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How can one make Xcode's UI completely dark?

There must be a way to have a dark theme for Xcode (like Visual Studio has it for example). I'm not only talking about a way of styling the editor, but a full-on dark theme. Dark menus, dark console, dark file browser, dark menu bar, etc.

Xcode's bright UI hurts at night and I can't be the only one who's really searching for this ;) (please don't recommand f.lux to me now, that's not a solution)

Max
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8 Answers8

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Xcode's UI can be changed to completely dark with Xcode 10 running on macOS Mojave. Just go into System Preferences -> General -> Under Appearance -> Click the dark mode

Enable Dark Appearance mode

enter image description here

Bryan Norden
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  • What is your experience with Mojave so far? Is everything working correctly when it comes to iOS development? I always used Xcode beta, but I'm a little scared of macOS beta. :) – Đorđe Nilović Jun 14 '18 at 08:41
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    @ĐorđeNilović I built a few new features off of it and it was great. I built a production build to release to the App Store using Xcode command line tools and fastlane using Xcode 9.4.1. But all my code and features were completed using Xcode 10 and on macOS Majave. I love it. None of the know bugs have effected me. – Bryan Norden Jun 15 '18 at 21:54
5

You can reference to this article:

https://medium.com/@guilhermerambo/how-to-enable-real-dark-mode-on-os-x-macos-14966f9f7d24

Install a dark mode in system service,it make Xcode most control dark,it's not perfect, but works.

Hope Apple implement it someday.

alextooter
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In Preferences → Accessibility there is a checkbox Invert colors. Of course, it doesn't give a nice dark theme, but I found it quite useful when working in darkness. The whole system interface with this checkbox on looks funny.

julia_v
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System wide dark mode is announced in macOS 10.14 Mojave in WWDC 18. You can also enable dark mode for XCode 10. Dark mode in interface builder. Dark mode in XCode

Here is the link for XCode 10 beta

Rugmangathan
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1

In Xcode 9 or below you can include the last the theme Dark,

https://gist.github.com/andresilvagomez/94854ed5320fac2b3b5790e63efc516e

Execute this command

open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/FontAndColorThemes/

and create this file there

Default (Dark).xccolortheme

and paste the content inside of URL

1

If you need Dark theme for the whole UI, here is what you need to do:

1: Open Xcode settigns

enter image description here

2: Click Appearance and select Dark

enter image description here

Done!

Shahid Ghafoor
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0

Don't think Xcode can do that. You might want to consider the excellent Appcode IDE though.

Jonathan Zhan
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This works in Xcode 9:

Xcode --> Preferences.. --> Fonts & Colors tab --> Choose your them (Dusk / Midnight)

Dror Bar
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