Created attachment 146581 [details]
Screenshot of visibility problem

Notice the selected data is visible but the un-selected data is almost invisible.

@Chuck : it appears from your report that you are using a packaged version of LibreOffice provided via a PPA as opposed to the TDF provided version. As such, the behaviour you report might be dependent on that Ubuntu packaging.

Could you try with a TDF release version to see if the behaviour is the same ?

In additiion, does the behaviour only occur with the Mint provided Mint-Y Dark theme ? If so, then the bug is likely an incompatibility between that theme and the PPA packaged version, in which case this would not be a LibreOffice bug per se.

One thing to try and to use a different VCL backend when launching LO to see if it makes any difference, as sometimes the choice between XDM, gtk and gtk3 can have varying effects on desktop behaviour.

Well, I installed the "Libreoffice Fresh" version from a PPA because the libreoffice base program in the stock version *hung up and wrecked a database of mine.*  Also, please note this did not happen until the most recent release from the PPA, which is why I'm reporting it.

I assume a "TDF" version is the one which comes with Mint.  I'm running Mint 18.3 and the version on 18.3 is outdated, has bugs that cause me problems.  I'm only reporting this here because I thought maybe it'd be worth looking into.

As for "mint-y," no, the problem desn't happen on other themes, but remember, the only place I'm seeing this in in "edit table," not "edit query."   Someone has changed something between the way tables and queries are displayed, that's clear.  Probably redundant code I would guess.

How do I change the VCF?

sorry.  Also, please note I'm using a dark theme because of eyesight.  I could really use help and guidance here, because the way things are going, it's going to get even harder for me to read dark-on-light than it is now.  And the way people are starting to support dark themes, it's clear to me that this problem is getting more common as people age.

I'm embarrassing myself!  I meant VCL and I will look that up....

VCL -- Generic x11 doesn't use gnome themes, I'm using GTK interface.

Works as it did before once I purged your PPA and went to this "TDF":

Version: 5.1.6.2
Build ID: 1:5.1.6~rc2-0ubuntu1~xenial4
CPU Threads: 4; OS Version: Linux 4.15; UI Render: default; 
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); Calc: group

I can only help the "TDF" version is getting fixes for the database failure problem I had that prompted me to quit that one.

@Chuck : the PPAs are not, as far as I know, the same as the TDF release available from the LibreOffice download site. The reason for this, as I understand it, is that LibreOffice is re-packaged by a PPA maintainer, to adhere to the packaging guidelines imposed by Canonical. To that end, there can be differences in the functionality of a PPA LibreOffice and the DEB packages available for download from the LibreOffice download site.

In particular, desktop integration and theming are generally different between a TDF provided download (via the LibreOffice download site) and a PPA provided set of LibreOffice packages.

Additionally, there are known bugs in Ubuntu provided packages and various xorg backends, which may or may not be triggered by a particular theme (e.g. Mint-Y Dark).

In order, I would search the LinuxMint forums, then the Ubuntu formums and Launchpad bugtracker, and only after having tried to reproduce the problem with a TDF packaged and provided download report it here.

See for an example of Mint Y Dark theming problems and LibreOffice distro/PPA:

https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-y-theme/issues/89

This is not the same as the problem you report, but the discussion on how to resolve the problem indicates that the use of the GTK3 backend might be the root cause of the problems, and a switch to GTK2 (by installing the libreoffice-gtk2 package) might solve the problem.

If this is the case, then this is probably NOTOURBUG.

This bug is also possibly a DUPLICATE of bug 116585.

No repro with

Version: 6.2.0.0.alpha1+
Build ID: 1ee42f427fc80a4f3a63ee9fffbf9d187f1253ba
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 4.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3; 
Locale: fr-FR (fr_FR.UTF-8); UI-Language: en-US
Calc: threaded

and Ambiant Mate Dark theme on Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS

so I would suggest that this is an issue with the theme itself and not LibreOffice

Then why is it that I can write a query:

select * from (table)

and open it for editing and it looks correct on Mint-Y dark, but:

open the table *itself* for editing and the lettering is black except the selection, as shown in my screenshot?  I honestly wish I had time to debug this, but I'm guessing the author made a subtle change to the display of the table vs. the disply of the query.

I just want back to version 5.  I am tired of this.  I just NEED to read my screen!

One aside: I felt lucky that somehow the database queries and table edits were usable light on dark, at least on version 5, when using the dark theme.  I wish I could say the same for calc and writer, but I have to accept they are WYSIWYG and live with it.  I jsut find this subtle change disappointing.  I did all my wedding lists in Base because of the accessibility.  I would have been hard-pressed to do so if the problem that has cropped up in the 6.1 series had been there in September....

One more note: I completely uninstalled LibreOffice from my computer and then installed the TDF version.  I had to select the libreoffice gnome package from the TDF to get at the dark theme, and still have the same problem (database table edits unreadable, but queries look right.)

@Alex:

Your message from 2018-11-14 08:56:58 UTC about a duplicate bug actually points up an awkward problem that is sure to become more of a problem over the years; i.e., light-on-dark lettering.

It's become so significant that companies like e-sight will charge patients in excess of $10,000 U.S. to get hardware that will process and then invert video.

Just sayin....If I can find time, I'll look into helping with the development of alternate coloring for libreoffice programs.....

(In reply to Alex Thurgood from comment #10)
> No repro with
> 
> Version: 6.2.0.0.alpha1+
> Build ID: 1ee42f427fc80a4f3a63ee9fffbf9d187f1253ba
> CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 4.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3; 
> Locale: fr-FR (fr_FR.UTF-8); UI-Language: en-US
> Calc: threaded
> 
> and Ambiant Mate Dark theme on Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
> 
> so I would suggest that this is an issue with the theme itself and not
> LibreOffice

Ok, so let me pose a question to you: How do I CHANGE the color of the text in LibreOffice base table editing?  I can change the color of the syntax checking, but I see no way to control the table text color.  Such would seem to be a good way to fix this, since, as I said, the problem doesn't show up in editable queries.

@Chuck : seem to recall that this is system/theme dependent - certainly font type is system dependent, so possibly that font background colour is set somewhere at the system/theme level, or at least, should be read at the system level by LO.

You might have some luck trawling through the LO XCU configuration files...

@Chuck : FWIW, I set up a VM with a current LinuxMint19 (i.e. based on Ubuntu 18.04) and the default LibreOffice version supplied by Mint (LO6062). I then changed the default system theme to Mint-Y Dark. Everything seems to display correctly, even in Table data edit mode.


Note that by default, the LO version provided by LinuxMint uses GTK3, and not GTK2 (unlike the version of LibreOffice against which you filed this bug report).

It seems that Libre (like certain other programs) suffers from a general issue with producing very low contrast text-vs-background combinations under under certain conditions that are difficult to enumerate.  Configuring Libre to light text on a dark background and/or using a dark desktop/toolkit theme, seem to trigger these issues.  I'm fighting a couple of them now (white text on a pale yellow background in Writer comments, black formulas on a black background in writer).  Sometimes switching desktop themes will cure the issue in one context while causing it somewhere else.

I understand that light-on-dark is helpful for people with some kinds of weak vision.  I personally find it much easier to look at over time, even though my  vision is not horrible.

I wonder if it would be practical to implement a bit of code in LO that checks the contrast between text and background and tweaks the font color automatically to avoid these situations.  This would probably need to be made optional to avoid interfering with people who actually *want* low contrast.