Does anyone know how to change the background color, font size, and other appearance-based settings in Notepad++? The default is white but I am trying to change it into a dark gray or something else.
5 Answers
Go to Settings -> Style Configurator
Select Theme: Choose whichever you like best (the top two are easiest to read by most people's preference)
- 4,308
- 2
- 14
- 21
-
1Recent versions require themes to be placed in [NPP-INSTALL-FOLDER]\themes or %APPDATA%\Notepad++\themes. If you use the [NPP-INSTALL-FOLDER] location, and NPP is installed by default to %ProgramFiles%, ensure Notepad++ runs with Administrator privileges to make changes to the theme. – AlainD Mar 02 '20 at 12:56
-
There are 4 dark themes near the top of the list in 2nd to 5th place and more below. No installation needed for these. v7.9.5 – JohnC May 16 '21 at 08:04
-
An update changed the theme folder from the Notepad++ install folder to AppData. See [my answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/58431500) for more info. – Martin May 24 '21 at 17:50
You may need admin access to do it on your system.
- Create a folder 'themes' in the Notepad++ installation folder i.e.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++
- Search or visit pages like http://timtrott.co.uk/notepad-colour-schemes/ to download the favourite theme. It will be an SML file.
- Note: I prefer Neon any day.
- Download the themes from the site and drag them to the
themes
folder.- Note: I was unable to copy-paste or create new files in 'themes' folder so I used drag and that worked.
- Follow the steps provided by @triforceofcourage to select the new theme in Notepad++ preferences.
-
3why does no theme support JSON? damn I just want to invert the normal one or something to keep syntax highlighting for ALL languages... – Xerus Sep 11 '17 at 18:05
There seems to have been an update some time in the past 3 years which changes the location of where to place themes in order to get them working.
Previosuly, themes were located in the Notepad++ installation folder. Now they are located in AppData:
C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\themes
My answer is an update to @Amit-IO's answer about manually copying the themes.
- In Explorer, browse to:
%AppData%\Notepad++
. - If a folder called
themes
does not exist, create it. - Download your favourite theme from wherever (see Amit-IO's answer for a good list) and save it to
%AppData%\Notepad++\themes
. - Restart Notepad++ and then use
Settings -> Style Configurator
. The new theme(s) will appear in the list.
- 14,189
- 1
- 26
- 43
-
3
-
Not quite right. In the latest version (7.8.4, early 2020), you can place themes in either [NPP-INSTALL-FOLDER]\themes or %APPDATA%\Notepad++\themes. Not sure which is "better"... – AlainD Mar 02 '20 at 12:54
-
1@AlainD %AppData% folder for local user only, Install folder for all users. Not everyone has access to the install folder, therefor you can always use the %Appdata% folder – Nawed Nabi Zada Sep 17 '20 at 07:53
If anyone wants to enable dark mode, you may follow the below steps
- Open your Notepad++, and select “Settings” on the menu bar, and choose “Style configurator”.
- Select theme “Obsidian” (you can choose other dark themes)
- Click on Save&Colse
- 539
- 4
- 12
Notepad++ changed in the past couple of years, and it requires a few extra steps to set up a dark theme.
The answer by Amit-IO is good, but the example theme that is needed has stopped being maintained. The DraculaTheme is active. Just download the XML and put it in a themes folder. You may need Admin access in Windows.
C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\themes
- 59
- 1
- 5