Bug 166341 - Very dark background after LibreOffice/Write upgrade when opening a file
Summary: Very dark background after LibreOffice/Write upgrade when opening a file
Status: NEEDINFO
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.2.2.2 release
Hardware: All Linux (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: LibreOffice-Themes
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Reported: 2025-04-25 16:34 UTC by Дилян Палаузов
Modified: 2025-04-28 07:52 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
The background is very dark on my computer. (45.33 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2025-04-25 16:34 UTC, Дилян Палаузов
Details
Here screenshot from that file, when I open it. (39.66 KB, image/png)
2025-04-25 16:36 UTC, Дилян Палаузов
Details

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Description Дилян Палаузов 2025-04-25 16:34:45 UTC
Created attachment 200527 [details]
The background is very dark on my computer.

After upgrading to Fedora 42 I have now LibreOffice Community/Write 25.2.3.1.

The attached file is displayed with dark background on most places, but on some places it has white background.  Before upgrading to Fedora 42, I used Fedora 41 and an older LibreOffice version, where the background was white.

If I export the file to PDF in the PDF the background is white.

If I select File → New → Text document then the background is again dark, but the text is white, which matches my Desktop Dark mode preference.

In any case what file was readable with previous Libreoffice versions is now not readable.
Comment 1 Дилян Палаузов 2025-04-25 16:36:42 UTC
Created attachment 200528 [details]
Here screenshot from that file, when I open it.
Comment 2 m_a_riosv 2025-04-25 16:45:30 UTC
Please test modifying the Theme, and after apply again the previous.

Menu>Tools>Options>LibreOffice>Appearance.
Comment 3 Дилян Палаузов 2025-04-25 17:48:10 UTC
After changing Menu>Tools>Options>LibreOffice>Appearance → from System to Light it works as it was before.

But I still do not understand why this happens.  Why is on dark background the text black, and not white, if the default colour for that text is “Automatic”?
Comment 4 Telesto 2025-04-27 10:05:32 UTC
(In reply to Дилян Палаузов from comment #3)
> After changing Menu>Tools>Options>LibreOffice>Appearance → from System to
> Light it works as it was before.
> 
> But I still do not understand why this happens.  Why is on dark background
> the text black, and not white, if the default colour for that text is
> “Automatic”?

The LibreOffice appearance is by default based on OS configuration. Dark/Light.
The document background color is derived from this configuration. So Dark UI also means a black Document Background.

I personally prefer the white background. The setting to change the behaviour is buried away in the UI, IMHO. Instead of some Quick Setup at first launch.
Comment 5 Telesto 2025-04-27 10:16:12 UTC
@Heiko
What should be default Document Background color in case of OS color being dark. 
You're suggesting it should be white in bug 160445 comment 3, I think
Comment 6 Дилян Палаузов 2025-04-27 11:24:11 UTC
> The document background color is derived from this configuration. So Dark UI also means a black Document Background.

Yes, but in the attached file both background and foreground are dark, so the text is not readable.  And the foreground text colour is “Automatic”, it is not explicitly set to “Black”.
Comment 7 Telesto 2025-04-27 13:31:06 UTC
(In reply to Дилян Палаузов from comment #3)
> After changing Menu>Tools>Options>LibreOffice>Appearance → from System to
> Light it works as it was before.
> 
> But I still do not understand why this happens.  Why is on dark background
> the text black, and not white, if the default colour for that text is
> “Automatic”?

I do experience: bug 166363 and bug 166362 in both cases I get what you see.

I define the document background explicitly to white to fix the issue. 

But even excluding bugs above, there is indeed something weird going on. In your example file the text doesn't invert to white text on black background. Whatever I try. It's working fine with file I created myself
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2025-04-28 07:49:59 UTC
(In reply to Дилян Палаузов from comment #3)
> Why is on dark background the text black, and not white, if the default colour 
> for that text is “Automatic”?
Check with the Stylist how font color is defined for Body Text: it's #0000DA (almost pure black). If you set Default to black, by the way, Body Text as a children could be Automatic but takes the black from its parent.

System default is Automatic, which is adjusted to black/white depending on the background brightness.

(In reply to Telesto from comment #5)
> What should be default Document Background color in case of OS color being dark. 
With the introduction of Appearance we pondered over what color to be used for document background. Some users want it super dark, other prefer white on black. We pick the color from system settings (also to accommodate for strange configurations) and provide a special theme to switch the background to white.

This was not generally accepted and has major flaws in case of Impress (see bug 165803). It has been reverted and white is now always the default. The work on appearance continues and you may check bug 103184 and bug 125823 for open topics. 

Having said all this I'm not perfectly sure about the latest state. The always-white patch was reverted other submitted and some abandoned. Sahil knows best.
Comment 9 Heiko Tietze 2025-04-28 07:52:03 UTC
Btw, I suggested in bug 165121 to removed the customization of document background, default to white and allows switching to black via the extra command.