XCode by default uses a very crappy theme to read and write code. It reminds me of the theme for Terminal.app. I am surprised at how many people I see that use this worthless theme; it’s like writing a Document in 8 point Arial font all day long.
Anyway – goto XCODE -> PREFERENCES -> FONTS/COLORS. There you will see a drop down. There are already a few themes there for you. I prefer black backgrounds; better on the eyes. Also I have a ginormous monitor (30″ Cinema Display – yah, it’s freaking awesome). So having small fonts is even crazier and harder to read. I modified the fonts of Midnight and called it (wait for it…) “Midnight Big”. wow.
Download Midnight Big; if you want to save some time changing the fonts. You’ll put in this directory: ~/Library/Application Support/XCode/Color Themes/
XCode Default
Midnight Blue – enlarged
which is better?
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Very nice theme
works well for me
im using it right now…
Thank You
Diogo Shaw
I did the same! Dark editors rule
I do like the first one. Somehow, the dark color is just too bright
Anyone familiar with the readability and legibility subject knows that dark backgrounds with bright text are not good for the eyes for long readings. But at the end of the day, it’s a personal choice, just be careful before calling the default theme “crappy”.
All about personal choice. I have spoken with eye doctors and they all agreed that starring at white screens will cause more problems than black. I personally like both black and white backgrounds, but have become accustomed to the black background for so long.
Mostly though – the small fonts were absolutely killing me. They were so ugly and small by default.
… to each it’s own.
This is a great theme!
I totally agree about the background and font size. I like big fonts and black background as well…
I wonder if you tried to change the font size and background of the Files & Groups X-Code pane? It is extremely small and cannot be control by the Preferences->Fonts dialog.
The first one is better. The brighter the background, the smaller the pupils will become and the smaller the pupils are, the better your eye can focus. Bright text on dark background always looks a little bit blurred, because your pupils will go wide, since there is not enough light emitted from your monitor, and the wider the pupils are, the worse your eye can focus on very tiny details.
It’s the same effect you can see with any digicam today. The less light in the room, the more grainy and blurry the images will become. The graininess comes from the fact, that the color sensors are not getting enough light and thus they cannot determine the colors very precisely, the blurriness comes from the fact, that the less light there is, the longer the camera has to keep the lens open and the longer it is open, the higher the danger that a small movement of your hand makes the whole image blurry. Basically your retina works exactly like a digicam sensor in that aspect and your pupil exactly like a digicam lens.
Especially the older you’ll get, the less light sensitive your retina will become and the more you’ll see that light backgrounds with dark text are focused, dark backgrounds with light text become blurry. Wait another ten years if you still think that white text on dark background looks better. Or take a look at this very web page. White background, black text. Why? If the other way round was more readable, you had to change your webpage right now. Fact is: Most webpages are bright background, dark text, because most studies show that at best it makes no difference which way you go, at worst, white background wins dramatically over black background.
I have not yet seen any study on this topic where black background would win, regardless what people claim. Even people claiming they can read bright text on dark background a lot better usually “lose” in all tests, that prove how fast you really can read something. Despite their claims, they are always faster on white background and dark text in those tests.
White is worse on your eyes because it causes excessive eye stress. As was said it causes the pupils to constrict which, over time, causes painful muscle stress; like holding for fist clinched tight for hours on end. The best solution is NOT white but is a light cream or tan-ish background. Something that takes the edge off the white but really dark.
but NOT really dark… wish you could edit.
Light does not cause stress on your eyes. Human beings developed eyes over million years of evolution to give them perfect sight in a natural environment. And in a natural environment there is always light, because when it’s dark, human beings were supposed to sleep. People who say that light syntax highlighting themes causes stress on their eyes should urgently get a professional monitor calibration device since that means their monitor is set up totally incorrect (probably way too bright for their normal working environment) and then it’s like looking directly into the sun, which will of course stress your eyes. A monitor should not emit more light than a white paper on your desk reflects. In fact 80% of all computer users have a way too high brightness setting. Most people have their monitor set to 70-90% brightness. I bought a professional calibration tool and it turned out, that my monitor starts to have a correct brightness between 20-30%, way less than I had before. And in fact, when you worked with that brightness for a couple of weeks, every other monitor will look to you as if you directly look into a desk lamp.
All the attention to this post has been great. By now, its quite out of date. Hell i can’t even find the attached images anymore. Most of you may know by now that XCode is bundled with new themes and much better fonts.
In fact, over a year and a half later I am now more privey to white backgrounds and lighter colors. All provided well by xcode. Their new font is fantastic for code.
Anyway, I figured it was time to respond to this thread.
I think a black background is more detrimental to the view that a white background
I have got eye problems and I can tell you that dark backgrounds rule.
And bigger fonts as well, as Cmd-Alt-Mouse…