Display Setup Handbook: Color Scheme
Description: kcmkdisplay help doc
Keywords: kde kcontrol kdisplay

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### 5. Color Scheme

The Color Scheme setup dialog is comprised of three sections:

1. The color scheme Preview.
2. The current Widget Color.
3. The available Color Schemes.

(A "Widget" is a commonly-used programmer's term for referring to User Interface elements such as buttons, menus, and scroll bars )

### 5.1 Preview

This section of the dialog demonstrates how a color scheme applies to a sample selection of widgets. A color scheme consists of a set of ten colors. These colors apply to the :-

1. Inactive title bar background
2. Inactive title bar text
3. Active title bar background
4. Active title bar text
5. General background
6. General foreground
7. Selection background
8. Selection text
9. Window background
10. Window text

Labels on the sample widgets will help you identify where these colors apply.

The colors are grouped into 5 foreground / background pairs. Thus, good contrast between the foreground and background colors of widgets can be ensured at all times.

When you press Ok or Apply the color scheme you have selected will be written to the desktop configuration.

Note: Pressing Ok or Apply applies changes made in all of the display setup modules.

There are some problems in the Qt toolkit when changing the colors in a running application, particularly with lists and combo boxes. These elements will not be displayed properly until the applications are restarted. Hopefully these problems will be fixed in a future release of Qt.

### 5.2 Widget Color

The currently selected member of the color scheme is shown in the combo box of the Widget Color group. This can be changed by clicking on the colored box. A color selection dialog will then appear, from which you may select a new color. You may select any member of the color scheme from the color combination box.

When you are happy with your color selection, press Ok in the color selection dialog. The color will be updated in the Preview.

The Contrast slider allows you to change the contrast bewteen different shadings of the selected colors.

### 5.3 Color schemes

Various color schemes are supplied with KDisplay. These include: KDE default, Atlas green BeOS, Blue slate, CDE, Desert red, Digital CDE, Pale gray, Pumpkin, Solaris CDE, Storm, and Windows 95. To preview a scheme click on its name in the list box.

You can use the KDE-supplied Color Schemes as a starting point to devise your own Scheme. Click on the Add button to store the color scheme from the Preview under a new name, then modify it. When such a user-created Color Scheme is selected, changes to it (as shown in the Preview) can be saved with the Save Changes button; it can also be deleted with the Remove button.

The KDE-supplied Schemes themselves cannot be changed or deleted.

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