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I'd like to set the background and text colors of the compose window for plain text emails.

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I quite like the dark mode overall. I'd like to keep it. I do prefer, however, to have the text compose and preview pane window white background with black text. The result is a nice de-emphasis of the surrounding clutter and a legible focus on the text at hand.

The HTML Style preferences block works as expected - for example setting text color to #000 and background color to #fff for the preview pane and HTML composer window (might be nice to have a visited link and unvisited link color setting here rather than just in the Fonts & Colors -> Colors... dialog which also overrides all of the preferences and other windows "dark mode" (if so selected), but still not plain text compose, oddly).

But these selections do not apply to the plain text compose window. Yes, i could always compose in HTML, but I'd prefer to reply to text-only in text-only. I'm not a Claws mail NEVER HTML purist, but a text thread is a text thread and a few mailing lists are still text only.

I tried the mod to userContent.css suggested here https://support.mozilla.org/da/questions/1253762 but that yielded unexpected results and still didn't change the background of plain text. Is there a .css or other override just for plain text compose?

Related, but I'm assuming this is a bug (or just a UI implication that doesn't hold):

The color selected in the preferences Plain Text Messages When displaying quoted plain text messages: Style [regular] size [regular] [COLOR SELECTOR]

Applies to both plain text AND html - both the preview pane (white background for me) and the HTML reply composer (white background) AND plain text composer (#2A2A2E on my system). It's hard to find a color that is easy to read against both #FFFFFF and #2A2A2E.

The implication of the preferences block is that the selected color would apply to only plain text mail reply blocks, though there is no override selection for HTML for this.

Is there a way to set the quoted text color for HTML compose/preview pane separately from the plain text composer?

I quite like the dark mode overall. I'd like to keep it. I do prefer, however, to have the text compose and preview pane window white background with black text. The result is a nice de-emphasis of the surrounding clutter and a legible focus on the text at hand. The HTML Style preferences block works as expected - for example setting text color to #000 and background color to #fff for the preview pane and HTML composer window (might be nice to have a visited link and unvisited link color setting here rather than just in the Fonts & Colors -> Colors... dialog which also overrides all of the preferences and other windows "dark mode" (if so selected), but still not plain text compose, oddly). But these selections do not apply to the plain text compose window. Yes, i could always compose in HTML, but I'd prefer to reply to text-only in text-only. I'm not a Claws mail NEVER HTML purist, but a text thread is a text thread and a few mailing lists are still text only. I tried the mod to userContent.css suggested here https://support.mozilla.org/da/questions/1253762 but that yielded unexpected results and still didn't change the background of plain text. Is there a .css or other override just for plain text compose? Related, but I'm assuming this is a bug (or just a UI implication that doesn't hold): The color selected in the preferences Plain Text Messages When displaying quoted plain text messages: Style [regular] size [regular] [COLOR SELECTOR] Applies to both plain text AND html - both the preview pane (white background for me) and the HTML reply composer (white background) AND plain text composer (#2A2A2E on my system). It's hard to find a color that is easy to read against both #FFFFFF and #2A2A2E. The implication of the preferences block is that the selected color would apply to only plain text mail reply blocks, though there is no override selection for HTML for this. Is there a way to set the quoted text color for HTML compose/preview pane separately from the plain text composer?

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Yes, the color setting in tools>preferences>general apply to message display on your PC, whether sent, incoming, or compose window. The settings in compose settings (HTML) apply to colors in outgoing messages. Specifically, if you want a color for font and background for your viewing, do that in the General settings and UNtick the 'use system colors' option. Also, tick the 'use reader's default colors' in the Compose options. Doing that will ensure you see the same font color and background color all the time. If you want outgoing HTML messages to use a specific color, do that in the Compose options, and UNtick 'use reader's default colors'.