How to change the highlight color in autocomplete box in Eclipse

Question

I can't find a way to change the color of the highlighted selection in the autocomplete box in Eclipse.

As you can see from the screenshot white text on light gray background is not very readable.

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Ubuntu 11.10 with Unity and Eclipse Classic

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Update: This is system dependent, indeed. Changing the Ubuntu theme changes this color. There are settings about this in /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/, but I can't figure out which one. The background is a gradient, so picking the color and grepping for it does not work.

Solution 1

it must be a system setting, try the Ubuntu control center (system settings) / appearance / customize. Click all the tabs and see which color matches the color in eclipse.

Update: I just realized that in ubuntu 11.04 for some weird reason the possibility to customize the colors was removed, you need to change the config files

sudo vim /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc 

in my version line 94 is

base[ACTIVE]      = shade (0.97, @bg_color)

which you need to change as you wish, e.g.:

base[ACTIVE]      = shade (0.50, @bg_color)

then you go to System settings / appearance, change the theme to something then change back to Ambience and voila, things are changed. I just can't imagine why there is no UI for changing this.

Update 2: this is slightly similar to what the other commenter suggested, just in a different file. I guess the difference is that will affect the system globally

UPDATE 2 :

in ubuntu 11.10 there is still no GUI to change the theme colors, but they also changed the file structure so exectute the following command (same as above)

sudo vim /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc 

and search for this section that controls tooltip colors :

style "tooltips" {
    bg[NORMAL]        = @tooltip_bg_color
    fg[NORMAL]        = @tooltip_fg_color
}

and alter is as you wish e.g.:

    bg[NORMAL]        = "#000000"
    fg[NORMAL]        = "#FFFFFF"

UPDATE 3 :

In ubuntu 12.04 you need to do both changes described in update 1 and update 2

Solution 2

This problem can also be fixed from within Eclipse, as is described in the blog post Fix Eclipse colours in ubuntu 12.04.

1. Go into the Preferences (Window -> Preferences)
2. Choose General -> Appearance from the left menu
3. Uncheck the checkbox Use mixed fonts and colours for labels

Before

After

Solution 3

for Ubuntu 12.04, simply edit the file /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc search for

  base[ACTIVE]      = shade (0.94, @bg_color)

change the shade percentage from 0.94 to whatever visible like 0.54

  base[ACTIVE]      = shade (0.54, @bg_color)

then it works.

Solution 4

You do not need to use the command prompt at all.

Window -> Preferences -> General -> Appearance -> Colors and Fonts -> Basic -> Content Assist background color / Content Assist foreground color

Everything is customizable via the GUI.

Solution 5

Alternatively you can update the variables at the top of the gtkrc file. For your particular problem it would be selected_fg_color, not tooltip_fg_color, for example, change it from white to black(#000000). Here are my settings:

gtk-color-scheme = "base_color:#ffffff\nfg_color:#4c4c4c\ntooltip_fg_color:#000000\n
selected_bg_color:#f07746\nselected_fg_color:#000000\n
text_color:#3C3C3C\nbg_color:#F2F1F0\ntooltip_bg_color:#FFFFFF\nlink_color:#DD4814"

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Comments

[Jason Plank]

Thanks for this. You may want to note that the use of sudo is required to edit the file.

[Jeff Hillman]

Thank you! I have been looking for a solution to this for 30 minutes, and this is the first one that actually worked.

[Arjan]

Too bad: the above setting disappeared in Eclipse 4.2; see bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=378959

[Arjan]

Works nicely for the default Ambiance theme indeed. Of course, the reference to Ambiance in the path name should have told me that this has no effect on Radiance, which has its own folder in /usr/share/themes. ;-)

[Mikko Rantalainen]

The GUI for adjusting colors is called gnome-color-chooser which, unfortunately, is not installed by default.

[Xentatt]

Worked for me for Ubuntu 12.04 + Eclipse Juno

[eldiamo]

Tooltip Color is another topic. This is not working for me. Instead Just put this into the ~/.gtkrc-2.0 if you don't want to change system theme files: style "eclipse-fix" { bg[NORMAL] = "#cccccc" fg[NORMAL] = "#000000" bg[SELECTED] = "#cccccc" } widget "gtk-tooltip*" style "eclipse-fix"

[Miki]

Many, many thanks for this solution. It works also for Windows.

[Saif]

any suggestion for Windows user.?