I glanced through the wishlist briefly and used the search bar to look for anything related to themes and didn’t see anything about the theme text colors, so I do have something I would like to see, if at all possible. For reference, I’m using the Windows version of the program, so I’m not sure if this is a mac feature already, and I’m just unaware of it, or if it’s something missing from both versions of the program. If this is something that’s already part of the Mac version of Scrivener, please disregard this; I’m fully aware that all mac features will eventually make their way over to Windows, and I’m totally okay with waiting for that.
In any of the themes I’ve seen, even when the text color all across the program is a different color, there are a few locations that continue to remain white/ black. A few of these locations that I’ve noticed are as follows: in the document title bar of the main editor, the thing that tells you when there are no subdocuments, the title and summary on the note cards in corkboard view, almost all the text in the outliner view, the text color in the notes/ synopsis portion of the inspector, and even the binder text color in every theme except “Mellow Yellow”. I’m sure there are other locations within Scrivener that I’m missing, but the point is that all of the text colors in these locations are uneditable.
Through my own research, I discovered why the binder text color is different in the “Mellow Yellow” theme but not in any other theme I’ve seen, and I believe the issue is just that there’s no code written into the theme files to allow for these things to be changed. When unpacked and the files within are inspected individually, the “Mellow Yellow” theme has a line of code to change the binder text color that files for the other themes don’t have. Obviously, I understand the risk with changing anything in these files yourself (as a sidenote, I would love the ability to edit these things without having to dig into the individual files to do it, but it’s not a huge issue for me, personally), but it would be so nice to have the default themes edited to allow the text colors for these locations to be changed to match the rest of the theme. Even something as simple as adding the proper lines of code to just the unpacked files of the “Mellow Yellow” theme (I’m not a coder, by any means, but I’m pretty sure one of the files I’m talking about is the .qss file) would make it easier for theme builders and the like to go in and edit these things individually per theme. Honestly, this would make me insanely happy to be able to edit these things in any capacity, and I would love to see it added as a possibility, at some point in the future.
Hello Jasminealeiah,
Unfortunately not everything in Scrivener can be updated using a Theme. Some of those are logical, because programming is used to optimize contrast, for example in the Binder text. Other elements are just not hooked in the regular styling system, like the Ruler that’s largely custom built and defies any colouring, but for the background color, and only via the system Palette .
On the other hand, every user control in Scrivener can be updated using a Theme. Listboxes, Pushbuttons, Sliders, and system Program bars are all supsectible to rules in the QSS Stylesheet. The Stylesheets in the built-in Themes don’t even hint at that.
You say you’re not a coder, but with basic CSS knowledge, anyone with some time on their hands is able to radically change most colors in Scrivener, and even apply gradients to elements if they want.
When you’re really interested in creating Themes, I would advise to read my book on the matter, because there’s little other reference available.
Also, connecting with the r/ScrivenerThemeBuilder Reddit group might provide some information on the topic, even though the group is largely dormant. There are even some answers there for coloring text you want in different color.
I wish you success editing text colors in Scrivener Themes!
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Sorry, I’m not on the forum much and didn’t see this response sooner.
Honestly, I don’t want to change everything. I would just like the ability for non-coders to be able to fully change all the text colors everywhere in the theme. I am aware that learning basic CSS can give me the ability to do this myself, but I don’t want to have to go through the process of learning to do that just for the know-how needed to edit the .qss file so ALL text colors can be changed. Scrivener users shouldn’t have to learn a new skill just to change text colors in a theme we’re supposed to be able to customize.
My previous post here in the Scrivener Wishlist thread was because I fully believe that better customization for themes is something Scrivener users would really love to see. Customizing your theme should be fun and easy, not a difficult, lengthy process that requires you to unpack the individual theme files and literally edit the code inside just to change color schemes. Ideally, I would just want the process to be a little more streamlined so ANYONE can do it, regardless of how much they do or don’t know about coding. This was a wishlist post above all else. I know there’s a learning curve with Scrivener, but users should NOT have to learn any kind of coding to be able to fully customize the color schemes of a theme that’s designed to be customizable.
I don’t want to be a theme builder. I don’t want to make and customize themes for other people because doing so requires a skill that most Scrivener users don’t have. I just want to be able to customize the colors within my own personal themes without having to learn an entirely new skillset to do it.
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