<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
type="topic"
id="app-colors">
<info>
<revision version="0.1" date="2013-03-02" status="candidate"/>
<revision pkgversion="3.34" version="0.2" date="2020-01-04" status="candidate"/>
<link type="guide" xref="index#appearance"/>
<link type="guide" xref="pref#profile"/>
<credit type="author copyright">
<name>Sindhu S</name>
<email>sindhus@live.in</email>
<years>2013</years>
</credit>
<credit type="author copyright editor">
<name>Ekaterina Gerasimova</name>
<email>kittykat3756@gmail.com</email>
<years>2013</years>
</credit>
<credit type="copyright editor">
<name>Michael Hill</name>
<email>mdhillca@gmail.com</email>
<years>2013</years>
</credit>
<include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
<desc>Change colors and backgrounds.</desc>
</info>
<title>Color schemes</title>
<p>If you do not like the default <app>Terminal</app> theme, you may want to
change the colors that are used for the text and background. You can use
colors from your theme, select one of the presets or use a custom scheme.</p>
<section id="system-theme">
<title>Use colors from your system theme</title>
<p>To use colors from the system theme:</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Press the menu button in the top-right corner of the window and select
<gui style="menuitem">Preferences</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>In the sidebar, select your current profile in the <gui>Profiles</gui>
section.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Select <gui style="tab">Colors</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Check <gui style="checkbox">Use colors from system theme</gui>. The
changes will be applied automatically.</p>
</item>
</steps>
</section>
<section id="built-in-scheme">
<title>Built-in schemes</title>
<p>You can choose one of the built-in color schemes: <gui>Black on light
yellow</gui>, <gui>Black on white</gui>, <gui>Gray on black</gui>,
<gui>Green on black</gui>, <gui>White on black</gui>, <gui>Tango
light</gui>, <gui>Tango dark</gui>, <gui>Solarized light</gui>,
<gui>Solarized dark</gui>. To set any of the built-in schemes:</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Press the menu button in the top-right corner of the window and select
<gui style="menuitem">Preferences</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>In the sidebar, select your current profile in the <gui>Profiles</gui>
section.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Select <gui style="tab">Colors</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Make sure that <gui style="checkbox">Use colors from system
theme</gui> is unchecked. Choose the desired color scheme from
<gui>Built-in schemes</gui>. Color scheme choices are applied
automatically.</p>
<note>
<p>Applications can choose to use a color from the palette rather
than the specified bold color.</p>
</note>
</item>
</steps>
</section>
<section id="custom-scheme">
<title>Custom color scheme</title>
<p>You can use custom colors for the text and background in
<app>Terminal</app>:</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Press the menu button in the top-right corner of the window and select
<gui style="menuitem">Preferences</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>In the sidebar, select your current profile in the <gui>Profiles</gui>
section.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Select <gui style="tab">Colors</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Make sure that <gui style="checkbox">Use colors from system
theme</gui> is unchecked. Select <gui>Custom</gui> from the
<gui>Built-in schemes</gui> drop-down list.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Click on the color you would like to change.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Choose your desired color from the color sample and click
<gui style="button">Select</gui>.</p>
<p>You can choose the desired color in the following ways:</p>
<list>
<item>
<p>Input the hexadecimal color code in the input box.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Drag the slider on the left to adjust the colors and click on
the desired color in the color selection area.</p>
</item>
</list>
<p>Your changes will be saved automatically.</p>
</item>
</steps>
<note style="tip">
<p>You may also alter a color when you have chosen a built-in scheme by
clicking on the color sample block. Once changed, your selection in the
built-in scheme menu will change to <gui>Custom</gui>.</p>
</note>
<note style="tip">
<p>Traditionally terminal emulators offered a 16 color palette, this is
what you can alter here. <app>Terminal</app> supports an extended set of
256 colors, but the additional 240 colors cannot be edited here.</p>
<p><app>Terminal</app> even offers direct access to over 16 million
colors, this is called “true color” mode.</p>
<p>If the changes you make to the palette do not seem to have an effect,
presumably the contents you see consist of such extended palette colors
or true colors, rather than the 16 base colors.</p>
</note>
</section>
<section id="bold-is-bright">
<title>Bright colors for bold text</title>
<p>Traditionally terminals didn't clearly separate bold font weight from
intense colors, often both of them were enabled together. Recent
improvements, such as the introduction of true color support, and certain
color schemes (e.g. Solarized) made it desirable to separate the two
concepts, that is, make the brightness independent from the font weight.</p>
<p>In order to choose your preferred behavior:</p>
<steps>
<item>
<p>Press the menu button in the top-right corner of the window and select
<gui style="menuitem">Preferences</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>In the sidebar, select your current profile in the <gui>Profiles</gui>
section.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Select <gui style="tab">Colors</gui>.</p>
</item>
<item>
<p>Disable <gui>Show bold text in bright colors</gui> for the new
default behavior, the complete separation of color intensity and font
weight; or enable this option for improved backward compatibility.</p>
</item>
</steps>
</section>
</page>