What theme are you using for the intfiction forum?

Essential, a light theme that I find particularly peachy.

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Iā€™m very surprised zeronoise (which is a light theme, by the way, which I prefer) only has 3 users. I love it so much I even made an IFDB ā€œZero Noiseā€ theme, which apparently has 13 users! This means that at least 10 people who donā€™t prefer zeronoise among the preset Discourse themes do prefer it on IFDB where anyone can make their own themeā€¦

I also like Lectrote Slate, and I ported that one to IFDB too along with the other Lectrote themes. Slate is the most popular with 12 users. (Looks like I need to update the metadata text color, though, which might have turned gray in one of the IFDB theme updates)

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And I was today years old when I have learned that IFDB has themes. I really should make an account there one of these days.

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I use Dracula, since I think Hanon at one point mentioned really digging it, so I gave it a shot and found I liked it (even though I usually donā€™t use dark modes). Honestly I was fine with the default one too, themes donā€™t really make much difference to me and I barely notice them once Iā€™ve picked one (ā€¦guess itā€™s unsurprising I make default-formatted Inform games).

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I picked SoBlue after I saw it in one of Hanonā€™s screenshots and have never looked back :smile:

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I really love Ghost, but its functionality has been really spotty and random for a long time so I just switched to the dark theme.

I have actually uninstalled software for not having dark mode before. I have a browser plugin that forces it while using certain sites (though some sites still sidestep it and flashbang me).

I have really bad light sensitivity so bright screens are really draining. I have about a third the amount of energy I usually have and get dizzy and headaches if I use light software for too long. If I try to turn my screen brightness down, the text just gets hard to read and I get eyestrain, like what @zarf mentioned. The dark modes that I prefer usually have black backgrounds with off-white text and low saturation colors for everything else, at least for extended sessions.

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Same here.

Iā€™m not sure exactly why I prefer dark themes, but I find them less distracting. Especially with the interfaces for applications. The content youā€™re working on should be the focus, not the interface around it. Iā€™ve even changed the default colours in LibreOfficeā€™s writing application. Now I type away on a dark page background, and writing has suddenly become quite enjoyable. I sometimes change the default font to the one Iā€™m using in my IF story and it feels like Iā€™m playing the game as I write it. So satisfying!

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TIL this is possible. Iā€™ll go do this now. :thinking:

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Ghost.

Light themes are painful to my eyes.

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Oh, yeah! :wink:

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A Meow I know uses discord with a shockingly white and bright background, of which Iā€™m reminded every time they share a screenshot.

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The dog always seems to get the bad wrap here. Also, the text is suspiciously praiseworthy of the Fox. I think the Fox wrote it.

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I use the default one.

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The funny thing is I use Discordā€™s Light Mode on my laptop, because Iā€™m on there during the daytime usually, and Discord Dark on my phone, because Iā€™m on it during the night. Also, it just ā€˜feelsā€™ better to have the ā€˜big internetā€™ on light mode and the ā€˜small internetā€™ on dark mode, because itā€™s cozier. Though I think the reverse is true of IntFic for me specifically, since Iā€™m more typically browsing casually during the day, and if I am typing something on my phone, itā€™s usually important enough I want to be slightly more awake because of the brighter theme.

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Thatā€™s a good point. Iā€™ve been an ā€œalways dark modeā€ person, but creating the color schemes with new background colors I find Iā€™m actually okay if the page just isnā€™t pure white.

I havenā€™t messed with it much, but apparently the forum can read your browser/system mode and adjust if you specify a specific dark mode theme. I assume will change if your system does an automatic shift during dusk hours. I havenā€™t messed with it.

Screen Shot 2023-11-17 at 2.05.13 PM

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Thanks for alerting me to the IFDB themes. I remember vaguely sifting through them when I had just joined and settling for the default then. Hadnā€™t thought about it since.

Iā€™ve had another look and Lectrote Light is actually quite wonderfully suited to my tastes.

Something else: I heard and read about people micro-configuring their Gargoyle terp to perfection. I know Gargoyle settings are accessible through the garglk text file where you can change numbers to change the look. I havenā€™t dared going too much further though, I find it a bit daunting.

Iā€™d just like a tiny bit of a yellowish/faded parchment hue to replace the hard white of the background as it is now. Something like Laguna Yellow, which has a Hex code of EBD689.
Iā€™ve tried to enter this code into the text-file here (bold):

windowcolor ffffff ( ā†’ ebd689) # overall window background color
bordercolor 000000 # border line color
caretcolor 000000 # input caret color
linkcolor 000060 # hyperlink color
morecolor 006000 # more prompt color

I saved the text file (not save-as, just save) and then opened Alias: The Magpie with Gargoyle. It was still black on a hard-white background.

Also, reading the garglk text file just now, it says there are pre-made themes available. You should press Shift-Control-T while Gargoyle is running. Pressing Shift-Control-T while I have Alias: The Magpie open in Gargoyle does nothing.

Thanks for any help or directions to a clearer manual on how to configure Gargoyle.

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Iā€™ve avoided using Gargoyle as much as possible simple because customizing it seems so daunting :sweat_smile:

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Try adding your color definitions at the end of the Colors and style definitions in the config file; when there are multiple definitions the last one takes effect. Here is my definitions for Lectrote Slate (before theme support was added to the Gargoyle):

windowcolor   4d4d4f
bordercolor   000000
caretcolor    ffffff
linkcolor     bbbbff
morecolor     ffddaa
tcolor * ffffff 4d4d4f
tcolor 1 ffffff 4d4d4f  # Emphasized
tcolor 3 ffffff 4d4d4f  # Header
tcolor 4 ffffff 4d4d4f  # SubHeader
tcolor 8 ddffdd 4d4d4f
gcolor * ffffff 333333

Edit: In case you are wondering tcolor 1, 3, 4 lines arenā€™t needed, since they are the same color as tcolor * ffffff 4d4d4f line. They are artifacts from earlier versions that I have forgotten to delete.
Edit 2: Since Gargoyle has theme support and Lectrote Slate is one of the built-in themes nowadays, I just end the Colors and style definitions with these two lines (I like my status line background slightly darker than the main window instead of light):

theme Lectrote Slate
gcolor * ffffff 333333
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What nephar said; or alternatively, you can also comment out the line ā€œtheme systemā€:

# theme system

FWIW, the Ctrl+Shift+T shortcut works for me in Gargoyle 2023.1 (hereā€™s a screenshot how itā€™s supposed to look; I also set the windowcolor and all the background colors under the heading ā€œ# Colors for text buffer windowsā€ to ebd689 for testing):

Excerpt from the ini file:

windowcolor   ebd689	      # overall window background color

# [...]

# Colors for text buffer windows
tcolor  0     000000  ebd689  # Normal
tcolor  1     000000  ebd689  # Emphasized
tcolor  2     000000  ebd689  # Preformatted
tcolor  3     000000  ebd689  # Header
tcolor  4     000000  ebd689  # Subheader
tcolor  5     000000  ebd689  # Alert
tcolor  6     000000  ebd689  # Note
tcolor  7     000000  ebd689  # BlockQuote
tcolor  8     006000  ebd689  # Input
tcolor  9     000000  ebd689  # User1
tcolor 10     000000  ebd689  # User2

# [...]

# theme system

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That looks great! Thanks.

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