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

[nquantum]

@c4757p

omgomgomg it’s in now, should be in nightlies tonight

Look lovely! I like those. If component use same color but little bit darker will me low-key light on high-key light and might be more pretty but overall I like it!

Hope the theme to be select is more and can color custom adjust-able. So maybe we can see some color-full theme to choose and fun.

[right_1_1]

Guys I’m seriously banging my head on the table while I’m trying to figure out how to change the colors in kicad.

For eeschema I’ve found out that there is a color picker thing and thats fine, but I’m lost on how to do the same thing for pcbnew. I’d really like to be sure that in order to change those colors I need to recompile kicad, as I’m not into compiling stuff…

@c4757p Could you share your settings file, with the Solarized palette theme enabled? That would really be a cool thing!

Thanks again to all,
Carlo

[c4757p]

@right_1_1

@c4757p Could you share your settings file, with the Solarized palette theme enabled? That would really be a cool thing!

Sure, paste this into the config file in place of the existing colors - ~/.config/kicad/eeschema on Linux, not sure where on other systems.

ColorWireEx=rgb(88, 110, 117)
ColorBusEx=rgb(38, 139, 210)
ColorConnEx=rgb(88, 110, 117)
ColorLLabelEx=rgb(88, 110, 117)
ColorHLabelEx=rgb(133, 153, 0)
ColorGLabelEx=rgb(159, 37, 35)
ColorPinNumEx=rgb(7, 54, 66)
ColorPinNameEx=rgb(7, 54, 66)
ColorFieldEx=rgb(101, 123, 131)
ColorReferenceEx=rgb(101, 123, 131)
ColorValueEx=rgb(101, 123, 131)
ColorNoteEx=rgb(38, 139, 210)
ColorBodyEx=rgb(0, 43, 54)
ColorBodyBgEx=rgb(238, 232, 213)
ColorNetNameEx=rgb(132, 132, 132)
ColorPinEx=rgb(0, 43, 54)
ColorSheetEx=rgb(132, 0, 132)
ColorSheetFileNameEx=rgb(181, 137, 0)
ColorSheetNameEx=rgb(0, 132, 132)
ColorSheetLabelEx=rgb(133, 153, 0)
ColorNoConnectEx=rgb(38, 139, 210)
ColorErcWEx=rgb(133, 153, 0)
ColorErcEEx=rgb(220, 50, 47)
ColorGridEx=rgb(171, 171, 171)
ColorBgCanvasEx=rgb(253, 246, 227)

[c4757p]

@right_1_1

Guys I’m seriously banging my head on the table while I’m trying to figure out how to change the colors in kicad.

For eeschema I’ve found out that there is a color picker thing and thats fine, but I’m lost on how to do the same thing for pcbnew. I’d really like to be sure that in order to change those colors I need to recompile kicad, as I’m not into compiling stuff…

Middle click on the colors in the layer panel on the right.

[right_1_1]

I feel so stupid now. Thanks again for your time

[right_1_1]

Small problem, I can’t find that file. Should I create it from scratch?

Thanks again

EDIT:
The path should be ~/.config/kicad/eeschema

[c4757p]

@right_1_1

I feel so stupid now. Thanks again for your time

Lol, because you didn’t think to middle click? I’ve been arguing to fix that for ages now, everyone tries a single left click. But people insist a single click there should select the layer instead…

@right_1_1

EDIT:The path should be ~/.config/kicad/eeschema

Oopsie. Yes.

[right_1_1]

@c4757p

Lol, because you didn’t think to middle click? I’ve been arguing to fix that for ages now, everyone tries a single left click. But people insist a single click there should select the layer instead…

I needed some sleep, that’s just all

EDIT:
If you hover the mouse over the layer menu a little floating notification will pop up telling you what click does what.
EDIT 2:
There is a way to change the black background to something lighter?

[c4757p]

Yeah, but almost nobody notices the tooltip. They just slam their mouse button on the color swatch until they give up…

No, the black background cannot currently be changed. Hopefully this will be fixed…

[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/