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About forced dark theme in Firefox 96.0

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To Firefox developer, please, REVERT THE DEFAULT THEME COLOR BACK TO LIGHT THEME. if you insist on introducing the so called "sleeker" dark theme or similar anti-mainstream things into future updates, MAKE IT OPTIONAL FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO TRY/USE IT... THEY CAN CLICK ENABLE/DISABLE-LIKE BUTTON TO SWITCH TO THE "SLEEKER" DARK THEME.

Please STOP setting-up anti-mainstream features AS DEFAULT.

I believe there are lots of people out there beside me who are also extremely annoyed about this theme color change. Sure, there is a workaround by tinkering the about:config 's layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override section, but the annoyance to find out this solution, not to mention the difficulties faced by those who have less knowledge about technobable, is so bad.

To Firefox developer, please, REVERT THE DEFAULT THEME COLOR BACK TO LIGHT THEME. if you insist on introducing the so called "sleeker" dark theme or similar anti-mainstream things into future updates, MAKE IT OPTIONAL FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO TRY/USE IT... THEY CAN CLICK ENABLE/DISABLE-LIKE BUTTON TO SWITCH TO THE "SLEEKER" DARK THEME. Please STOP setting-up anti-mainstream features AS DEFAULT. I believe there are lots of people out there beside me who are also extremely annoyed about this theme color change. Sure, there is a workaround by tinkering the about:config 's layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override section, but the annoyance to find out this solution, not to mention the difficulties faced by those who have less knowledge about technobable, is so bad.

All Replies (1)

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Hi Samurai, I think you know what I am going to say and this was more of a plea than a question, but just for the record:

When Firefox first started signaling websites to use a dark theme based on the toolbar theme in Firefox 95, a bug was filed requesting a switch for this on the Settings page. I don't know how soon we might get that, so for now, we have limited options.


For others reading, here's how to take control of this situation in the meantime.

What is happening

Firefox 96 now harmonizes more parts of Firefox with your toolbar theme. When the text color on your background tabs is light/white, it triggers Firefox to use a dark background on menus, the sidebar, the Library window, and various built-in pages. It also signals sites that you have a dark theme preference.

What to do about this

(1) For people not attached to their toolbar theme

The fastest workaround for now is to change your theme to one that uses dark text. By dark text I mean, for example, the built-in Light theme, or an add-on theme with black or dark text on the tabs. That doesn't need to be blinding, it can have a pastel color. As examples:

I have attached a screenshot illustrating the difference between a theme with light text on the tabs and dark text on the tabs.

(2) For people who can't part with their toolbar theme

This is only a partial workaround for the built-in pages, and for websites that have light/dark responsive themes. (This is the middle panel of the attached screenshot.)

Currently, the only way to decouple your page (content) theme preference from your toolbar theme is through the back door:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste layout.css.prefers-color-scheme.content-override and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to whatever you prefer from the list below, then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

  • 0 => Force a Dark background
  • 1 => Force a Light background
  • 2 => Follow the System theme (default in Firefox 94)
  • 3 => Follow the Browser toolbar theme (default in Firefox 95+)

The about:config page should immediately reflect your saved change.

What about other aspects of the UI?

For the sidebar, menus, and toolbar drop-down panels, there is an unofficial, community-supported option, which is to override the built-in styles using your own style rules in a userChrome.css file. I think people are still pondering how to do that efficiently, and perhaps you aren't that into hacking your browser anyway.