14

How to change the background color? I selected Profile > Background > solid color, but where can I select the color?

Serid
  • 307
  • 5
  • 12
ziiweb
  • 28,757
  • 70
  • 168
  • 290
  • 1
    For future readers: OP asked about xterm but is actually using gnome-terminal, so the accepted answer is about gnome-terminal and all the other answers are about xterm – Michael Mrozek Mar 29 '18 at 16:01

4 Answers4

32

There are two well-supported ways to change the background color of an xterm (remember xterm != Terminal).

A. Set the color when you create the xterm: E.g., 

% xterm -bg yellow &

OR

B. Edit .Xdefaults to include a color specification, such as the following: XTerm*background:yellow

% vi ~/.Xdefaults  (pick your favorite editor)

This can also be done by typing the following into an xterm:

% cat >> ~/.Xdefaults  <RETURN>
XTerm*background:yellow<RETURN>
<CTRL-D>

Whichever way you change .Xdefaults, the change will not take effect until either:

  • xrdb ~/.Xdefaults
  • your X server is restarted, probably the easiest way to do that is reboot your machine, or log out.

Then it will be set once and for all.

Ciro Santilli新疆棉花TRUMP BAN BAD
  • 256,395
  • 72
  • 959
  • 767
Paul
  • 1,614
  • 1
  • 16
  • 17
  • Very true! For more expert users this is the way to go. – Paul Oct 15 '13 at 16:27
  • 5
    Update: As of Jan 2016, `~/.Xdefaults` is deprecated in favour of `~/.Xresources`. So one will need to add `XTerm*Background: LemonChiffon` line to the `~/.Xresources` file, where `LemonChiffon` is a color name. See https://critical.ch/xterm/ for a list of colors which may be supported in your version of XTerm. – Alex Yursha Feb 01 '16 at 22:24
12

I would suggest reversing the default foreground and background colors using

xterm -rv
user3600441
  • 151
  • 1
  • 5
8

I use the following colors and font setup for xterm. Add the following to your ".Xresources" file in your home directory.

XTerm*faceName: Bitstream Vera Serif Mono
xterm*faceSize: 11
xterm*vt100*geometry: 80x60
xterm*saveLines: 16384
xterm*loginShell: true
xterm*charClass: 33:48,35:48,37:48,43:48,45-47:48,64:48,95:48,126:48
xterm*termName: xterm-color
xterm*eightBitInput: false

!BLK Cursor
#define _color0        #000d18
#define _color8        #000d18
!RED Tag
#define _color1        #e89393
#define _color9        #e89393
!GRN SpecialKey
#define _color2        #9ece13
#define _color10       #9ece13
!YEL Keyword
#define _color3        #f0dfaf
#define _color11       #f0dfaf
!BLU Number
#define _color4        #8cd0d3
#define _color12       #8cd0d3
!MAG Precondit
#define _color5        #c0bed1
#define _color13       #c0bed1
!CYN Float
#define _color6        #dfaf8f
#define _color14       #dfaf8f
!WHT Search
#define _color7        #efefef
#define _color15       #efefef
!FMT Include, StatusLine, ErrorMsg
#define _colorBD       #ffcfaf
#define _colorUL       #ccdc90
#define _colorIT       #80d4aa
!TXT Normal, Normal, Cursor
#define _foreground    #dcdccc
#define _background    #1f1f1f
#define _cursorColor   #8faf9f
URxvt*color0         : _color0
URxvt*color1         : _color1
URxvt*color2         : _color2
URxvt*color3         : _color3
URxvt*color4         : _color4
URxvt*color5         : _color5
URxvt*color6         : _color6
URxvt*color7         : _color7
URxvt*color8         : _color8
URxvt*color9         : _color9
URxvt*color10        : _color10
URxvt*color11        : _color11
URxvt*color12        : _color12
URxvt*color13        : _color13
URxvt*color14        : _color14
URxvt*color15        : _color15
URxvt*colorBD        : _colorBD
URxvt*colorIT        : _colorIT
URxvt*colorUL        : _colorUL
URxvt*foreground     : _foreground
URxvt*background     : _background
URxvt*cursorColor    : _cursorColor
XTerm*color0         : _color0
XTerm*color1         : _color1
XTerm*color2         : _color2
XTerm*color3         : _color3
XTerm*color4         : _color4
XTerm*color5         : _color5
XTerm*color6         : _color6
XTerm*color7         : _color7
XTerm*color8         : _color8
XTerm*color9         : _color9
XTerm*color10        : _color10
XTerm*color11        : _color11
XTerm*color12        : _color12
XTerm*color13        : _color13
XTerm*color14        : _color14
XTerm*color15        : _color15
XTerm*colorBD        : _colorBD
XTerm*colorIT        : _colorIT
XTerm*colorUL        : _colorUL
XTerm*foreground     : _foreground
XTerm*background     : _background
XTerm*cursorColor    : _cursorColor

When you have saved the file, run the following to save the changes:

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
Arahkun
  • 301
  • 3
  • 4
  • right, that is for permanent settings (to be stored in file); one thing to note the string `XTerm` is case-insensitive (meaning eg. `xterm*background: black` would also do). –  Aug 27 '18 at 10:24
  • these are really nice settings. – OmPS Nov 10 '18 at 07:20
1

Since it seems to be Terminal you're talking about, did you disable "Use colors from system theme" under Colors? Once you do that, you can pick a background color, still under the Colors tab. The Background tab looks like it only allows selecting an image (or transparency), which tripped me up as well.

Paul
  • 1,614
  • 1
  • 16
  • 17