Changing "Find" Highlight Color

[Macoltrane]

Hi there,

Does anyone know how to change the color of the highlighted "Find" text. The default color is gray and it doesn't work well against a white background.

Thanks

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

System preferences -> Appearance -> Highlight Color

 

[Macoltrane]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I should've been more specific. I'm particularly talking about the "Find" items highlighted in a PDF or preview document. They're gray whereas the Find text in Safari and other programs are highlighted according to the setting you directed me to above.

 

[discoforce]

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I should've been more specific. I'm particularly talking about the "Find" items highlighted in a PDF or preview document. They're gray whereas the Find text in Safari and other programs are highlighted according to the setting you directed me to above.

I'd love to know the answer to this one too, drives me nuts trying to find the highlighted word.

 

[motulist]

In my copy of preview on OS 10.3 the program uses the same red color I have selected in my appearance control panel in system preferences.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I guess I should've been more specific. I'm particularly talking about the "Find" items highlighted in a PDF or preview document. They're gray whereas the Find text in Safari and other programs are highlighted according to the setting you directed me to above.

Should affect Preview (and most other applications), too...

I've set it to orange and even Firefox understands that...

 

[khisayruou]

I am on Preview 10.4.6, it didn't work for me.

 

[khisayruou]

Should affect Preview (and most other applications), too...

I've set it to orange and even Firefox understands that...

Use the "find" function in preview, don't highlight text...see if that works.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

...ah... but when you change focus back to the main window again and not the drawer where focus is when you type in the search string, e.g. by shift-tabbing once or twice, then you'll see that the selection indeed has the right colour...

Remember: Only one window object can have focus at any given time...

 

[discoforce]

...ah... but when you change focus back to the main window again and not the drawer where focus is when you type in the search string, e.g. by shift-tabbing once or twice, then you'll see that the selection indeed has the right colour...

Remember: Only one window object can have focus at any given time...

That did it for me, thanks!

But if I may whine for a moment, it'd be MUCH easier if I didn't have to tab/shift-tab twice to see each "found" word/phrase. I LOVE the find feature in preview, but I often generate a long list of "found" items that I need to scroll through. It'd be much easier to find the right one if the main window was anything other than gray. [/whine]

 

[motulist]

It'd be much easier to find the right one if the main window was anything other than gray. [/whine]

You're complaint is 100% valid, it is not a good user interface element. Perhaps instead of the making the background highlight color grey they could make it have 25% color saturation. That way it still has the color you're looking for and so will stand out enough to locate easily but it will also be obvious that it is not really the foreground selection.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I rarely have any problems seeing the grey highlight on my iBook... how is the brightness on your screens set and could you improve your viewing angle, maybe...?

 

[discoforce]

I rarely have any problems seeing the grey highlight on my iBook... how is the brightness on your screens set and could you improve your viewing angle, maybe...?

Brightness = max; angle is as good as it gets.

Probably just my eyes going

(Hmm... I seem to be building a case for a larger screen... )

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Brightness = max; angle is as good as it gets.

Probably just my eyes going

(Hmm... I seem to be building a case for a larger screen... )

Not sure that helps... I'm on a 12"...

 

[discoforce]

Not sure that helps... I'm on a 12"...

Shhh... you'll hurt my argument!

 

[khisayruou]

Remember: Only one window object can have focus at any given time...

Genius, simply genius...thanks Mitthrawnuruodo!
Now, for the real question...how do you get the out of focus object to
show up in a different highlighter color.

 

[jeremy.king]

Genius, simply genius...thanks Mitthrawnuruodo!
Now, for the real question...how do you get the out of focus object to
show up in a different highlighter color.

Try this. I make no gaurantees.

In Terminal

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AppleOtherHighlightColor "R G B"

where R,G,B is a decimal between 0 and 1 representing each color.

example

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AppleOtherHighlightColor "0.250000 0.500000 0.250000"

I am thinking this would be a dark green???
Anybody care to try since I am not at my machine?

the default (or undo) would be

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AppleOtherHighlightColor "0.500000 0.500000 0.500000"

 

[discoforce]

Try this. I make no gaurantees.

In Terminal

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AppleOtherHighlightColor "R G B"

where R,G,B is a decimal between 0 and 1 representing each color.

example

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AppleOtherHighlightColor "0.250000 0.500000 0.250000"

I am thinking this would be a dark green???
Anybody care to try since I am not at my machine?

the default (or undo) would be

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AppleOtherHighlightColor "0.500000 0.500000 0.500000"

Yeah, that should be green, but I didn't see a difference in the highlighted text.

 

[jeremy.king]

Yeah, that should be green, but I didn't see a difference in the highlighted text.

Did you restart your application or computer? These won't take effect until you restart the app, but since this is in the systempreference realm, I wonder if a full out restart is needed...Worth a try to the lucky volunteer

 

[khisayruou]

It didn't help, I restarted the app and computer.

 

[discoforce]

Did you restart your application or computer? These won't take effect until you restart the app, but since this is in the systempreference realm, I wonder if a full out restart is needed...Worth a try to the lucky volunteer

It's changed some of my "visited" hyperlinks to dark green Seems like the right track though.

Any cheat sheets on system preferences?

 

[jeremy.king]

It's changed some of my "visited" hyperlinks to dark green Seems like the right track though.

Any cheat sheets on system preferences?

basically, I find these doing a "defaults read" in terminal. It lists (tons) all of the customizable settings and such. Most are accessible through some pref pane,app preferences, or plist file, but some are not accesible via the UI. This is where the "defaults write" command comes in handy.

In this case, I figured I would search for Highlight and see what showed up. It looked promising, but no luck

 

[discoforce]

basically, I find these doing a "defaults read" in terminal. It lists (tons) all of the customizable settings and such. Most are accessible through some pref pane,app preferences, or plist file, but some are not accesible via the UI. This is where the "defaults write" command comes in handy.

In this case, I figured I would search for Highlight and see what showed up. It looked promising, but no luck

Thanks kingjr3, and the defaults is a good resource to know about.

To the OP, Acrobat reader provides the same highlights in the "Find" and document windows, but boy is it slower.

 

[Macoltrane]

Damn, I guess I'll stick to angling the screen

It's confusing how they have a more contrasted color in the previous versions and decided to go light gray on the latest one.

 

[motulist]

There's one more thing you might want to try that might help you with any problems you have seeing things on screen in any program. If you go into the universal access system preference you will find the key commands for all sorts of commands that change the display to aid the visually impaired. You can invert colors, increase contrast, set to greyscale or zoom in. In fact the zoom-in is a super useful feature that I use all the time even though my vision is good. For instance if there's a web video that doesn't allow you to change its size then I just hit the zoom in key command and poof, full screen video.