How to change theme in eclipse

How to change Eclipse IDE theme?

On this page, you will learn How to change Eclipse IDE theme? Eclipse is a very advanced integrated development environment (IDE) and loaded with lots of features. Even it provides many inbuilt themes for different types of users. It also supports third-party (external) these also.

If you are a Java developer or back-end developer, you probably like dark theme and if you are a UI/UX or front-end developer you must like the white theme or classic.

The dark theme in Eclipse or any other IDE help eye fatigue from video glare is reduced, colors, when used to convey information like syntax highlighting, might be easier to notice against a dark background and many other benefits of using a dark theme.

Note: I have used Eclipse Oxygen 3 to demonstrate in this tutorial. Your version may contain a different theme.

Follow the below steps to change the theme of your Eclipse IDE.

Step 1: Open your Eclipse and click on Window » Preferences.

Step 2: Expand the General and click on the Appearances.

Step 3: Select the theme from the dropdown list.

Step 4: Click on the Apply and Close.

Step 5: To get affected, restart your Eclipse IDE.

Eclipse IDE Themes Tutorial

Posted by: Mohammad Meraj Zia in Eclipse February 15th, 2017 1 Comment Views

In this article we will learn about Eclipse Themes. We will learn how to install the Eclipse Color Theme Plugin and how to use it. We will also learn how to import and export the preferences. Eclipse Color Theme makes it possible to switch color themes conveniently and without side effects. For this tutorial we will use Eclipse Luna 4.4.2. If you are using some other version of Eclipse the instructions might be different.

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1. Introduction

While Eclipse allows you to change the syntax coloring in great detail, there is no support for managing multiple color themes. It is possible to achieve that by importing and exporting preferences files, but this is inconvenient and likely to mess up your preferences. Furthermore, color themes have to be created for every single editor, a theme for the Java editor does not change the XML, JavaScript or any other editors. Eclipse Color Theme plugin solves these issues by mapping a generic color theme format to specific preferences entries for each supported editor. Each theme can be downloaded in two formats, *.xml and *.epf. You can either install the Eclipse Color Theme plugin and import the *.xml file or use Eclipse’s built-in preferences import to import the *.epf

You can download additonal themes or create your own on eclipsecolorthemes.org.

2. Install Color Theme plugin

In this section we will see how we can install the Eclipse Color theme plugin.

Open Eclipse. Go to Help => Eclipse Marketplace…

Figure 1. Eclipse Marketplace

In the Find Textbox enter ‘Eclipse Color Theme’ and press Enter. Eclipse will display you the list of compatible plugins which you can install. Click Install for ‘Eclipse Color Theme 1.0.0’.

Figure 2. Eclipse Color Theme Plugin

On the next window Eclipse will ask you to confirm the selected features:

Figure 3. Confirm Selected Features

Click Confirm. On the next window Eclipse will ask you to review and accept the licenses.

Figure 4. Review Licenses

Accept the license and click Finish. Eclipse will install the plugin. You will need to restart Eclipse for the changes to take effect.

3. Change Theme

In this section we will see how to change the color theme in Eclipse.

Go to Windows => Preferences => General => Appearance. You can change the Theme from here.

Figure 5. Change Theme

Select the Dark theme. This will change everything to Dark, but the editor still remains in white or classic theme. Please note that this is the Eclipse feature, not the ‘Eclipse Color Theme Plugin. To change the Editor theme go to Windows => Preferences => General => Appearance => Color Theme

Figure 6. Editor Theme

This is the feature of ‘Eclipse Color Theme Plugin’. You can also import an existing theme using the Import a theme… feature.

4. Importing and exporting preferences

Preference files can be both imported to and exported from the Workbench allowing you to easily share individual or group preferences.

The Import wizard can be used to import preferences from the file system to the Workbench.

The Export wizard can be used to export preferences from the Workbench to the file system.

Note: If no changes have been made to the original preference settings the preferences file will be empty.

5. Conclusion

In this tutorial we learnt about Eclipse Themes. We saw how to install the Eclipse Color Theme plugin and how to use it. We also learned how to import and export preferences.

How can I change Eclipse theme?

I want to change Eclipse theme like this Eclipse Dark Theme:

I try to do all step in this page but eclipse theme not changed (but eclipse editor changed).
I want to change all part of eclipse IDE change to black color, not only eclipse’s editor.

6 Answers 6

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When you have done that go to

And change the theme from GTK (or what ever it is currently) to Dark Juno (or Dark).

This adds a «Color Theme» menu item under

Where you can select from a large range of editor themes. My preferred one to use with PyDev is Wombat. For Java Solarized Dark

Update December 2012 (19 months later):

The big fun is that, the codes are minimized by using Eclipse4 platform technologies like dependency injection.
It proves that again, the concise codes and advanced features could be achieved by contributing or extending with the external form (like library, framework).
New language is not necessary just for this kind of purpose.

Update July 2012 (14 months later):

With the latest Eclipse4.2 (June 2012, «Juno») release, you can implement what I originally described below: a CSS-based fully dark theme for Eclipse.
See the article by Lars Vogel in «Eclipse 4 is beautiful – Create your own Eclipse 4 theme»:

If you want to play with it, you only need to write a plug-in, create a CSS file and use the org.eclipse.e4.ui.css.swt.theme extension point to point to your file.
If you export your plug-in, place it in the “dropins” folder of your Eclipse installation and your styling is available.

Original answer: August 2011

With Eclipse 3.x, theme is only for the editors, as you can see in the site «Eclipse Color Themes».
Anything around that is managed by windows system colors.
That is what you need to change to have any influence on Eclipse global colors around editors.

How to Change Eclipse Color Theme in Linux or Windows

This article demonstrates how to change the color theme in Eclipse by installing Eclipse Color Theme plugin.

Eclipse is the preferred IDE for C++, Java, Android, Perl and what not. In my universities, the start up where I interned, the big IT company where I currently work at, Eclipse has always been the main tool for development. If you ever used Eclipse, you would know why so.

One of the most loved feature about Eclipse is customization. I am not going to dig deep in to what kind of customization you can do with Eclipse. I am just going to show you how to change the default light colored theme in Eclipse and give it a new, fresh and different look. If you prefer dark, you can give Eclipse a dark look easily.

I am using Ubuntu Linux to demonstrate changing themes in Eclipse, but this should be the same procedure for Windows and Mac OS X version.

Just make sure that you have installed the latest version of Eclipse in Ubuntu or whichever operating system you are using.

Change Eclipse color theme

You’ll be using The Eclipse Color Theme for this purpose. Just follow the steps below to change the theme of Eclipse.

Step 1

Open Eclipse and in the top menu go to Help->Install New Software.

Step 2

You’ll see a screen like the one below. Click on Add.

Step 3: Online installation

If you are connected to the internet, just add the following URL in location: http://eclipse-color-theme.github.io/update/. You can copy the URL here. Give it any name you like. I named it Eclipse Color Theme for obvious reasons to easily recognize it (if you have several plugin installed already). Once done press OK.

Step 3: Offline installation

If your computer cannot be connected to internet, don’t despair. You can install any Eclipse theme offline. You just need the zipped file of the plugin and you are good to go. Download the Eclipse Color Theme from the link below (on the system where you have internet access).

In the previous step, while adding the source, click on Archive for offline installation. Browse to the downloaded zipped file and click OK.

Step 4: Install color theme

Once added, you’ll see that Eclipse Color Theme (or whatever name you chose) has appeared. Select it and press Next.

Keep on pressing Next or Okay. Accept the license, when prompted.

You’ll also see a security warning during the installation. Just press OK.

Once the installation is finished, you’ll need to restart Eclipse before you could use the newly installed plugin.

Step 5: Change color theme

Now that we have installed the color theme plugin, it is time to use this plugin and change the skin of Eclipse. Go to Menu->Windows->Preference:

In the left sidebar, go to General->Appearance->Color Theme. When you select that, it will show you different available themes in the right pane. You can choose the one you like and press OK.

Here is what my Eclipse looks like with Sublime Text 2 theme. If you do not know already, Sublime Text is one of the best text editors for Linux and Windows.

Step 6: Getting more color themes

There are around 20 color themes in this plugin. You can get more at Eclipse Color Themes website. All you need to do is to download the XML file and import it under Eclipse Color Theme like this:

That’s it. This is all you need to do to install Eclipse color theme. I hope you find this tutorial helpful. Any questions, suggestions or a word of thanks is appreciated.

Creator of It’s FOSS. An ardent Linux user & open source promoter. Huge fan of classic detective mysteries ranging from Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes to Detective Columbo & Ellery Queen. Also a movie buff with a soft corner for film noir.

Top 12 Eclipse IDE Themes

Ilana Brudo | 6 min read | November 29, 2021

As one of the most used IDEs globally, Eclipse is pretty accommodating out of the box. However, it shouldn’t make us lenient when it comes to upgrading our productivity.

Several factors influence our ability to code effectively. From AI-driven code completion assistance to a plethora of useful plugins, one feature that many developers often overlook is the Eclipse editor’s theme they use.

How to change Eclipse color themes

To change your Eclipse IDE’s color and the code you see to a different theme, you can do it via the Eclipse Color Theme plugin. To use Eclipse Color Theme, you need to install it.

To install Eclipse Color Theme, go to Help > Install New Software in your top menu bar.

You will get a screen that looks like this:

Next, click on Add. You will get another popup that looks like this:

Fill in the form with the following details:

Once done, press OK. To install Eclipse Color Theme, select it and press Next. Accept the license when prompted. You might get a security warning. You will need to press OK to proceed.

This will set up everything you need for you. Once done, to change our color theme, go to your top menu bar and select Window > Preference.

On the left sidebar, follow the following dropdown: General > Appearance > Color Theme. This will take you to the next panel, where all the themes are available. All you have to do now is select the theme you want.

You can also create or import your own custom theme via the Import a theme… button.

And that’s basically it.

Top 12 Color Themes for Eclipse

1. Oblivion

Oblivion is a predominantly lime green color theme for Eclipse, with specks of blue and red for highlights. This Eclipse theme and its color application are split between variable types and method-related parameters. Oblivion is a dark coding theme by Roger Dudler and is the most popular color theme on Eclipse, with over 600,000 downloads.

2. Obsidian

Obsidian is similar to Oblivion with its green predominance. However, Obsidian approaches Eclipse color theming with a softer palette, leering on the pastel side. This makes it not as bright as Oblivion, which can be good if you prefer muted tones.

3. Vibrant Ink

Vibrant Ink is a color theme that balances creating a hierarchy of data types with aesthetically bold schemes. It is a dark theme with high contrast for maximum focus, with lime green highlights for easy variable scanning.

4. Zenburn

Zenburn is a dark theme with pastel vibes. The usage of greens, blues, and browns are equally balanced to produce a softened IDE. Zenburn is an excellent alternative for your Eclipse IDE if you’re not into stark contrasts in dark themes.

5. NightLion Aptana

When it comes to dark themes, they come in all shades of darkness. NightLion Aptana is a dark theme that is ported over to Eclipse IDE. The color palette is a series of calming blues that gently transitions into green tones.

6. Monokai

Monokai is a trendy theme that developers use on Sublime Text and VS Code. Its availability on Eclipse IDE means that switching context reduces the cognitive load because you’re not required to adjust to a different color scheme mentally.

The palette is optimized for Java, PHP, and HTML – making it a versatile color theme that you can use across different editors.

7. Retta

If you like pumpkin spice, the Retta is the color theme for you. Set against a dark black background, the different shades of orange exude a funky fall vibe. Retta is also a fun theme that keeps everything tightly highlighted within the same color spectrum, apart from the seasonal feel. Unlike other themes listed here, the color transition is not as stark. This increases your ability to immerse yourself into the flow state of coding.

8. Inkpot

Inkpot is a pleasant dark blue theme with slightly over 33k downloads. This color theme is a series of blues and light salmon pink highlights for variable assignments. The colors in this theme are limited to just class, interface, method, methodDeclartion, number, string, operator, and annotations. The palette is tightly centralized and only highlights large blocks rather than every possible variation. Through this, Inkpot can localize information and create groupings through color.

9. Black Pastel

Black Pastel was originally a Vim color theme that later transferred over to Eclipse IDE. The palette for Black Pastel is a gradient of purples that gently move towards a tinted white on the color spectrum. The color theme evokes a calming vibe and is excellent for those chill coding moments where you become fully immersed in what you’re doing.

10. frontenddev

If you’re using Eclipse IDE for frontend development, then frontenddev is a fantastic theme to check out and use. The choice of highlights emphasizes parts of the code that frontend developers mainly use. The way frontenddev supports HTML also comes in handy when you’re switching between your models, views, and controllers.

11. Dracula

Dracula is a dark theme that’s able to make its way onto almost every text editor and IDE available. Eclipse is no exception when it comes to Dracula’s color theme support.

Made for developers and by a developer, the Dracula color theme considers the need for a cohesive palette that works well with its choice of saturation for each color.

12. Vim dark

Vim is an editor that you either love or hate. Regardless of this, the color palette for Vim is undeniably funky. It is predominantly green – but configured in a way that feels balanced with its highlights and choice of information to bring to the forefront through color. There is a vintage feel when using this color theme in Eclipse, which can be fun to work with if you’re into retro themes.

Picking the best theme for productivity

Choosing the suitable color theme for your Eclipse IDE workflow balances aesthetic preferences and the type of code you’re writing. Every project has a predominant kind and style of code required, so the choice of highlights matters.

In addition to color themes, the right plugins for Eclipse IDE can also increase your productivity and help improve your ability to stay in the flow state.