Kicad Win 11 dark mode lack of - 3rd party app

[Raphael_Baker]

I can’t stand looking at a bright white screen. I’ve found a 3rd party windows app that lets you dark mode any running app. I have no affiliation to the app creator but I thought it might be of interest to win 11 users?

[eelik]

Screenshot from KiCad 9.99 on Windows 11 without a 3rd party app.

[DaveL]

There seems to be an alternate build of Kicad that offers DM support for windows users. The Huaqui build.
https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-windows-dark-mode/61981/8?u=davel

I see they also have the latest 9.0.4 fork. I had it installed briefly (It set off some Avast AV warnings when I installed it) and it comes with plugins that I didn’t particularly want so I uninstalled it as I’m also migrating to Linux Mint so if/when I really want a more proper DM, I just boot into Linux vs Windows.

[DaveL]

@Raphael_Baker

I’ve found a 3rd party windows app that lets you dark mode any running app.

Care to share some further details? Like if not a link, a name? Maybe I’ll kick the tires and take it for a test drive.

[Raphael_Baker]

It’s called Dark mode any app. It has a hotkey so you can enable/disable it quickly. However, I’ve now installed the kicad nightly with built in dark mode support via the plugins option. Working well so far.

[eelik]

To be exact, the UI follows the Windows color mode automatically, but the schematic editor needs a color theme, and they are found in plugins.

[jmk]

To visually clarify @eelik 's comments:

This is a Dark mode for the UI. This needs to be supplied by the OS.

This is a Dark mode for the Schematic Editor. This can be found in the color theme plugins.

This is a Dark mode when both are used.

[tama]

Post-V9 New Features and Development News

Dark mode is now available in Windows nightly builds as an experiment [image] It staying in KiCad builds depends on the presence of bugs that may occur in wxwidgets 3.3 Note: A dark Schematic Editor color theme must be manually installed from the PCM and then set in order to have something more pleasant on the eyes

The official release is coming soon.

[DaveL]

@Raphael_Baker

It’s called Dark mode any app. It has a hotkey so you can enable/disable it quickly.

I gave it a whirl with Kicad V9 on Win10. It kinda works, but has a few quirks. The popup windows like property editor etc need to get an initial Alt-Q treatment as well. After that they’ll reopen in DM but briefly flash white before the app gives them the DM treatment. In the PCB editor, the default palette with a black canvas makes the canvas white when Alt-Qd so it would also need a color theme swap.

The biggest quick with Kicad is that once in Alt-Q DM, I can’t simply click and drag a symbol or footprint with the mouse. I can select them, then M or G them and then drag them around, but not just click and drag in one motion. Odd. I had to exit Alt-Q mode, then close and restart KiCad to get it back to normal.