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.

Answer 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, eg:

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 eg:

    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

Answer 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

Answer 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.

Answer 4

How to change it for all Ubuntu themes

On Ubuntu you can add a fix to the Appearance theme:

• Open a terminal ( CTRL + ALT + T )
• Create a new file with: gedit ~/.gtkrc-2.0

• In that file add these lines:

   style "eclipse_fix" { base[ACTIVE] = shade(0.7, "#F2F1F0") } class "GtkTreeView" style "eclipse_fix" 

• Save file

• In System Settings > Appearance, switch to an other theme and then switch back to the theme you had. This is done to "refresh" the current theme with the fix. (Alternatively, log out and log in again.)
• Test in Eclipse, hopefully your content assist will be readable ;)

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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"

Answer 7

This may looks easy seems. That is change the color theme of eclipse. Windows-> Preference -> Appearance -> Color theme.