Change window color from black

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2018-04-24 18:55:53

Hi,

Just upgraded to Pro from 1.6, been a long time user.

How do I change the default background color of the windows from black. I'm ending up with a big confusing black mess, can't see where one window starts and another ends.
Image
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2018-04-25 18:43:56

Hello Ed. Pixelmator Pro has a one window interface unlike Pixelmator classic which has palettes. It is also not yet possible to change the background color of the window like you could do with the document window in Pixelmator Classic. Sorry for this.
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2018-04-25 19:14:48

Thanks for the reply. I discovered the Merge All Windows feature, which helps. I had been using it in the same way I used the old version, if I had 5 images to work on I would have 5 windows open.
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2018-06-21 20:10:48

Just to get this out there so others that see this post will know. If you want to use Tabbed windows instead of separate ones for each photo, you need to adjust the setting in your Mac's preferences rather than looking for it in the Pixelmator preferences. Took me a while to find that out, but some deep searching finally showed me that.

Open your System Preferences for you computer, go to the Dock settings and at the bottom click the dropdown for "Prefer tabs when opening documents .." to "Always".

That's it! Now all your images will open in tabs instead of separate windows! Yaaaay! :)
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2018-06-27 20:24:29

Followed your advice, works, thank you.

But, it's still hard to use, you can't see where one tab starts and the other ends, combined with the tab font being very dark grey.

The window header, top tab bar, tool bar and image workspace background are all the same black. The labels for buttons and effects are only a few shades lighter than the background, a little more contrast would be very helpful.
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2018-06-28 14:31:33

by Ed Hofler Followed your advice, works, thank you.

But, it's still hard to use, you can't see where one tab starts and the other ends, combined with the tab font being very dark grey.

The window header, top tab bar, tool bar and image workspace background are all the same black. The labels for buttons and effects are only a few shades lighter than the background, a little more contrast would be very helpful.
Very much agree with this, it's very hard to see the contrast between things, the text at many times is way too dark etc. Really would love it if it were adjustable, or include multiple choices for us to choose what works best for us.
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2018-06-28 15:44:25

One of the features that Apple previewed for the next version of macOS (Mojave) is a 'dark mode' (https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/06/ ... os-mojave/). It may be that the Pixelmator team (which has sported dark mode since before I bought my copy in April of 2009) may see this as time to introduce a 'light mode'. If they do, I hope they do some pleasingly ironic publicity around the event. Being at least 9 years ahead of the curve should be celebrated. 🎆
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2018-06-29 08:03:58

by st3f One of the features that Apple previewed for the next version of macOS (Mojave) is a 'dark mode' (https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/06/ ... os-mojave/). It may be that the Pixelmator team (which has sported dark mode since before I bought my copy in April of 2009) may see this as time to introduce a 'light mode'. If they do, I hope they do some pleasingly ironic publicity around the event. Being at least 9 years ahead of the curve should be celebrated. 🎆
Haha ha ha haaa... :smiley: Hmm... 🤔
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2018-07-01 19:57:51

+1 on this. HATE the black background. Very confusing. Difficult to see. Awful.
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2020-12-02 21:54:11

Still seems like this hasn't been sorted out? Finding this very misleading when I am editing photos because I am consistently editing them too dark for their use on a white background web page. Needs to be controllable!
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2020-12-03 09:11:31

by joanna Still seems like this hasn't been sorted out? Finding this very misleading when I am editing photos because I am consistently editing them too dark for their use on a white background web page. Needs to be controllable!
On macOS Mojave and later, you can switch between light and dark modes in Pixelmator Pro preferences (in the General pane).