How to set background colours for visually impaired

[neilajarn]

I've just installed Xubuntu 16.04 on a laptop for someone who is visually impaired.

We would like the desktop background to be a dark colour and the text to be a light colour sp ots easier to read.

I have read several articles online but am beginning to think Ubuntu would be an easier option to change the desktop background colour because there doesn't seem to be an option to alter the desktop background colour in Xubuntu - only change wallpaper.

Once I have figured out how to do this I also need to change the colours of each window so that the background is a dark colour and the text is a light colour.

Any advive appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[neilajarn]

have solved the background problem by setting the style to none and then selecting a colour.

Still need a user friendly way to change the background and text colours inside the windows- thunar, web browser etc They need to be a dark background colour with light text...

[vasa1]

have solved the background problem by setting the style to none and then selecting a colour.

Still need a user friendly way to change the background and text colours inside the windows- thunar, web browser etc They need to be a dark background colour with light text...

Edit: please read caution about Stylish at the end of this post.

For the browser (unspecified), I suggest installing the Stylish Extension which is available for Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/stylish/) and for Chrome (and Vivaldi) (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe?hl=en). There may also be a version for Opera.

Once that's installed, visit userstyles.org for "dark global themes". (The global bit is important; otherwise, you'll find themes that only darken the "chrome" of the browser and not the webpage itself.

You'll also need to get acquainted with gtk themes because Xubuntu, by default, comes with a majority of its applications being gtk-based. You'll also need to mention the gtk theme in use. Xubuntu has Greybird as its default. If you're using Greybird, I could offer you some suggestions on darkening things!

I'm attaching an image of my system with a few windows open.

Top-most left: conky with dark background and lighter text
Top-most right: a panel (tint2) with dark background
Fore-most window is gedit's preferences allowing you to select a dark theme for the text area
Below that is the gedit window itself; note the dark background (because I've chosen a slightly modified version of the Cobalt color scheme)
To the left of the gedit window is a bit of Thunar and
the lowest window is my Vivaldi browser in which I'm responding to your post.


In the image, I've used gedit but mousepad, which is Xubuntu's default text editor, also allows you to change the color scheme. Click on View and then hover over Color Scheme to see the options available. Before you do so, it would help if you've got a text file such as ~/.bashrc open (but make sure you don't make any unintentional changes to the file)!

BTW, I just noticed you're looking for a "user friendly way". I think Xubuntu has a small application for that but it had limited options when I last looked. Here's a thread from 2012: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2053698. Maybe the application is still present and even better than when I looked at it. Maybe a Xubuntu user can tell you about it.


=====
There's yet another route with a fancy GUI and all. It's called Oomox: http://www.webupd8.org/2016/06/tool-to-customize-numix-theme-colors.html. You can use it to customize the version of the Numix theme which is present in Xubuntu 16.04 and later.


=====
Caution re. the Stylish extension
This extension recently changed owners. There's concern now, that the "new" Stylish maybe be collecting some sort of user data:
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/01/04/major-stylish-add-on-changes-in-regards-to-privacy/
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/2-million-users-impacted-by-new-data-collection-policy-in-stylish-browser-add-on/

[neilajarn]

This worked perfectly.

The stylish extension with one of the dark global themes helped change the browser colours in firefox.

Then the oomox utility took care of the rest.

Many thanks.

[vasa1]

@neilajarn, please see my note at the bottom of my previous reply re. Stylish!

[Bucky Ball]

And please mark as solved to help others (see link in my signature). :)