# Switch off dark mode in 6.0?
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [September 10, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181 "2025-09-10T20:39:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@datathing](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/datathing)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/1 "2025-09-10T20:39:02Z")
I just installed 6.0 on PC and found that it has defaulted to a ‘dark mode’ UI, and I really want to switch back to the light mode that I had in version 5.x. I cannot find a way to do this in the settings, how can I get light mode back?
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/2 "2025-09-10T20:52:47Z")
Just curious - is your window system in dark mode? Which OS are you on?
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### Author:  [@datathing](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/datathing)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/3 "2025-09-10T20:59:47Z")
Windows 10, dark mode. Paraview 5.x doesn’t default to dark mode though.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2025, 8:56am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/4 "2025-09-11T08:56:36Z")
You can keep windows in Dark mode and change all your “apps” in light mode if thats helps:
This is not ideal though, a more fine grained control would be nice.
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### Author:  [@datathing](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/datathing)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/5 "2025-09-12T14:03:33Z")
Thanks, I tried that and it changes way too many parts of windows back to light mode. For the time being I’ve managed to get it to override the stylesheet somewhat with a .bat file and qss file so that at least it’s light in colour, though the buttons sizes get a bit messed up. If it’s possible to request features then I’d love a dark/light theme toggle!
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/7 "2025-09-16T15:05:00Z")
Can you share how you did it? That would be great!
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### Author:  [@datathing](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/datathing)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/8 "2025-09-16T18:14:22Z")
No problem. I put this in a .bat file (paraview\_light.bat) in the Paraview bin folder:
```auto
@echo off
setlocal
set "APPDIR=%~dp0"
set "EXE=%APPDIR%paraview.exe"
set "QSS=%APPDIR%light.qss"
REM Force a light Qt style; stylesheet makes it lighter.
set "QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE=Fusion"
REM Launch ParaView with the stylesheet from the same folder
"%EXE%" -style Fusion -stylesheet "%QSS%" %*
endlocal
```
The Fusion stylesheet was the first attempt, which wasn’t successful, so that line can probably be removed. I added a style sheet in the same bin folder (light.qss). I don’t know much about style sheets unfortunately, so this is mostly the work of AI. I imagine that it took a pretty wild stab in the dark and has probably tried to apply styles to things that don’t even exist in the Paraview UI, but it worked well enough that I was at least able to use 6.0:
```auto
/* Very light, neutral UI */
QWidget { background: #f6f6f6; color: #111; }
QMenuBar, QMenu, QToolBar, QStatusBar, QDockWidget { background: #efefef; color: #111; }
QToolTip { background: #ffffdc; color: #111; border: 1px solid #c0c0c0; }
/* Editors, views */
QLineEdit, QTextEdit, QPlainTextEdit,
QListView, QTreeView, QTableView {
background: #ffffff; color: #111; selection-background-color: #cde7ff; selection-color: #111;
}
/* Headers */
QHeaderView::section {
background: #e9e9e9; color: #111; padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #d0d0d0;
}
/* Buttons & controls */
QPushButton, QToolButton, QComboBox, QSpinBox, QDoubleSpinBox {
background: #f9f9f9; color: #111; border: 1px solid #cfcfcf; padding: 4px 6px;
}
QPushButton:hover, QToolButton:hover, QComboBox:hover {
background: #ffffff;
}
QPushButton:pressed, QToolButton:pressed {
background: #e6e6e6;
}
/* Tabs */
QTabBar::tab {
background: #eaeaea; color: #111; padding: 6px 10px; border: 1px solid #d0d0d0;
}
QTabBar::tab:selected { background: #ffffff; }
/* Splitters */
QSplitter::handle { background: #dddddd; }
/* Checkboxes / radios */
QCheckBox, QRadioButton { background: transparent; color: #111; }
/* Scrollbars (simple light) */
QScrollBar:vertical, QScrollBar:horizontal {
background: #f0f0f0; border: 1px solid #d0d0d0;
}
QScrollBar::handle:vertical, QScrollBar::handle:horizontal {
background: #cfcfcf; min-height: 20px; min-width: 20px;
}
/* --- Toolbar icon sizing --- */
/* Main window toolbars (keep these a bit larger) */
QMainWindow > QToolBar { qproperty-iconSize: 18px; }
/* Render-view toolbars INSIDE the VTK widget (make these smaller) */
/* Cover common widget class names across ParaView builds */
QVTKOpenGLNativeWidget QToolBar,
QVTKOpenGLWidget QToolBar,
pqQVTKWidget QToolBar {
qproperty-iconSize: 14px;
}
/* Tighten padding on those smaller buttons */
QVTKOpenGLNativeWidget QToolBar QToolButton,
QVTKOpenGLWidget QToolBar QToolButton,
pqQVTKWidget QToolBar QToolButton {
padding: 2px;
}
/* (Optional) smaller dock titlebar buttons */
QDockWidget::close-button, QDockWidget::float-button { icon-size: 10px; }
```
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2025, 7:06am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/9 "2025-09-17T07:06:33Z")
Thanks for sharing, I’ll try it out.
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### Author:  [@s1291](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/s1291)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-mode-in-6-0/17181/10 "2026-04-03T13:08:20Z")
The cleanest solution is to create an environment variable as explained here: [6.1: how to get rid of the dark theme? - #13 by Eastwave](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/6-1-how-to-get-rid-of-the-dark-theme/17280/13)