This is a feature request. Many applications these days value the benefit that comes from the ability to switch between light and dark modes. Would be nice, if Dolphin could do this too! ... Preferably usable with a shortcut too. Best IMO would be to let the user decide, what themes (from the system-settings-themes) to choose for both.
To clarify, your feature request is to add an ability to select themes on a per-app basis? Because you can already select a theme from Plasma settings, and you can already switch between light and dark system-wide.
(In reply to Kat Pavlu from comment #1) > To clarify, your feature request is to add an ability to select themes on a > per-app basis? Yes, exactly! ... Several apps have this. The reason is, that in the evening with lower light, a darker theme is better. ... But I would not want to change it system-wide for all apps. That would be too drastic. IMO this makes only sense for those apps, that I work a lot with, since it takes quite some time and effort to get used to a different theme.
Alright. Unfortunately as far as I understand this might be difficult to accomplish due to how the theming backend works.
It's not very hard at all, actually. It just needs someone to implement the color scheme chooser menu for Dolphin. A few apps already have it, like Kate, Konsole, Krita, and Elisa.
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #4) > It's not very hard at all, actually. It just needs someone to implement the > color scheme chooser menu for Dolphin. A few apps already have it, like > Kate, Konsole, Krita, and Elisa. Wow, that sounds promising! :-) Right now I restart Dolphin with a different kdeglobals in a separate config folder: export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/home/.config_dolphin_dark export XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share:/usr/local/share; dolphin But it has some drawbacks. Especially, that all the child-processes now look for their configs there too.
PS: With "child-processes" I meant the apps Dolphin uses to open all the different types of files. Another drawback: the current session gets lost. Tabs, etc. ...
PPS: I solved the issue with the lost session by 1. setting Dolphin to remember the last session on startup and 2. with each theme-switch copying the /.config/session/dolphin_dolphin_dolphin over from one config to the other. Just in case someone else, like me, doesn't want to wait until the color scheme chooser is implemented in Dolphin.
Git commit 9142bae92949a4929655b99ce4124e44380da43c by Méven Car, on behalf of Kostiantyn Korchuhanov. Committed on 13/08/2025 at 08:58. Pushed by meven into branch 'master'. Add a Window Color Scheme menu in the Configure menu The menu is located at Menu -> Configure -> Window color scheme Either in menu or hamburger mode. M +12 -0 src/dolphinmainwindow.cpp M +4 -1 src/dolphinui.rc M +4 -1 src/dolphinuiforphones.rc https://invent.kde.org/system/dolphin/-/commit/9142bae92949a4929655b99ce4124e44380da43c
Wow! ... Thank you so much Méven and Kostiantyn! I am very much looking forward to try this out! Dolphin is so beautiful already and getting more so all the time! :-) Thank you!