Why force white on black pages on us?

[J1709]

I hate and loath Firefox’s black screen. Not only because it is depressingly gloomy. Anybody who has worked in print (or in optics) knows that the two most difficult colour variations for readability are using grey fonts on a black background, and white fonts on black. Now using Firefox means whole black pages online – especially directories – are impossible to skim or to read readily... let alone trying to distinguish coloured highlights within such pages.

And don’t tell me there’s a white page override in Preferences, because this is appallingly executed and it almost as bad for NOT highlighting hotlinks and other visual markers. This option is no better than white on black.

PS: Your new release notes only ever seem to be written for geeks not the general user/blogger. What for example do the terms mean where you say “You can now toggle Narrate in ReaderMode” ???

[jscher2000]

Firefox 96+ harmonizes your overall Firefox color scheme 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. Firefox also informs sites that ask that you have a dark theme preference.

(I realize that many users consider their toolbar theme purely decorative and don't want Firefox to use it to drive colors in other parts of the browser. I hope someday there's a checkbox for this on the Settings page, but that probably is some time away.)

What to do about this now

(1) Change your 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:

• Firefox Logo: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/firefox-b/
• Winter snow: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/blue-winter-snow/
• Green shoots: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/printania/
• Great wave: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/japan-style-kanagawa-gr-232767/
• Kitten: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/savage-black-kitten/

(2) Use a partial workaround

Firefox 100 will have a selector on the Settings page for this, but currently it requires a visit to about:config.

This preference overrides the color scheme for built-in pages and websites.

(A) 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. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

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

(C) 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+)

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. That is beyond the scope of this initial reply.

[J1709 · Accepted solution]

Thanks so much jscher2000 - your first solution works immediately and it's a relief to have  a bright screen once more. I'll keep your other advice in mind for the future since Firefox sadly has a habit of undoing so many good features almost every time it is upgraded.