# Switch off dark theme (Linux)

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-theme-linux/17773
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [October 24, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-theme-linux/17773 "2026-10-24T13:10:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![TheBusyDev](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/thebusydev/32/17981_2.png) [@TheBusyDev](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/TheBusyDev)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2026, 1:10pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/switch-off-dark-theme-linux/17773/1 "2026-10-24T13:10:15Z")

</div>

I would like to suggest a workaround to [this feature request](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/add-an-option-to-toggle-between-dark-mode-and-light-mode/) for Linux.  
I am on KDE (with system-wide dark theme) and encountered some difficulties in switching off the dark theme in ParaView.  
The cleanest solution is to set up the following environment variables before launching ParaView GUI:

```bash
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=generic QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb /path/to/bin/paraview

```

or even better wrap everything into a `.desktop` entry:

```auto
# Located e.g. at ~/.local/share/applications/paraview.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=ParaView
Comment=Parallel visualization application
Exec=QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=generic QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb /path/to/bin/paraview %f
Icon=paraview
StartupWMClass=paraview
Categories=Qt;Science;DataVisualization;

```

where you should replace `/path/to/bin/paraview` with the actual location of ParaView binary.