Change page colour - margin remains white

[Usserr]

Hello,

I want to change the page colour to black when I write cause this white is destroying my eyes. So I just found how to do it via the Page Layout / Page Settings / Colour. However, when I do change the colour to black, it only covers the area where text will be written - the margin around the page remains white. Why is that and how can I make everything black, the entire page?

That being said, what do you guys think of making an easy-on-the-eyes reading/writing option where everything turns black with one click, but will remain white when the page is printed? How can we get this idea to the development team?

FYI, I’m using LibreOffice 5 5.4.5.1-15.1 on SuSE with the experimental MS Office-like ribbon view (looks much better, however it’s harder to find help online this way and I don’t know how to get back the standard view (nor do I want to do it - hopefully this will become the default look in the application one day!)

[Bouf]

Hi have the same problem here but the only problem is that I am using a mac and I cannot find the option button under tools to get to the application colors tab.

Does anyone know how to change the maring color for a mac user by any chance?

[ajlittoz]

Under MacOS, the Tools>Options menu item becomes the Preferences menu.

[Bouf]

Thank you for the fast reply, I managed to find the options tab, however the application tab which I need to change the document background or margin colour as described above is missing…

The problem appeared after switching from the 7.5 version to the new 25.2 and even resetting everything to factory settings doesn’t change the margin colour to the default one.

In the Appearance tab after having clicked on options, there is a mention: customizations → Items - Dropdown menu: Document background → colour but this is greyed out for some reason.
You can see it here: https://imgur.com/a/MtfNSCk

[mariosv]

Select other LibreOffice Theme than ‘Automatic’.

[EarnestAl]

@Bouf What are you trying to achieve? This is a very old question about trying to emulate a Dark Scheme. It is now mostly irrelevant because Dark theme is available, as shown in your screenshot.

.
If you want to create a custom theme, first click New, give it a name and then make those modifications in the new theme. After adjusting what you need and clicking OK, you will need to restart LibreOffice to apply the theme.

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If you want to colour the page background or margin for a document or template, you should make the adjustment in Format > Page Style. Can you describe what you want or mock up a picture?

[Bouf]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[Bouf]

Thank you for getting back to me.

Please see here my theme settings: Imgur: The magic of the Internet (I would like to keep using this theme)

Here you can see my appearance settings: Imgur: The magic of the Internet (I would like to keep the appearance option as light)

What I don’t understand is that the background or margin of my writer documents is now black, it never was before and don’t know why it changed to black and why it does not revert to the default colour after factory resetting libre office.

Here you can see how it looks: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

This is the colour I am used to have as a background (I marked it with a red X, although this is a picture from the internet and not a screenshot from my computer): Imgur: The magic of the Internet

I already tried to change some settings in page style but I have only been able to change the colour of the document itself, but not the background.

Also in page style → area → colour I noticed that the colour is set to black when I open a new document in writer but the page is white. (maybe this has something to do with my problem?: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Any help is much appreciated.

[EarnestAl]

@Bouf

page style → area → colour I noticed that the colour is set to black

The Active colour has not been set but shows black is normal, it has been like that for a long time, I can see it in 6.4.7.2

@Bouf

Here you can see how it looks:

Create a new theme in Preferences > LibreOffice > Appearance by clicking the New button and giving it a name.
Under Customisations, select Application background

• If Light is selected, choose Automatic colour in the palette
• If Color is selected, change the colour to Automatic. If it is already on Automatic, set the colour to a pale grey.

Click OK and allow LibreOffice to restart

If Light was set but the application background was black then please report a bug and give the bug number back here so others can find the bug report, How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Wiki

[dajare]

What you have done is, I assume (since it doesn’t exactly match my “menubar” language) is a print setting. With the menubar (or right-click on page), it would be Format > Page... > Area [tab] > Colour > [choose colour], and that gives the printing area that background colour. So that only applies to the area inside the printing margins, like this example using blue:

This page will print out with a blue background and white margins.

What you want to use for screen reading/editing (and which leaves the printing of the page unaffected) is the programme options. Go to Tools > Options... > [toggle] LibreOffice > Application Colours > General - Document Background - [choose colour]. (I don’t know what the “path” for this will be in your ribbon layout, but it is the “program options” you want.)

Setting the background to black then has this effect:

I’ve included some text in that screenshot so you can see that the text colour is automatically adjusted for your new “document background”. The page will print with black text on white paper.

You can customize other application colours in the same way, if that is easier on your eyes.

---

Bonus - to alternate between the “menubar” and “ribbon” interfaces, go to: View > Toolbar > [Default|Notebookbar].

[Grantler]

Out of curiosity - if I really wanted to print the page in black, with the margin including, where would that be in the menu?

• You can color the entire page if you reduce the margins to 0 (zero - you will have to confirm because of print out)
• then set the background/area to a specific color
• and then set the borders’ padding to - say - 2 cm
• borders’ color should be the same as the background color

Or:

You may spread a bitmap all over the entire page (anchored to page) and gain the same effect. But it’s not as stable as the above mentioned method.

The best way for your demand is using colored paper… … Not for black but slightly colored backgrounds. It is difficult to print white color (professional printers/printing machines can do).

[Usserr]

Sounds very smart! Just tried it out and it works, thanks!

Out of curiosity - if I really wanted to print the page in black, with the margin including, where would that be in the menu?

I have a few extra questions already:

As I said I’m using the notebook bar, which is so much neater and easier to use than the standard layout (which is IMHO a huge mess!) However, in M$ Office there’s an option to hide this ribbon by double-clicking on the category (e.g. File, Home, Insert etc.) Here this seems to be lacking and the ribbon is constantly there and takes space. Can it be hidden somehow or can the feature be implemented?

Also, when is the notebook view going to become official, rather than “experimental”?

Now a few colour questions regarding LibreOffice on Windows:

I just installed LibreOffice 6 on my Windows 7 too, however in this OS I don’t have a pre-defined dark look as on KDE, and the app starts all white and (IMO :)) ugly. So I went to the menu searching for options to make it black and found such under Personalisation, clicked on Pre-Installed Theme / Select Theme, then checked them all - and whenever I select a dark theme, the only thing that turns black is the line behind the menu (the one with File/Home/Insert/Page Layout etc.) The background behind the document (I mean outside of the actual document - which I turned black again according to David’s instructions) and the ribbon remain white. Why, and how to make everything I see on my screen dark, as I have it on my SuSE and in M$ Office on Windows?

The last question is not so important, but I will take the occasion to put it here:

In M$ Word when I type an asterisk followed by the Space key, it automatically creates bullets (it also happens with some other symbols, but the round ones I use most often) - is there a way to have the same in Libre?

About your Bonus answer, David - there’s no “Toolbar” category under “View” when the notebook bar is applied.

[mikekaganski]

Please don’t add “extra questions” that are unrelated to the initial question. This doesn’t help other users who search this site for solutions to their similar problems, so one question per entry only.

Please don’t use “Answer” to leave comments or clarify/extend questions; Answers are for answering initial question, and your text above is not answering your question. In this specific case, please file more separate questions; and use Comments or edit question as appropriate at other times.

[Usserr]

This part is on the same topic:

I just installed LibreOffice 6 on my Windows 7 too, however in this OS I don’t have a pre-defined dark look as on KDE, and the app starts all white and (IMO :)) ugly. So I went to the menu searching for options to make it black and found such under Personalisation, clicked on Pre-Installed Theme / Select Theme, then checked them all - and whenever I select a dark theme, the only thing that turns black is the line behind the menu (the one with File/Home/Insert/…

[Usserr]

…/Page Layout etc.) The background behind the document (I mean outside of the actual document - which I turned black again according to David’s instructions) and the ribbon remain white. Why, and how to make everything I see on my screen dark, as I have it on my SuSE and in M$ Office on Windows?

[ablaze8]

View → Sidebar → Click Page → Expand Format → Margins = None