Look & Feel

A Java Look & Feel affects the colors/style (look) of the entire program as well as some of the behavior/shortcuts (feel). Various different Look & Feel can be selected in the Settings under "Look" (additional chat-specific customization is possible on some subpages such as "Chat Colors" or "Font").

Note: Changing Look & Feel properties can cause some slight GUI issues, so a restart of Chatty is recommended to complete your changes.

Native Window

Some Look & Feel will not provide a styled window, but will instead let the current window manager provide the titlebar/frame of the window. Using the native style window has the advantage that features such as window snapping and window management may work better.

For Look & Feel other than "Default" and "System", you have to enable the native window setting under "Look" (or /set lafNativeWindow on) in order to use the native window. Restart Chatty after changing.

The colors of the native window may depend on the OS.

How to set window colors in Windows 10

The native window color in Windows 10 may be just white, even in dark mode, unless you change some settings.

Open your start menu and search for "accent color", select "Choose your accent color".

Screenshot of the start menu with Choose your accent color search result

Tick the "Title bars and window borders" option at the bottom.

Screenshot of the setting to enable

This will apply the accent color only for active windows. You can set the inactive window color through the registry, for example by downloading and executing one of the following files: Blue/Gray or Dark/Dark (These set both the active and inactive color, although it seems the active one may be overwritten by the regular accent color setting, so you may need to set that one normally.)

Log out of Windows and back in (or restart) in case the colors don't immediately apply.

Custom Properties

The JTattoo Look & Feel (HiFi, Noire, Minte, Graphite, Aero, Fast, Luna) allow you to use these properties, which overwrite their default values. There are also a few properties that can have an effect in every Look & Feel. They can be changed using setting commands:

Tip: Enter /set lafc + TAB to autocomplete setting name.

The following list may not contain all properties. Some more may be listed here, although that list is likely also not complete. Chatty also has some new properties added.

Not all properties work the same for all Look & Feel and the documentation on that isn't complete, so you'll just have to try around a bit.

Window Properties
windowTitleForegroundColor text Active window title
windowTitleBackgroundColor bg Fast only?
windowTitleColor[Light/Dark] bg Active window title/Dark for window frame
windowInactiveTitleForegroundColor text Inactive window title
windowInactiveTitleBackgroundColor bg Fast only?
windowInactiveTitleColor[Light/Dark] bg Inactive window title/Dark for window frame
windowIconColor fg Window icons (minimize/close/..)
windowIconShadowColor fg ^ Shadow
windowIconRolloverColor fg ^ Mouseover
windowBorderColor border Outer (active) window border
windowInactiveBorderColor border Outer (inactive) window border
windowInnerBorderColor border Inner (active) window border, defaults to windowTitleColorDark HiFi/Noire only
windowInactiveInnerBorderColor border Inner (inactive) window border, defaults to windowInactiveTitleColorDark HiFi/Noire only
General Properties
foregroundColor text Most text
backgroundColor bg Many backgrounds
frameColor fg Some frames around GUI elements (like scrollpane, edit box)
frameColor2 fg ^ Secondary color (bottom/right), if applicable
controlForegroundColor fg Various GUI elements (e.g. tabs)
controlColor[Light/Dark] bg ^
controlHighlightColor fg Table header?
controlShadowColor fg Table header?
controlDarkShadowColor fg Tabs Shadow/outline
inactiveColor[Light/Dark] bg ^ When inactive window
disabledBackgroundColor bg For disabled GUI elements ("greyed out")
disabledForegrundColor text ^
focusColor fg Focused GUI element dashed line (like button)
focusCellColor fg Focused Tree item border
gridColor fg Table grid
tabSelectionForegroundColor text Selected tab
textShadow fg on/off
Menu Properties
menuForegroundColor text Menu/Context Menu
menuBackgroundColor bg ^
menuColor[Light/Dark] bg Not for HiFi/Noire
menuSelectionForegroundColor text Menu/Context Menu mouseover
menuSelectionBackgroundColor bg ^
menuSelectionBackgroundColor[Light/Dark] bg Graphite
Button Properties
buttonForegroundColor text Button
buttonColor[Light/Dark] bg Button
rolloverForegroundColor text Button/Tab mouseover HiFi/Noire not for Tab
rolloverColor[Light/Dark] bg Button/Tab mouseover
pressedForegroundColor text Button pressed
pressedBackgroundColor[Light/Dark] bg Button pressed
Input Properties
inputForegroundColor text Input like textfields, comboboxes, lists..
inputBackgroundColor bg ^
selectionForegroundColor text Selected text/list entries
selectionBackgroundColor bg ^
selectionBackgroundColor[Light/Dark] bg Selected tab
(Note: The chat inputbox colors are changed in the "Chat Colors" settings)
Tooltip Properties
tooltipForegroundColor text Tooltips
tooltipBackgroundColor bg ^
tooltipShadowSize number
tooltipCastShadow on/off
tooltipBorderSize number
Other Properties
windowDecoration When set to "off" it disables the custom styled windows and uses native windows instead, on/off
macStyleWindowDecoration on/off
macStyleScrollBar More minimalistic scrollbar, on/off
linuxStyleScrollBar on/off
centerWindowTitle on/off
menuOpaque Non-transparent menus, on/off
tabSeparatorStyle Style of the separator between the tabs and content, a single number (0-8, 0 default) HiFi/Noire only
drawSquareButtons Don't draw rounded buttons Not all LaF
flatColors Use some inactive window colors for the Noir Look&Feel, on/off
provideErrorFeedback When set to "off" it won't play an error sound for some invalid actions (e.g. backspacing on an empty input field), on/off
Chatty Properties (any Look & Feel)
cTabForegroundHighlight text Tab color when a message was highlighted in the channel
cTabForegroundUnread text Tab color when messages have been received since last having it open
cInputBorder border The border around the chat inputbox (e.g. border(1,255 0 0) for a red border)
Not used in Chatty or not sure what it is
tabAreaBackgroundColor
toolbarForegroundColor
toolbarBackgroundColor
toolbarColorLight
toolbarColorDark
desktopColor