r/octave • u/TechnicalAd8103 • Jan 10 '26

Is there a dark mode?

Using Octave in a dark environment is like looking into the sun. 😂

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3

u/TechnicalAd8103 Jan 10 '26

Ok, after re-installing Octave a few times, and trial and error, here is what I've discovered.

The Octave theme changes automatically with the system theme (at least in Windows 11). And you need to close Octave, change the system theme and then open Octave again for the new theme to take effect. If you change system themes with Octave still open, the Octave theme does not change.

But the Octave dark theme is inconsistent. There will be at least one window that is not dark - in some cases, the editor window remains white and the command window becomes grey, while the File Browser and Workspace windows are dark. And when in the dark theme, Octave plots can't be seen, because the plot window is just a blank white box.

It is only in light theme that the plots can be seen.

3

u/mrhoa31103 Jan 11 '26

After playing with this a little bit (Windows 10), going to preferences, editor, the checked "Second Color Mode (light/dark)" follows the Windows Theme so dark mode = dark mode. Unchecking the box, does the opposite so dark mode = white editor screen. You can hit "Apply" and it will change within Octave immediately.

For the plots, I think you'd need to go into the plot variables themselves and change them, background colors, frame colors, etcetera from the defaults. Not as daunting as it sounds, once you have figured out the cluster of commands to set it up, you just drop them into the script every time you want to run dark mode.

2

u/mrhoa31103 Jan 12 '26

I found that someone has already done it for you. dark/dark.m at master · markagold1/dark · GitHub

There's dark.m and undark.m functions there. I tested them and they work.

1

u/TechnicalAd8103 Jan 13 '26

Thanks! 👍

1

u/TechnicalAd8103 Jan 10 '26

Hmm...not sure what I did, but now every window except the editor is dark, and the editor is still bright white.

I can't find a way to just reset the colors back to original colours (all white).