HI, using the HiDPI edition of Scrivener 2.9.9.9, the underline of a spelling error is exceptionally hard to see when in dark mode theme. In the default theme, it is better - but still not really visible enough to spot right away.
There are two different styles for the underline. One is dots, which I find to be really hard to see. The other is waves. I suspect that you have dots selected in your options. So, go to Options (F12), then Corrections, then Spelling. Select the underline method you want to display:
yes, I have tried both; that was my first inclination. The screenshot is actually of the waves format…
I use Dark mode, too, and find that simply changing the background colour slightly lighter helps me see the dots or waves better.
Thanks, @AusieDoc. I agree, it can be worked around - I don’t believe that this is a show stopper. The other work-around is to manually run the spell checker at the end of the writing session and correct what it finds or add new phrases to the dictionary.
The default view is also more visible.
My point, however, is that this should be more visible rather than be worked around. Word and Chrome (and other software) seem to handle this fine without user intervention; there is no reason why Scrivener can’t.
Quite probably. There seems to be no internal intelligence in Scrivener to make the text and textual marks more visible. This is all (almost all) set by the user. For example, the color of the squiggly line can be changed (File/Options/Appearance/Textual Marks/Colors/Spell Check Underline). If you really want to see it against a dark ground, try a bright yellow line (#ffff00), or an orange line (#f4b000).
Thanks, this helps me. But I was thinking, why not make the Underline Squiggle Wavy BOLDER, more easily seen? Perhaps Pt sizes to help make it bigger, thicker?
At least the colour changes made is easier to see. My entire Scrivener is all pure black, and texts are all yellow, and setting the Squiggle wave to green or even blue made it easier to see, actually the green line made it easier to see set next to yellow text. This is good to learn and I can change it around, now that I know how. Thanks, much obliged.
[attachment=0]UnderlineStyle.jpg[/attachment]
This isn’t enough?
No. I discovered after tweaking a few times that when I “change the text scale” I can see the squiggle much easier, especially when I changed the text colours, so no worries.
Just updated the Scrivener, “Candidate 17, version 2.9.9.17”, and I tried to lightens the text, and just discovered now that the Options dialog box is too big, can’t drag the corner nor the top down to make it smaller so I can clicks on the Apply for the new colour to take affect.
I better find the page to post this problem so they can fix the non-scale-able Options dialog box, okay.
Thanks, I appreciates your help. Regards.
The developers have previously stated that you must have an effective 1080px vertical height after working out the interaction between your actual resolution and display scaling:
“Your screen size MUST be at least 1080px high at 100% scaling.”
'The recommended vertical resolution is one more time 1080px at 100% scaling."
I see. I checked my laptop’s display settings, here, you can see.
Display scale and layout: 100% and 125%.
Display resolution: 1366x768; 1360x768, 1280x768, 1024x758.
Any recommendations choosing one of these resolutions?
I don’t like messing with the display, but if needs must, what is best?
Thanks.
Nope. I tested three other resolution settings, Last one squashed the screen. That’s it, I can’t use scrivener any more unless I shell out hundreds of dollars for a new bloody laptop that fits your requirements.
I really think the Option dialog SHOULD BE SHRINKABLE, just like the Scrivener ITSELF is already easily SHRINKABLE, like this.
Thanks for helping, I appreciates it.
Never mind.
I’ll just be stuck with whatever settings the Scrivener is stuck with. Might not bother to use it any more.
I’ll just use OpenOffice, RoughDraft, etc. At least they don’t requires the display resolution to be changed.
I thought all software should be flexible. Scrivener is becoming inflexible.
Thanks for trying to help, I appreciates it.
Regards
I really cannot find anything remotely resembling Scrivener, not with the superb adaptability it gives me.
I figured out how to make taskbar smaller, also make it hides itself. I can see the Options buttons easily.
I also made the GUI fonts smaller, 10pt instead of 12pt. The Option dialog’s texts became smaller, the dialog itself actually shrinks a few pixels, and thus I can see the buttons more fully.
It’s really weird dialog. I grabs the top edge, and I can drag it down a bit, up down up down, it does shrinks a bit, but not much, maybe a few pixels. It should have scrollable inside it, for every page inside it, would solves all this problem. But yeah, lots of work for the programmers, so yeah, I know they won’t bother. This is the best they could do, so we got to adapt to it and not it to us.
Thanks, I’ll live with this, it’s all I can do to continue using it for my work.
Regards.
I’d just like to offer some support to the OP. I’m using the now-released Windows 3 Scrivener, and would really like to use a dark theme like Mellow Yellow. But the spelling underlining is almost impossible to see, despite following the advice on Waves, 1080p resolution, and Coloring Textual Marks, and after meddling for an hour with Windows Color options. I’ve now reverted to using the Solarized Light Theme, in which the spelling corrections are perfectly clear. Maybe it’s a problem only for some people, but I think providing options to increase the pixel depth of the underline, make it bold, or whatever would make the darker modes much easier to use.
The dark themes on Windows Scrivener (actually all but the default theme) were introduced about a year into the beta process. While there were some bug fixes made for these themes during the beta process, there are still quite a few bugs that were not fixed - Macs color text differently than Windows does, so it was possible (maybe still is) to take a project from a Mac to Windows where you would have black text on a black background or white text on a white background, for instance. The themes work, but there are a bunch of little “gotchas” that will crop up making them less useful/fiddly, especially when sharing between different devices (Mac, iOS, Windows). Usability-wise, the only Windows theme that gets it “right” 99% of the time is the default theme. Every theme needs tweeks to make it “right” for the user. I’d really like to see/have a unified theme “adjuster” that would allow greater control of what colors and such are used throughout Scrivener. Maybe that will happen. Until then I’ll live with what we have and continue writing…
Mellow Yellow is currently my go to theme, and it’s a pity you can’t make it work for you. 
When/if you’re willing to have a go at it again, try messing with the editor fonts, because the font seems to make a big difference in the visibility of the spelling underline. In the screenshot below is a comparison of Cambria 12, TNR 12, and Courier Prime 12 (my usual editing font). The underlining in Courier Prime really pops compared to the others, even more so on my actual monitor than in the image. (Perhaps the underline improvement has something to do with CP being monospaced and the others proportional?)
The sweet spot for me seems to be Courier Prime 12 at 1080 and 150% zoom level, with the default red specified in Textual Marks. This makes the underline quite usable for me.
[attachment=0]Spelling Underline.jpg[/attachment].
Best,
Jim
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Thanks for that idea. You’re right, the underline in Courier Prime at 150% really does stand out. But the text is a little big at that zoom level for my liking, and making the font smaller to compensate again hides the underline. I’m still of the opinion that it ought to be possible to make the underline easily visible in dark modes without people having to carefully choose a font and zoom level