title: Eclipse Theme - How to change the color of the main editor text
body: <p>To be clear, I am specifically looking for a way to change the text that is produced in the main editor as I am typing it (ie, it is black right now). For lack of a better term, I shall refer to this as 'typing text'. The version of Eclipse that I'm using is Kepler (4.3).</p>
  
  <p>The equivalent functionality can be achieved in Aptana by visiting:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Window =&gt; Preferences =&gt; General =&gt; Editors =&gt; Text Editors
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and changing the <code>Foreground Color</code></p>
  
  <p>Now, eclipse actually has this same setting, but it doesn't seem to do anything. It is possible that it is getting overridden by the styles applied through the Moonrise theme, which I found out about elsewhere on StackOverflow and have installed. </p>
  
  <p>I have determined that a lot of eclipse's fonts/colors/etc can be edited through the Moonrise CSS files, but have not been able to find a style that affects the typing text. </p>
  
  <p>So I am looking for any way to change the color of this so-called 'typing text' that is likely (but not limited) to be one of the following: </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>A setting in one of eclipse's many locations (See list below)</li>
  <li>Some MoonRise CSS tweak</li>
  <li>Some other CSS tweak that works (through MoonRise's CSS, I'd imagine)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>"Why?" You might ask?</strong> </p>
  
  <p>Imagine handwriting with a pen that used molten metal as ink that would dry in various colors as you completed words. That, but for code. Oh yes.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <h2><b>Editing Moonrise's CSS files:</b></h2>
  
  <p>Here is <a href="https://github.com/guari/eclipse-ui-theme" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Moonrise's page on GitHub</em></strong></a></p>
  
  <p>Or just install it directly through eclipse (as I did):</p>
  
  <pre><code>https://raw.github.com/guari/eclipse-ui-theme/master/com.github.eclipseuitheme.themes.updatesite
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>After installing Moonrise, go to:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Window =&gt; Preferences =&gt; General =&gt; Appearance
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and set the <code>Theme</code> to <code>MoonRise (standalone)</code></p>
  
  <p>Make a backup copy of, and open in WinRAR (or similar), the following JAR file (obviously, your version number may differ):</p>
  
  <pre><code>{pathToEclipse}eclipse/plugins/com.github.eclipseuitheme.themes.moonrise-ui_0.8.4.jar
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Open the file (inside the jar): </p>
  
  <pre><code>themes/css/moonrise-ui-standalone.css
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Then you can play around thusly:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Edit a CSS rule</li>
  <li>Save the file</li>
  <li>WinRAR will ask if you want to update the archive</li>
  <li>Ensure Eclipse is closed.</li>
  <li>Click WinRAR's <code>Yes</code> button.</li>
  <li>Open Eclipse</li>
  <li>Survey the damage</li>
  <li>Rinse, repeat.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <hr>
  
  <h2><b>Eclipse Color Locations</b>:</h2>
  
  <p>Since it is a serious pain keeping track of which color is where in the Eclipse Preferences, I made this list of all the sections in which there are color changing options. Note that various plugins and libraries will have their own sections included in Preferences. Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of those, but I do believe that it's an exhaustive list of the Eclipse ones. Please comment if you know any more not listed (besides some library/plug-in or another).</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>General => Appearance => Colors and Fonts</li>
  <li>General => Compare/Patch => Text Compare (tab)</li>
  <li>General => Editors => Structured Text Editors</li>
  <li>General => Editors => Text Editors</li>
  <li>General => Editors => Text Editors => Annotations </li>
  <li>General => Editors => Text Editors => Linked Mode </li>
  <li>General => Editors => Text Editors => Quick Diff </li>
  <li>General => Editors => Text Editors => WikiText</li>
  <li>General => Editors => Text Editors => WikiText => Appearance</li>
  <li>General => Search</li>
  <li>Java => Editor</li>
  <li>Java => Editor => Syntax Coloring</li>
  <li>Java => Properties Files Editors</li>
  <li>Mwe2 => Syntax Coloring</li>
  <li>Plug-in Development => Editors</li>
  <li>Run/Debug</li>
  <li>Run/Debug => Console</li>
  <li>XML => XML Files => Editor => Syntax Coloring</li>
  <li>Xtend => Syntax Coloring</li>
  <li>Xtext => Syntax Coloring</li>
  </ul>
  
  <hr>
  
  <h2><b>Solution:</b></h2>
  
  <p>After much searching, I've found a place to change the typing color. It turns out that the color can be changed through the Preferences window:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Eclipse =&gt; Window =&gt; Preferences =&gt; Java =&gt; Editor =&gt; Syntax Coloring =&gt; Element =&gt; Java =&gt; Others
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Additionally, a big piece of the puzzle that I was missing is the <code>Plug-In Selection Spy</code> which allows for determining the theming information about a specific UI element. It can be viewed by selecting a UI element and pressing <code>ALT+SHIFT+F1</code> </p>
  
  <p>This was brought to my attention in the answer that was accepted for this information and an explanation of why the <code>Foreground</code> color wasn't being applied.</p>
  
  <p>I then set out to learn more about this sacred tool and found <a href="http://www.vogella.com/articles/EclipseCodeAccess/article.html" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>this great tutorial</em></strong></a>, which I'll leave here for anyone else who has similar issues in the future.</p>