Well, it follows the text color of your theme, and so do your icons which are also barely readable and they don't even have a shadow. If you have a transparent surface chances are text might be unreadable...

I'm not going to add an option to the applet, but making the theming system handle this better might be a valid request. VDG please chime in.

Also adding Marco since he worked a lot on theming lately.

The text colour should always (or per default) follow the colour theme in Breeze and themes that want this. Since there already exists an option in desktop theme to follow or NOT follow the colour of text set by colour theme, this is a non issue. (Change theme to Oxygen, change to some coloured text for the colour theme and observe that the theme does NOT change colour of text). So the choice to follow the text colour was made by MX Themes creator. 

In the above screenshot I notice the text in the taskmanager is far more readable than the icons and clock text in the chosen colour theme. To be honest testing it on my own using Gimp to change colours of text I notice that "white" (or #FCFCFC) is probably the best option there and I am slightly curious to know what colour you think would fit better and be more readable? Trying Magenta for example just hides it. 

My suggestion for fix would be to 1) edit the theme and hardcode the colour of the widget text. 2) change colour of "Window Text" slightly to better fit your needs 3) Change the font used for Taskmanager to something bigger and bolder to make it more readable no matter what colour 4) Change wallpaper 5) Change the theme to not allow transparent widgets in certain cases, like the taskmanager.

I simply dont see an elegant solution which only goal is, in practice, to fix one broken theme.

@ Jens Reuterberg:
> The text colour should always (or per default) follow the colour theme in Breeze and themes that want this.

Even if the choice to follow the text color was made by MX Themes creator I don't want to be dependent on it. I want to be able to download a theme from kde-look and be able to modify to my preference. And for this I need to have options and options must be described in techbase guidelines. I gave it only as an example but during a next few years period of Plasma 5 existence (until Plasma 6) I will change themes and wallpapers dozens of times. So, don't focus on this particular example. I could easily find an example of  wallpaper that is white and make text in task manager with this theme become invisible. Now I am forced to match wallpaper to theme. And that's the problem. I want to be able to adjust text of task manager every time I change wallpaper, and that may be whenever I want, even every week. Again don't focus on this particular wallpaper but understand the problem of lack of options.

 > Since there already exists an option in desktop theme to follow or NOT follow the colour of text set by colour theme, this is a non issue. (Change theme to Oxygen, change to some coloured text for the colour theme and observe that the theme does NOT change colour of text). So the choice to follow the text colour was made by MX Themes creator. 

This is not the same as set color for task manager text independent from theme, widget color or whatever. What if I change this theme so that it doesn't follow the color of text set by color theme. What color  would task manager follow then and why it is not clearly explained in techbase guidelines?

> My suggestion for fix would be to 1) edit the theme and hardcode the colour of the widget text. 2) change colour of "Window Text" slightly to better fit your needs 3) Change the font used for Task manager to something bigger and bolder to make it more readable no matter what colour 4) Change wallpaper 5) Change the theme to not allow transparent widgets in certain cases, like the task manager.

As a user I don't want to be dependent on what theme author finds looks good or what is your opinion about what looks good or bad. I don't want to change widget text because for other widgets it may suit me fine. 

> I simply don't see an elegant solution which only goal is, in practice, to fix one broken theme.

What if I want to use other themes that are made the same? Well, that's  hypothetical question, I have not checked every theme.

I don't understand what you mean by elegant solution. I need an easy solution. If this theme is broken I don't want to be forced to beg theme author to fix it. I want to be able to do it myself in the easiest possible way, which is adjust color of text of task manager. 

What I request is options in configuration file and an easy to understand description in techbase so that every user can download theme from kde-look and adjust it to his/her preference or even mix different elements from different themes (for example to mix icons).

> Even if the choice to follow the text color was made by MX Themes creator I
> don't want to be dependent on it. I want to be able to download a theme from
> kde-look and be able to modify to my preference.

Chances are this will not happen though. There are plans for a theme creator but this is currently on ice as plans to ensure Plasma 5.8 as an LTS are underfoot - and stability/polish, instead of features, are more relevant to work on. Such a thing would be something packaged within the Plasma-sdk package and allow for an easier way to sort SVG's etc to ensure simplicity (sort of like Theme Explorer in the Plasma-sdk package which I implore you to check out)
Essentially if you make a theme which says "Make all backgrounds in widgets bright pink", someone downloads your theme and use it - its very tricky for us to "fix problem with all this bright pink" except suggest that that person contact the theme creator.

> This is not the same as set color for task manager text independent from
> theme, widget color or whatever. What if I change this theme so that it
> doesn't follow the color of text set by color theme. What color  would task
> manager follow then and why it is not clearly explained in techbase
> guidelines?

It follows the Window theme colour. Edit the Window Text Colour in Colour settings. This will affect ALL text in the window theme though so the solution isn't optimal.

> What if I want to use other themes that are made the same? Well, that's 
> hypothetical question, I have not checked every theme.
Then you wont be able to see the text as well as you would prefer.

> I don't understand what you mean by elegant solution. 
A way where the solution for a fringe issue isn't impeding more common use cases. A solution where simplicity is part of it. If you can't marry these two into a solution, the solution isn't elegant and as the choice then is "hurt the majority" or "hurt the minority" the choice is obvious. ("The need of the many outweigh the need of the few" to quote Mr Spock)

> What I request is options in configuration file and an easy to understand
> description in techbase so that every user can download theme from kde-look
> and adjust it to his/her preference or even mix different elements from
> different themes (for example to mix icons).
That is impossible to do. Theming in Plasma is extremely flexible from a theme creators POV and the attempt to have a mix-and-match setting was underwhelming and buggy. Hence it was removed - if a theme editor is created in the future, hopefully that will work to cover your needs too. 
Until then, you have to either 
1) edit the theme yourself using for example "Theme Explorer", 
2) ask the creator to make a theme with hardcoded text colours for different elements,
3) change wallpaper, 
4) change the colour of the Window Text, 
5) Change font to something more readable 
6) Swap to a different theme
7) Hang in there and hope for some dev to create a theme editor from scratch that covers your needs.

Now I am not the end decider, but I was asked in here as someone representing the VDG - and from our POV unless an elegant solution presents itself, with a dev attached that can create this solution, there simply isn't anything that CAN be done except suggest the above fixes to your issue.
As for an easier to understand techbase documentation (or more extensive) and easier to understand RC files - I can only agree and I wish I could say "a theme creator coming right up" - but that would just be lying to you. We want to create a better theming system for the future, sketches exist, but so far thats as far as we can get. The dev for the taskmanager has stated that he can't add this new feature to the taskmanager so that avenue is closed too leaving you with the seven options above to fix your issue.

So after digging around I found that MX theme DO have a colour file, so it sets its own colours. Now in the colour file you can edit [colors:window] and ForegroundNormal to change colour theme of the taskmanager. With that parts of the theme change as well like the clock - but that you can change back by defining it in [colors:view]

(In reply to Jens Reuterberg from comment #7)
> So after digging around I found that MX theme DO have a colour file, so it
> sets its own colours. Now in the colour file you can edit [colors:window]
> and ForegroundNormal to change colour theme of the taskmanager. With that
> parts of the theme change as well like the clock - but that you can change
> back by defining it in [colors:view]

Sry that doesnt set clock colour so I guess you have to use the same for all those.

It's simpler than that:

run Plasma Theme Rxplorer

Click new

Click "edit colors"

In system settings select your new customised theme

I edited it but with some colors text gets blurred 
http://i.imgur.com/2g8lELe.jpg
How can I make it looks sharp?
Another example. Looks like there is a white shadow around font. 
http://i.imgur.com/K4K9r38.jpg
I don't know which element in Plasma Theme Explorer is responsible for this because I don't know what values from these options match the actual element that I can see on desktop
https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/126089/file/2552/
Would be great to have kind of tutorial on one of kde sites  that would show based on example of Breeze with screenshots. That request I address to visual design team.

The blurry text with shadow is a Task Manager speciality and will be fixed in Plasma 5.8 at which point it uses the same fint rendering as eg. the clock.

Created attachment 101199 [details]
fixed

It looks great now with transparent panel. A big thank you.

Is there anything for us to do here, or can we close this?

It's closable.