[SOLVED] Firefox update: colors washed out

[Don]

This is really about Firefox, but Mozilla seems to no answer for this. I'm now on version 108.0.1. With that update, suddenly everything that should be black is instead medium gray, on the toolbar, in the bookmarks menu, and on displayed pages. Two weird things about this: (1) on my Windows VM, Firefox still behaves normally. I suppose that's not surprising, since the Linux update shouldn't have touched the VM. (2) On Chrome, all the colors look as they should. Has anyone else encountered this in the last few days? There are lots of old net posts about similar difficulties reaching back at least to 2014, but none of them has a solution. (The ultimate solution may be abandoning Firefox for Chrome.)

[claydoh]

suddenly everything that should be black is instead medium gray, on the toolbar, in the bookmarks menu, and on displayed pages

Which elements? Maybe a screenshot is handy here. Outside of text, which parts should be black for you?
Sounds more a theming issue in FF?

[Don]

I did try different themes, but none solved the problem. You are correct (I should have been more precise); it is just the text. Screenshot annexed. Even before getting to the image, the menu bar, tab text, and bookmarks toolbar text are medium to light gray instead of black. In the image, the headlines appear as they should, but the text of the articles is also gray rather than black.

[claydoh]

I have no idea what is supposed to be black here. Things look fine to me. though obviously FF is using a different color theme, or switched the color scheme to something like Oxygen or something similar - the blue title bar and grey coloring to the application elements do look similar to this color scheme.

Here is a nearly stock Firefox on an unmodified 22.04, except for added bookmarks. No theming done in FF (or in Kubuntu/Plasma), no addons, etc. :



This is the stock Snap as provided by Mozilla/Ubuntu (just updated since yesterday to 108.2), but it looks exactly the same as my Firefox 108.2 via a PPA deb package in KDE neon on another machine.

What Theme are you using in FF, and/or which Plasma Style are you using in System Settings? Which color scheme is set in System Settings?
If you switched away from any of the Breeze options (or Kubuntu) in Plasma, your non-Plasma applications won't necessarily follow as Gtk application's don't follow Plasma themes. But Plasma created special Breeze themes for Gtk that keeps the Breeze look as much as possible for Gnome and Gtk based software.

[Don]

Sorry if you feel that I've wasted your time; that was not my intention. I am using a Breeze theme, but I've been using it for years. There is a distinct difference between what I now see on Firefox vs. the same page, side-by-side, on Chrome. (It may just be my eyes, in which case it's a good thing I'm seeing (so to speak) my ophthalmologist in about 90 minutes.) I can either learn to live with Faded Firefox or switch to Chrome. The odd thing is that other Ff users have described the same sort of phenomenon over the past 8 years or so. I'll keep horsing around with it, but I, too, am using the same stock Ff you are, I think, without themes or add-ons.

[claydoh]

Sorry if you feel that I've wasted your time; that was not my intention.

I do not feel this way, It is just difficult to see what you are seeing, which might help explain they what and whys.

Plus the FF screenshot in my last post went *poof* lol, I just fixed that.

The grey-ish text seems to me to be a decision on the part of NYT. It looks grey on my Chrome install as well, but a bit less so. Chrome is what websites are made to look best on, and FF often does render a little differently.
But IMO, the NYT example looks completely normal, and as expected, for the specific landing page shown.
For example. this page, a different front page, has all black text for me:
https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper
But I assume you are seeing this everywhere, not just NYT?

Your titlebar and application colors as seen on your FF are NOT Breeze, they are the Oxygen, or Oxygen-Cold, to get that blue colored titlebar, so this is why I ask what specific theming options you might have set. Not necessarily the Global Theme, but some of the individual components. The color scheme might have an effect on web page text, maybe? And of course FF has its own internal theme addons.

[arsivci]

I did try different themes, but none solved the problem. You are correct (I should have been more precise); it is just the text. Screenshot annexed. Even before getting to the image, the menu bar, tab text, and bookmarks toolbar text are medium to light gray instead of black. In the image, the headlines appear as they should, but the text of the articles is also gray rather than black.

NYT text colors come from their own styling. Nothing can be done unless you override in FF colors. Your menu colors are really washed out. Could you check Settings -> Appearance -> colors -> Oxygen Cold and verify text color is #141312? As a matter of fact, Oxygen Cold has the darkest text color among the themes (Breeze uses #232627).

[Don]

Thanks. I did install Oxygen Cold. The text color (apparently by default) is 141312. The larger problem with text color is on Firefox itself. The tab texts are gray, as are the descriptions on the bookmarks bar, which I always have showing. Curiously, the icons next to each description are nice and black.

[Don]

Mozilla does have an answer. There is now a colors extension, which allows the user full control over all the elements outside of the viewed web page itself.