With a custom dark theme, text in some programs is virtually invisible.

[pepperminty]

Using Mint 18.1 Sarah MATE 64-bit.

To reproduce this bug, go to Appearance Preferences, then while on the Theme tab, click the Customize button (near the lower right of window).
In the Controls tab, select Mint-Y-Dark.
In Colors tab, choose black (or a very dark color) for all 4 "backgrounds" (i.e. background for Window, Input boxes, Selected Items, Tooltips).
Choose white (or a very light color for the 4 "texts".
Click the Window Border tab, and choose Mint-Y-Dark.
Click close.
Log out of Mint.
Log back in.

Go to https://login.launchpad.net/+login (logout of launchpad if needed). Enter your email address in the box.
Open Audacity with an audio file (or create a new audio file).

http://imgur.com/a/25yf3

[xenopeek]

That is unfortunate but a known issue of web browsers; they don't handle dark themes well. One solution is to set it so the Mint-Y-Darker:lighter theme is used for programs that don't handle dark themes well, which should fit well with overall Mint-Y-Dark theme for other programs.

For this first remove Firefox from your menu favorites and from your panel (the quick launch icon). Then just right-click Firefox in your menu and select to edit properties. Change the command from firefox %u to:
bash -c "GTK_THEME=Mint-Y-Darker:light firefox"
Afterwards you can add it back to your favorites and panel.

Here is how your example looks with that theme:


For Audacity you can do the same. To test it first open a terminal and run this command and see how Audacity looks:
GTK_THEME=Mint-Y-Darker:light audacity

[pepperminty]

That is unfortunate but a known issue of web browsers; they don't handle dark themes well. One solution is to set it so the Mint-Y-Darker:lighter theme is used for programs that don't handle dark themes well, which should fit well with overall Mint-Y-Dark theme for other programs.

Xenopeek, i didn't think there was an easy way to have different themes for different programs. So thankful to read your comment. I'm typing this reply on an Android tablet. I plan to try your suggestions when I get into my Linux box.

[a-bentofreire]

I'm having the same problem using a dark theme on Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon.
I tried many combinations to fix the icons on the toolbars,
but there is still many programs what go along with dark themes specially on rulers and edit boxes.
I'm attaching for the case of Audacity, LibreOffice and Beyond Compare, but there are many more,
specially KDE programs and Mono programs running on Cinnamon.

[pepperminty]

bash -c "GTK_THEME=Mint-Y-Darker:light firefox"
To test it first open a terminal and run this command and see how Audacity looks:
GTK_THEME=Mint-Y-Darker:light audacity

xenopeek, i'm now on (one of) my Linux boxes. The firefox command you shared worked. But the Audacity command results in the same-looking Audacity.

[xenopeek]

May be an error on my part. That GTK_THEME is Firefox specific or not all programs honor the setting.

[pepperminty]

May be an error on my part. That GTK_THEME is Firefox specific or not all programs honor the setting.

OK. maybe someone else on this forum will know re: Audacity.

[Fromax]

I know it's a very old thread, but I've also been fiddling with this problem lately.

May be an error on my part. That GTK_THEME is Firefox specific or not all programs honor the setting.

No, you were right, it's not Firefox specific. And no, not all programs honor the setting.
For example, env GTK_THEME=:light xed (if your current theme supports dark and light variants) or env GTK_THEME=Adwaita:light xed or env GTK_THEME=Mint-X xed work fine.

As to Audacity, it seems to work only with older GTK2 themes.
For these progs, the GTK2 syntax includes a complete path to the theme's gtkrc, for example env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/Redmond/gtk-2.0/gtkrc audacity
So far I only got it working with Redmond and Industrial GTK2 themes. Most other themes I've tried either don't work at all or only work partially, even if they are GTK2-only.

[pepperminty]

I know it's a very old thread, but I've also been fiddling with this problem lately.

Hi Fromax. Thanks for your contribution on this problem.

[a-bentofreire]

The latest version of Audacity has great improvements on the dark theme.
Now works well.
But there is still many programs that is hard to see anything, specially on hyperlinks, as in the case of Thunderbird.
I'm using Mint-Y-Yltra-Dark. It's a great theme. It's beautiful but still has this major issue like probably using any dark theme.
This is an update on post: posting.php?mode=reply&f=206&t=239013#pr1278499

[all41]

my workaround in the browser has been an add-on called 'Color toggle' for
use on those pages. You can define a second color profile and switch back and forth
at the click of a button.