Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

I want to change background color of Thunderbird start page from white to medium gray, hard on my eyes now

  • 4 replies
  • 7 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Paskiausią atsakymą parašė galaxyrunner

more options

Hello, I have bad eyesight. I would like to be able to change the background color of my Thunderbird start page message pane windows from stark white to whatever hex color I desire. Such as medium gray which causes much less eye strain. If its in the code how would I access that? And I believe this would be an optional feature that many people with eye problems would truly appreciate. Thanks for any help with this.

Hello, I have bad eyesight. I would like to be able to change the background color of my Thunderbird start page message pane windows from stark white to whatever hex color I desire. Such as medium gray which causes much less eye strain. If its in the code how would I access that? And I believe this would be an optional feature that many people with eye problems would truly appreciate. Thanks for any help with this.

All Replies (4)

more options

What do you mean by "start page"? What we would normally refer to as a start page shows only until you start reading messages, so it's not clear why it would give you trouble.

I suspect that you are talking about the message list. The easiest thing to do would be to apply a theme, assuming one can be found that provides a suitable colour scheme. Otherwise you could create a userChrome.css file where you can override the usual colours. A related file, userContent.css, can be used to override the colours in messages themselves.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/index.php?title=UserChrome.css&printable=yes

more options

Yes thank you Zenos, You are correct I was referring to the message list and messages themselves.

I will attempt to create a userChrome.css file and go from there.

As a related question, are the available Thunderbird themes editable by me or are they locked up by their creators?

Thank you for your help.

more options

I have just looked at a theme to check. You download an .xpi file which is effectively a zipped archive. You can open that (change its extension to .zip if that helps) and edit the contents, rename to .xpi then apply (i.e. install) it.

The one I have just looked at (Nautopolis) is chock full of css files. Your problem may be to identify which are relevant to your needs.

more options

Thank you for the information and tips Zenos. I will be into this new adventure over the next week.

Truly appreciate your assistance, have a great day.  :o)