Default color scheme burn my eyes a lot. And idea color setting to share?

[Joan_Sparky]

@c4757p

They just slam their mouse button on the color swatch until they give up…

I knew it!

*looks around for a camera*

OK, now tell me, where did you hide it?

[c4757p]

I’m working on a Solarized-based (though a bit more loosely) scheme for pcbnew that works well for higher layer counts…

So far:

• Front/back as red/green is kept
• Layers normally used for power/ground are darker; signal layers stand out more
• Front/back pairs of technical layers use light/dark variants of the same color
• Any time a color is reused or very similar to another color, use that color for something very different. Example: B.Fab and In2.Cu are the same color, but these layers have such drastically different content that you’ll always be able to tell them apart.

Of course to respect “brighter signal layers”, a different scheme will be needed per stackup. I think it will soon be possible to save and load color schemes (if not I’ll add it myself later…), so maybe I’ll create a bunch.

Hopefully it’s possible to set the background soon. Shouldn’t be hard to add, but I don’t have much time to do it myself.

[right_1_1]

If you can give me some clues on how to implement it, I may try.

I gave a quick look at the Kicad source, and it’s by far the most complex thing I’ve seen, so a small crash course would be really appreciated().

Hoping that I didn’t ask too much ,
Carlo

EDIT:
I’ve tried out your color scheme Even without knowing the precise colors it looks already better. A side question, its only me or pcbnew shifts the colors on the dark side?

[c4757p]

As with most things in KiCad, it’s a bit harder than it looks…I actually have background color implemented, except it doesn’t work in OpenGL for some reason I don’t understand and I’ve passed it along to someone more familiar with OpenGL…

@right_1_1

A side question, its only me or pcbnew shifts the colors on the dark side?

Yes and no. The colors themselves aren’t modified, but the layers are slightly transparent by default, so the black background shows through a bit. You can change the opacity of the selected layer with { and }.

[right_1_1]

Ok, fine. I guessed that it was kinda complicated…

@c4757p I pasted the color numbers into your palette, so if other people want to try it out it’s a bit easier.

Thanks again,
Carlo

[nquantum]

Thse color make colourful experience! Good to have more choice. I read somewhere in forum , kicad try to move feature toward to opengl. So it good these color theme also transfer too

[c4757p]

@right_1_1

I pasted the color numbers into your palette, so if other people want to try it out it’s a bit easier.

Thank you! I didn’t do that yet because I don’t really consider the palette complete - I still want to pick colors for things like vias, and make sure everything is clear against the background once I get background color working. But I will make sure to add these in any updates as well.

For what it’s worth, on Linux the color picker can select a color from anywhere on the screen, so you can just click directly on the image to select the colors. Is that not available on Windows or macOS?

[right_1_1]

@c4757p

For what it’s worth, on Linux the color picker can select a color from anywhere on the screen, so you can just click directly on the image to select the colors. Is that not available on Windows or macOS?

WoW, I will add it to the list “Things that I don’t know about linux”!

Ciao,
Carlo

EDIT:
For clarity, the list should be called “Things that i don’t know about GTK or wxGTK”

[c4757p]

More specifically either GTK or wxGTK.

[Richard_Howlett]

Hey, does anyone know where the equivalent ~/.config/kicad/xxx lives on a mac? I was hoping it was in the same place or some place under the /Applications/kicad directory, but I can’t seem to find it. Just trying to sync between a few different computers. I somehow have different schematic fields on my mac vs my linux machines… I’m thinking I will link them to a common file living on dropbox, thus: make a change on one machine, it changes everywhere:)

[c4757p]

~/Library/Preferences/kicad/

[c4757p]

Here’s pcbnew color scheme as config file contents

ColorPCBLayer_F.Cu=rgb(221, 47, 44)
ColorPCBLayer_In1.Cu=rgb(106, 34, 3)
ColorPCBLayer_In2.Cu=rgb(182, 138, 0)
ColorPCBLayer_In3.Cu=rgb(103, 15, 60)
ColorPCBLayer_In4.Cu=rgb(45, 49, 121)
ColorPCBLayer_In5.Cu=rgb(33, 140, 211)
ColorPCBLayer_In6.Cu=rgb(16, 93, 88)
ColorPCBLayer_B.Cu=rgb(134, 154, 0)
ColorPCBLayer_B.Adhes=rgb(0, 182, 88)
ColorPCBLayer_F.Adhes=rgb(101, 255, 130)
ColorPCBLayer_B.Paste=rgb(38, 162, 153)
ColorPCBLayer_F.Paste=rgb(134, 224, 217)
ColorPCBLayer_B.SilkS=rgb(132, 149, 151)
ColorPCBLayer_F.SilkS=rgb(239, 233, 214)
ColorPCBLayer_B.Mask=rgb(212, 51, 131)
ColorPCBLayer_F.Mask=rgb(230, 135, 181)
ColorPCBLayer_Dwgs.User=rgb(253, 247, 228)
ColorPCBLayer_Cmts.User=rgb(88, 111, 118)
ColorPCBLayer_Eco1.User=rgb(99, 73, 4)
ColorPCBLayer_Eco2.User=rgb(120, 15, 12)
ColorPCBLayer_Edge.Cuts=rgb(207, 238, 0)
ColorPCBLayer_Margin=rgb(63, 74, 0)
ColorPCBLayer_B.CrtYd=rgb(204, 74, 15)
ColorPCBLayer_F.CrtYd=rgb(241, 155, 119)
ColorPCBLayer_B.Fab=rgb(182, 138, 0)
ColorPCBLayer_F.Fab=rgb(255, 219, 101)
ColorTxtFrontEx=rgb(194, 194, 194)
ColorTxtBackEx=rgb(0, 0, 132)
ColorTxtInvisEx=rgb(132, 132, 132)
ColorAnchorEx=rgb(0, 0, 132)
ColorPadBackEx=rgb(0, 132, 0)
ColorPadFrontEx=rgb(132, 0, 0)
ColorViaThruEx=rgb(194, 194, 194)
ColorViaBBlindEx=rgb(132, 132, 0)
ColorViaMicroEx=rgb(0, 132, 132)
ColorNonPlatedEx=rgb(194, 194, 0)
ColorRatsEx=rgb(255, 255, 255)

I still want to tweak a couple things, but this will do for now. Probably will see about including it with KiCad itself when we finally have a way to load color schemes from files.

[Zh4ng]

@c4757p very big thx for the job. Her my wired color scheme in eeschema… I will test your pcbnew scheme right now

[nquantum]

@Zh4ng these also look good can u share the setting?

[Zh4ng]

Here is my color scheme for eeschema. Not all Attributes have new colors yet.

ColorWireEx=rgb(131, 148, 150)
ColorBusEx=rgb(0, 0, 132)
ColorConnEx=rgb(131, 148, 150)
ColorLLabelEx=rgb(133, 153, 0)
ColorHLabelEx=rgb(132, 132, 0)
ColorGLabelEx=rgb(132, 0, 0)
ColorPinNumEx=rgb(238, 232, 213)
ColorPinNameEx=rgb(0, 132, 132)
ColorFieldEx=rgb(64, 128, 128)
ColorReferenceEx=rgb(38, 139, 210)
ColorValueEx=rgb(203, 75, 22)
ColorNoteEx=rgb(110, 123, 131)
ColorBodyEx=rgb(238, 232, 213)
ColorBodyBgEx=rgb(7, 54, 66)
ColorNetNameEx=rgb(132, 132, 132)
ColorPinEx=rgb(238, 232, 213)
ColorSheetEx=rgb(132, 0, 132)
ColorSheetFileNameEx=rgb(132, 132, 0)
ColorSheetNameEx=rgb(0, 132, 132)
ColorSheetLabelEx=rgb(132, 132, 0)
ColorNoConnectEx=rgb(0, 0, 132)
ColorErcWEx=rgb(0, 132, 0)
ColorErcEEx=rgb(132, 0, 0)
ColorGridEx=rgb(88, 110, 117)
ColorBgCanvasEx=rgb(0, 43, 54)

[nquantum]

@Zh4ng and @c4757p thank you for your share setting.

Well guy I’ve problem,on windows kicad 4.0.6 I can’t use format like this:
ColorBgCanvasEx=rgb(0, 43, 54) not work but ColorBgCanvasEx=Black or other like Gray 1, Gray2 … is working.

When I use rgb(…) then it reset to White color or other it’s default. It just like this format not valid. Any solution?

[Joan_Sparky]

@nquantum

When I use rgb(…) then it reset to White color or other it’s default. It just like this format not valid. Any solution?

It’s probably in the nightlies only (beta testing versions for non-developers) until v5 comes out. v4.xx versions are bugfixes without feature additions since v4 came out.

[c4757p]

Can confirm this. This is an upcoming feature that will be present in 5.0, and you can use it in development builds as well.

Usual disclaimer for development builds applies: they’re for testing and preview only. Development builds contain features that aren’t finished yet. They’re buggy and may make demons fly out your nose. There is at least one known bug already with this very feature, in fact.

[nquantum]

I see I’ll find some pc to test it anyway.
Meanwhile look forward to see this new theme-color setting feature

[justyn]

I don’t want to highjack this thread, but in the nightlies is it also possible to change the attribute text colours along the bottom of the window?

By that I mean (in eeschema): Reference, Value, Component etc that show along the bottom of the application window whenever you select an item.

I use Ubuntu with a dark theme (that is, a dark GTK theme). This means that the window elements are dark, so the dark coloured text is difficult to read (see image).

I can’t find any way to change these colours, unfortunately the “colour scheme” settings don’t seem to have options for them. Any other places I could look?

Thanks.