How about a dark GUI for TC?

[Mirok]

Any solution? I have still the light TC window with the dark background... Please do something!

[Dalai]

Although TC doesn't support themes or color schemes, it provides a wide variety to customize its colors in Configuration > Options > Color.

Regards
Dalai

[Mirok]

Although TC doesn't support themes or color schemes, it provides a wide variety to customize its colors in Configuration > Options > Color.

Regards
Dalai

Look, there are some other programs that are dark, why TC can't be or use the same method?

https://imgur.com/a/gWTGevz

LOOK:
Image: https://i.imgur.com/NDmjg0d.jpg
Image: https://i.imgur.com/kXfLW0t.jpg
Image: https://i.imgur.com/rgQfHHf.jpg

[Brumm]

In general, "UI themes" for TC would be an improvement. While I disagree with the perception that a dark UI would be better, it might be relatively easy to add exportable "color sets" to the existing Color configuration...?

[petermad]

You can actually make a dark GUI for all "old" Windows programs by editing Windows' basic color setting. In Windows 7 there is still a tool for that, in Windows 8 and 10 you'll have to edit Windows Registry manually.

But there is a major problem with that for TC - the font color in TC's various dialogs are not set consistently. The fonts are supposed to use the setting for ButtonText for all 3D surfaces - that is: all surfaces that are usually grey - but a lot of the text in TC's dialog is hardcoded to black. It I change the color of ButtonText to red ( [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors] "ButtonText"="255 0 0" ) then I see mixed red and black font color in TC's dialogs like this: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/dialogfontcolor.png - wher all text except for the text in the white fields should have been red.

If I had also changed the background in the dialogs to black ( [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors] "ButtonFace"="0 0 0" ) - then a lot of the text would be invisible because it is hardcoded to black.

So the first thing that has to be done in TC is that all dialog legend font color has to comply with the settings of [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors] "ButtonText" - that could be a step on the way.

Here is an example of a dark GUI made this way: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/darkgui1.png - and how bad it turns out in other dialogs: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/darkgui2.png

[Bob___]

Hi petermad ,

Thanks for your input. Just like you I tried to change the TC colors via the Windows settings, I tried it 2-3 years ago, but left the whole thing frustrated, because it just doesn't work!

That is and remains a topic for me, which should be considered by the TC development with a dark mode, which uses tasteful colors like in the screenshot above: https://i.imgur.com/rgQfHHf.jpg

In your examples I find the choice of colour much too hard, a much too high contrast (http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/darkgui1.png).
I still hope that the TC development team will bow to the trend all major app houses (like Adobe <> Autodesk <> Maxon <> Microsoft <> Apple) are showing, namely to provide a tasteful dark mode.

[gezgin]

FWIW, here's my vote for conveniently-accessible and consistent Dark Mode support in the next version of TC as well...

--
Bob

[Thany]

Although TC doesn't support themes or color schemes, it provides a wide variety to customize its colors in Configuration > Options > Color.

Regards
Dalai

That's not really a solution. A proper dark mode is more than changing the odd few colours around. Everything needs to change in order to create a coherent experience. A white-on-black filelist is only the first microscopic babystep.

[...] In your examples I find the choice of colour much too hard, a much too high contrast (http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/darkgui1.png).

Yeah that's like going back to Windows 95 high-contrast setting. It's more like Nightmare Mode than Night Mode, iyam

[Thany]

Take a look at, for example, Visual Studio Code. GUI-wise it is vastly more complex than TC (no offense), and yet it has a dark/light mode switch.

[ghisler(Author)]

Visual Studio seems to replace all Windows controls with its own. For example, the scrollbars look very different in Visual Studio than in the rest of Windows. I don't want that, I want to use the current theme to display all elements. But this means that you have to use a dark theme system-wide. Since there is no standard dark theme, all you can do is use one of the "high contrast" dark themes.

[Usher]

2ghisler(Author)
You are right. If anyone wants to create independent GUI styles, he/she should use some framework.
Many devs use Qt Framework which makes creating multisystem apps easier, but it's a really huge thing… You don't want it for TC…
But other people still create more lightweight skinnable apps. You can look at Nomad.NET http://www.nomad-net.info. It's written using .Net Framework.

[Brumm]

Now .NET is not exactly what I would call "lightweight", honestly.

[Usher]

2Brumm
Well, NOW dotnet is just a part of Windows. You don't need to install it separately.

[Thany]

Since there is no standard dark theme...

There is

[j7n]

On Windows XP, a Dark Theme with low contrast is possible and looks nice. I see only one apparently hardcoded white color in TC: of the depressed file listing column header.

https://i.imgur.com/C9bNqfA.png / Configuration Window

https://i.imgur.com/Nhtblim.png

But it causes incompatibilities with various legacy software, which cannot be replaced or whose authors can't be appealed with (if the products are discontinued or gone on the path of bloat). Most webpages are also light. Designs of icons and custom UI elements are made to work well with a light background. It also breaks the appearance of "disabled" buttons in some software like IrfanView, which also doesn't permit to have a "flat" color scheme, as disabled buttons work with a mix of highlight and shadow colors.

Funny how we seem to have come back full circle to the dark scheme of DOS textmode software, which was dark to reduce flickering of 60hz monitors, and possibly other reasons. Microsoft has been whitening the standard theme with every version starting with Windows 2000, to the point where buttons highlight is hard to see on Windows 7, and all is completely pure white on Windows 10. All at the same time when high power LCDs became widespread, and the white is more intense. Why they thought it was a good idea?