Changing Web Site Colors

For all its virtues, the Web makes some things a little too easy. Now that you've become used to reading black text on a white background, for example, many Web sites have started to reverse the trend. As far as I'm concerned, these white-on-black designs are an eyesore. Firefox allows you to override the text, background, and link color of every site so you can view the Web the way you want:

Warning 

Designers go to great lengths to design pixel-perfect Web sites, so forcing Web sites to use your own color scheme could lead to unreadable or awkward-looking pages. Feel free to experiment with these features (since it's easy to undo your changes), but be aware of this consequence.

2. Click the Content icon at the top of the Options window.

3. In the Fonts & Colors section at the bottom, click the Colors button.

   The Colors window appears. The boxes next to Text, Background, Visited Links, and Unvisited Links indicate the current color of each element.

4. Click the color boxes to select new colors, as shown in Figure 19-4.

   
   Figure 19-4: In the Colors window, click a colored box to choose a new color.

   Under Text and Background, you can select Use System Colors to have Firefox use your computer's default window background and text colors. These colors are specified in your system's control panel.

   You can also determine whether Firefox underlines links with the Underline Links check box in the Link Colors boxed group. By default, links are underlined so you can spot them more quickly.

   Tip 

   As the name suggests, a Visited link is a link to a Web site you've seen before. It's a good idea to select different colors for Visited and Unvisited under Link Colors so you can tell at a glance which links you've already followed.

5. Deselect the Allow Pages to Choose Their Own Colors check box at the bottom.

   Warning 

   Because you're forcing Web sites to use your background color, you're preventing them from using background images. Some sites use a background image for a wallpaper-like effect, and others use it to display a navigational bar at the top of the page.

6. Click OK to close the Colors window.

7. Click OK to save your changes and close the Options window.