It is amazing to see Dark Mode in Notepad++ now. Not only does it have Dark Mode, but within that code is potential to expand upon theming colors which is great stuff.

Personally, I find the Dark Mode to be too dark and too much contrast for my use. It is also difficult to know which is the active tab. I know that it was suggested before but may have been lost within other closed issues, but I would like to suggest a Less Dark option. As was discussed in those closed issues previously, some of you had suggested less dark options similar to Twitter or Github's dimmed dark theme options.

Here is my own current build that is easier on my eyes:

My goal was to blend the inactive tabs into the background and make the active tab pop a bit more.

The theming colors come from: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/blob/master/PowerEditor/src/NppDarkMode.cpp#L58

In my own build, I simply changed from:

static const Colors darkColors{
		HEXRGB(0x202020),	// background
		HEXRGB(0x282828),	// softerBackground
		HEXRGB(0x404040),	// hotBackground
		HEXRGB(0x000000),	// pureBackground
		HEXRGB(0xB00000),	// errorBackground
		HEXRGB(0xE0E0E0),	// textColor
		HEXRGB(0xC0C0C0),	// darkerTextColor
		HEXRGB(0x707070),	// disabledTextColor
		HEXRGB(0x808080),	// edgeColor

Changed to:

static const Colors darkColors{
		HEXRGB(0x202020),	// background
		HEXRGB(0x404040),	// softerBackground
		HEXRGB(0x404040),	// hotBackground
		HEXRGB(0x202020),	// pureBackground
		HEXRGB(0xB00000),	// errorBackground
		HEXRGB(0xE0E0E0),	// textColor
		HEXRGB(0xC0C0C0),	// darkerTextColor
		HEXRGB(0x808080),	// edgeColor

That is all that I had to change to get that little slice of heaven there. But clearly there needs to be an option within the UI that can modify these colors without having to re-compile a build.

• Some of the suggestions were to have a Slider for the level of darkness.
• Or several radio buttons to select from different theme options.
• Or possibly even a color picker in which you could pick from any colors for each of these UI elements and have those colors change on the fly.

Anyway, I just wanted to get a formal issue started so that these previous ideas and suggestions can come together here.