Overview

Git Extensions supports color customization to some extent:

• Activate Windows light or dark app mode
• Customize app spceific colors

There is no full theme support, system colors cannot be changed.

Git Extensions includes a light+ theme (slightly darker panels compared to the built-in light theme), a dark theme for system dark mode and a dark+ mode with slightly darker panels.

Themes location

Themes are stored in *.css files. Where Git Extensions looks for theme files depends on whether it is an 'Installed' or a 'Portable' version. Both come with a predefined set of themes in {App install}\Themes directory.

In addition the Installed version looks for user-defined themes in %AppData%\GitExtensions\GitExtensions\Themes directory.

For each found theme file ColorSettings page will show an entry in the Theme dropdown list.

Installed GitExtension application

Official themes

The Installed version of Git Extensions stores themes in {App install}\Themes directory. The default theme is in Themes\invariant.css.

Custom themes

Any modifications for personal use should be saved to %AppData%\GitExtensions\GitExtensions\Themes directory, because any changes to {App install}\Themes directory will be lost as soon as user updates or re-installs the app.

Portable application

The Portable version of Git Extensions does not have a separate directory for user-defined themes. It only uses pre-installed themes from {App install}\Themes directory.

How to create a custom theme

Copy Themes\dark.css or Theme\invariant.css and change color values. Use a text editor, preferably with .css syntax highlighting and inline color display.

Only application colors like branch labels in the revision grid and diff colors can be changed, the system colors cannot be changed.

There is an extension for Visual Studio to show .css colors inline.

Visual Studio Code and JetBrains Rider displays .css colors inline out-of-the-box.

Create a slightly modified theme

Use .css import directive to reuse color values from another theme.

• To import from a preinstalled theme:

@import url("dark.css");

• To import from a user-defined theme:

@import url("{UserAppData}/dark_custom.css");

Specify alternative color values for colorblind users

To keep the number of themes small, color variations for colorblind users are specified without creating a separate theme. See for example dark.css:

.AnsiTerminalRedBackNormal { color: #620707; }
.AnsiTerminalRedBackNormal.colorblind { color: #080646; }