Theming

EDLD Theming

EDLD ships twelve built-in color themes and supports user-defined custom themes. A theme is just a palette — a small set of color values. All structural rules (layout, spacing, borders) are fixed in the UI and are not part of a theme, so switching themes only changes colors.

Themes apply to both interfaces. The palettes live in core/palette.py, which the terminal dashboard turns into Textual CSS and the desktop window turns into a Qt stylesheet, so a theme is defined once and appears in both. Custom themes work the same way in each.

The same palette also colors the commander dossier — its web page is regenerated when you change theme — and, if you choose Follow dashboard for it, the streamer overlay.

EDCARS, the desktop window's console style, draws from the same palette: its header band, rail and frames are the theme's accent, and its pills mix the accent toward the background. A custom theme reaches it with nothing extra to set.

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Selecting a theme

Either set it in your config:

[UI]
Theme = "default-blue"

…or pick it from Options → Appearance (Ctrl+O), which restarts EDLD to apply it. A paired EDAM device set to follow EDLD changes with it. The same tab sets the Interface a plain launch opens — EDCARS, the Dashboard, the terminal dashboard or the terminal text.

Options → Appearance, desktop window

The same in the terminal dashboard

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Built-in themes

Theme	Accent
elite-orange	Orange #ff7100 on near-black — the game's own HUD colors
default	Orange #e07b20 — Elite Dangerous orange
default-dark	Orange #e07b20 — identical to default
default-blue	Blue #3d8fd4
default-green	Green #00aa44
default-purple	Purple #9b59b6
default-red	Red #cc3333
default-yellow	Yellow #d4a017
default-light	Light background variant
order	Red #e03a2f on black glass, white readouts — made for the ORDER console
rebel	Orange #e8762c, cream text on green-tinted screens in a navy room — made for REBEL
rogue	Amber CRT phosphor #ffb347 on slate — made for ROGUE

The last three are made for EDCARS's consoles of the same names, and work anywhere: the Dashboard window and the terminal dashboard wear them too.

The built-in themes, each with a sample block and its ten colors

These palettes are built into the dashboard; no external files are required.

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Custom themes

A custom theme is a single CSS file containing one :root { } block of color variables. To create one:

1. Make a folder named themes/custom in EDLD's data directory and copy the template into it under the name you want. On Linux, from the EDLD folder:

   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/EDLD/themes/custom
   cp themes/custom-template.css ~/.local/share/EDLD/themes/custom/my-theme.css
   

   System	Folder
   Linux	~/.local/share/EDLD/themes/custom/
   Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\EDLD\themes\custom\
   macOS	~/Library/Application Support/EDLD/themes/custom/

   With a packaged binary there is no themes/ folder to copy from: take themes/custom-template.css from the repository instead.

2. Edit the color values in the :root { } block of my-theme.css. Both interfaces read the same file, so there is nothing further to do for the desktop window. The recognized variables are:

   Variable	Purpose
   --bg-deep	Window background
   --bg-mid	Block background
   --bg-panel	Title-bar background
   --fg	Primary text
   --fg-dim	Dimmed/secondary text
   --accent	Accent (titles, highlights)
   --border	Block borders
   --green / --amber / --red	Status colors (good / warning / critical)

   Any variable you omit falls back to a sensible default.

3. Select it by stem name under Options → Appearance (it appears as Custom: my-theme), or in config:

   [UI]
   Theme = "custom/my-theme"

Custom themes are found when Options opens, so a new file appears without a restart. EDLD also still reads themes/custom/ beside its own code, where custom themes lived before, for anyone running from source; if the same name is in both places, the one in the data directory is used.

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On the EDAM app

A paired EDAM device follows the theme EDLD is drawing with: every snapshot carries the theme's name and its colors, so a custom theme reaches the phone as the colors EDLD resolved and needs nothing installed there. The built-in themes are also compiled into the app; after changing core/palette.py, regenerate that list with scripts/export_edam_themes.py (see SERVER.md).