# How to get ParaView Dark UI (Any OS, Any release)

**URL:** <https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545>\
**Category:** Tips and Tricks\
**Created:** [June 9, 2020, 7:05am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545 "2020-06-09T07:05:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ionboi](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/ionboi/32/8707_2.png) [@ionboi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ionboi)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:23am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/21 "2021-11-17T10:23:08Z")

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Awesome, that works well. Thanks a lot for the help!

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**Author:** ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 10:24am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/22 "2021-11-17T10:24:19Z")

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@lhofmann : this work could go in a git repository organized by ParaView versions, and such.

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**Author:** ![mconti](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mconti/32/2168_2.png) [@mconti](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mconti)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/23 "2021-11-17T17:42:23Z")

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Hey everyone. I messed with this a lot a while back and fixed a lot of these issues. There are tons of changes in the stylesheet (.qss) file that need to be changed to make it work with PV. Plus, you need to override all image links to the file structure on your computer to make the toggles and other picture buttons work.

Here is an image of what mine looks like now:

 ![image](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/a/acf682aaf7107b1687633fb86877f61234b42d8d.jpeg)

A google drive link to my stylesheet. You will probably have to mess with this quite a bit to get it to work for you, but I have at least commented all of the main functions/colors and should be easy for you all to take and run with.

[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TLMqxwQsdAiK\_U\_XI1YKeNBtmMSeokrc?usp=sharing](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TLMqxwQsdAiK_U_XI1YKeNBtmMSeokrc?usp=sharing)

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**Author:** ![steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/steve_r/32/8305_2.png) [@steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/steve_r)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 3:18pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/24 "2021-11-22T15:18:32Z")

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Thanks for the effort. If you would use relative path names for the images in the .qss file it could work for everyone out of the box. 😀

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**Author:** ![Cristian24](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Cristian24](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Cristian24)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 8:54am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/25 "2022-01-14T08:54:42Z")

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Thank you Marston,

I managed to apply your .qss and it looks pretty good (almost too black 🙂 ). Just as a feedback, in my case I noticed some overlap in the Combobox(I think this is what it’s called). The pictures attached are self-explanatory.

 ![pv_dark2](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/4/4ea6c5a614c671339c574345a20d5839d4f7a901.png)  
 ![pv_dark1](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/b/b5489a10ccd66a80af33b9af8c6dbc301b9989e2.png)  
Before clicking the Coloring Option it looks good but afterwards the symbols overlap with the text. Not sure what part of the .qss to tweak to fix this.  
Thank again for the effort!  
P.S. I applied the @2x version of the pics but didn’t notice any differences. What are they for?

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**Author:** ![Michael\_Jackson](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/michael_jackson/32/293_2.png) [@Michael\_Jackson](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Michael_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/26 "2022-01-17T18:22:43Z")

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Can we get this as a feature in a “soon to be released” version of ParaView? Just need a Menu Item to switch the style sheet on and off. Then ParaView can just include a few styles with the binary. Or is there a bug/issue already tracking this issue?

Thoughts?

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**Author:** ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2022, 6:40pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/27 "2022-01-17T18:40:53Z")

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That would require a contribution:

> [@How are features and bug fixes incorporated into ParaView?](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-are-features-and-bug-fixes-incorporated-into-paraview/4735):
>
> As with all open source projects, adding features and fixing bugs takes developer effort. That effort may originate from volunteer community contributors, or through paid professional services offered by companies like [Kitware](https://www.kitware.com). Features and bug fixes are prioritized by the needs of contributing community members and by professional services customers. Note that contributions are vetted by a rigorous community review and testing process; therefore it is recommended that significant changes are d…

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**Author:** ![bongotai](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/bongotai/32/10964_2.png) [@bongotai](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/bongotai)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 3:47pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/28 "2023-02-21T15:47:15Z")

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Hello dear Paraview users and devs.  
I am having a lot of trouble trying to set the UI to dark mode.  
To me, the screen glare causing eye strain make dark interfaces a must.  
So, I am running Windows 11, Paraview 5.11 installed (ParaView-5.11.0-Windows-Python3.9-msvc2017-AMD64.msi).  
My file is the one provided by @mconti, to which I changed name and the relative paths inside.  
I am keeping it here \> C:/Program Files/ParaView 5.11.0/bin/styles/dark/dark.qss  
This is the file:  
[dark.qss](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/4K4S03kk2Na9X7c00micNm7XtSx.qss) (51.9 KB)  
I open Paraview with Windows Shell.  
paraview -style=default -stylesheet=styles/dark/dark.qss  
And get the following error message:  
critical: In unknown, line 0  
critical: Cannot open data file “”.qss""

 ![Captura de pantalla (2)](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/6/675878b28c18cb03f6bb40eac4a85d84de9a163e.png)  
What am I doing wrong?  
Such a shame that a simple feature like choosing the UI style is not accesible via user options.

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**Author:** ![steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/steve_r/32/8305_2.png) [@steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/steve_r)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2023, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/29 "2023-02-27T13:40:15Z")

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Does it work if you provide the full path to the .qss file?

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**Author:** ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2023, 12:59pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/30 "2023-04-03T12:59:35Z")

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This command line seems to work:

```auto
 paraview.exe -style=default -stylesheet=C:\path\to\dark.qss

```

But the style itself does not seem great for pv 5.11

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**Author:** ![steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/steve_r/32/8305_2.png) [@steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/steve_r)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2023, 11:45am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/31 "2023-04-04T11:45:28Z")

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From my experience, the “`-style=default`” together with the dark stylesheet **does not work** for PV 5.11 on Windows.

Instead, I’m using the “`-style=windows`”, which works with 5.11 and also avoids some of the reported issues like extra spaces in combo boxes.

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**Author:** ![bongotai](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/bongotai/32/10964_2.png) [@bongotai](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/bongotai)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 10:41am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/32 "2023-04-13T10:41:54Z")

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Hello Steffen, no regrettably it doesn’t. For the record this is the full path I am using:

```auto
paraview -style=default -stylesheet ="C: \Program Files\ParaView 5.11.0\bin\styles\dark\dark.gss"

```

l am also attaching a screen capture witht the result. It’s weird beacuse as you can see, the welcome screen shows some partial dark backgrounds. Any tips or comments will be highly appreciated.

 ![Captura de pantalla 2023-04-13 071908](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/9/96ca4ddc915119722ba20999d86816d810995a55.png)

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**Author:** ![steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/steve_r/32/8305_2.png) [@steve\_r](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/steve_r)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/33 "2023-04-17T15:56:14Z")

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Please try `-style=windows` (on Windows) or `-style=fusion` (other than Windows).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bongotai](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/bongotai/32/10964_2.png) [@bongotai](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/bongotai)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/34 "2023-04-17T17:12:21Z")

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It works! amazing, thank you

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**Author:** ![MaxMayya](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/maxmayya/32/15538_2.png) [@MaxMayya](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/MaxMayya)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/35 "2024-11-13T15:56:49Z")

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For those who wants to launch _.pvsm_ files with the dark theme under windows:

**Create a .bat file and add the following**

```auto
@echo off
set pvsm_file=%1
"<path_to>\paraview.exe" -style=fusion -stylesheet="<path_to>\style.qss" "%pvsm_file%"

```

**Set the `.bat` file as the default program** :

- Right-click on any `.pvsm` file, select **Open With \> Choose another app**.
- Select **More apps** and then **Look for another app on this PC**.
- Navigate to your `.bat` file and select it.
- Check **Always use this app to open .pvsm files** and click **OK**.

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**Author:** ![Ted\_Stokes](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/ted_stokes/32/17500_2.png) [@Ted\_Stokes](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Ted_Stokes)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 6:57pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-get-paraview-dark-ui-any-os-any-release/4545/36 "2026-02-23T18:57:20Z")

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I had an issue where the Open file selector was stretched to be unable, but used AI to fix the style file. Also fixed the dropdowns having the current item take extra space.

[style3.qss](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/hW31kM0e9ktuMnnAm4YGEziVfe9.qss) (51.9 KB)

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