not too dark.

It's not the best solution for all editors/IDEs, as I prefer black, but it's the next best free & global workaround on Windows.

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Jul 10 '09 at 13:45

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I played with customizing the colors. I went with the yellow text/blue background I've liked from Turbo Pascal. The problem I ran into was it let you set the colors of the editors but then the other views like Package Explorer or Navigator stayed with the default black-on-white colors. I'm sure you could do it programatically but there are waaaay to many settings for my patience.

answered Jul 10 '09 at 13:45

Kelly S. French

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Most of the other views are controlled by the colors specified by the operating system. For example, on Windows you can head to the Advanced Appearance settings and change the *Window* item with your desired colors. Of course, this means all your applications change across the entire operating system, which may be good or bad depending on your taste. – cowgod Aug 27 '09 at 05:23

score 0 · Answer 19 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

In response to this comment I made a filter for Color Filter plugin for Compiz.

Here's what I got:

Howto:

Go to /usr/share/compiz/filters/
Create new file "negative-low-contrast" (as root)
Insert the attached code into it.
Go to System->Preferences->CompizConfig ...
Enter Color Filter Plugin
Enable it and add newly created filter to the list Profeet!!

Filter code:

!!ARBfp1.0
TEMP temp, neg;

# Dunno what's this... but every other filter starts with this :) ;
TEX temp, fragment.texcoord[0], texture[0], RECT;

# Applying negative filter ;
RCP neg.a, temp.a;
MAD temp.rgb, -neg.a, temp, 1.0;
MUL temp.rgb, temp.a, temp;
MUL temp, fragment.color, temp;

# Lowering contrast and shifting brightness ;
MUL temp.rgb, temp, 0.8;
ADD temp.rgb, temp, 0.25;

MOV result.color, temp;
END

You also can play with the filter. May be you will get something more facinating :) Feel free to share!

Dark color scheme for Eclipse

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