Black background - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Dago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2015, 07:07:31 pm
content: Is it possible to get a black background in schematic side of Altium? The blazing white burns my eyes and I always use a black background if possible. I went through the options but didn't see anything.

author: Warhawk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2015, 08:04:22 pm
content: Quote from: Dago on December 02, 2015, 07:07:31 pmI am afraid that you will not get satisfactory solution. As far as I know there is no "real" black theme for altium. Let's see what more experienced users respond.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2015, 08:23:23 pm
content: You can set the background under Document Properties/Sheet/Sheet Color.Expect to waste a lot of ink/toner if you ever commit them to paper, however. And don't expect them to be readable, like, at all...Tim

author: Dago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 05:50:29 am
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on December 02, 2015, 08:23:23 pmWell naturally sheets are not supposed to be printed with a black background.And there does seem to be a sheet color setting but no other color settings so like you said it is completely unreadable with a black background...

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 06:01:04 am
content: You can change the default line color (P,W,TAB or under Preferences), but it's an object property like any other. You have to change all the other wires in the design, too (e.g., SCH Filter Panel; select from all open files in project; IsWire; go to SCH Inspector and change all the colors at once). And all the pins and outlines in the library.Tim

author: Warhawk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2015, 08:51:09 am
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on December 03, 2015, 06:01:04 amYes but every new component / element added to a circuit diagram will use the color defined in the library. That makes it useless, I am afraid.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2015, 06:51:12 am
content: Simply reducing the display brightness/contrast does wonders. It is amazing how many people run their displays on full settings. My eyes hurt when I look at their screen from 3 meters away. Reducing Gamma also helps.Speaking of colors, I do not understand the trend to code applications with black background, such as Keysight BenchView. It looks childish to me. Nothing was wrong with white background before.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2015, 11:02:16 am
content: Black background I guess hearkens back to the days of green screens and DOS: you don't waste light drawing anything you don't need, every pixel is precious. It took some time to realize that, actually, pixels weren't special at all, and something easier to read, like newsprint (color on white), is better.Black is also easier for additive mixing, even if you aren't doing proper alpha blending. OR type blending was very common, back when 16 colors were common (and they weren't made of pixels, but bit planes).Nowadays, these things are usually solved, but a lot of old code and ideas (like do-as-we-say, not customize-as-you-need) persist, especially among special-purpose software like this.Tim

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2015, 02:57:48 pm
content: Quote from: Warhawk on December 03, 2015, 08:51:09 amyou can override that. there is a setting to use local colors. it is uder document properties if i remember right