How to Change Spyder Editor Background to Dark

This guide was originally published over on Saint. For the latest updates, changes and useful reader comments, you may check out the other guide.

Installed your newly minted Spyder IDE but wondering how to customize it to a sleek, relaxing dark mode? 🌙

Great! Then you’ve come to the right place.

In this 3-minute guide, we will show you how to get dark mode on Spyder IDE (Windows and Mac) as well as address any of your concerns and update you with the latest changes to the dark theme on Anaconda’s Spyder IDE.

Let’s jump right in.

How to Get Dark Mode for Spyder IDE on Windows: 3 Steps

Step 1: Once you have your Spyder opened, from the top menu select Tools and then click on Preferences.

Step 2: Next, click on Syntax Coloring. Under here you have quite a few options to choose from and not just the dark mode version “Spyder Dark”.

Besides Spyder Dark mode, you have a wide assortment of options:

• Emacs

• IDLE

• Monokai

• PyDev

• Scintilla

• Solarized Dark

• Solarized Light

• Spyder
  Well… you know how this one looks. So I’m going to skip this.
• Spyder Dark

• Zenburn

Step 3: Lastly, make sure to hit Apply to have the changes take effects… and you’re done!

Note
If you’re on Spyder version 2.3, the dark mode option can be accessed as follows:

Tools > Preferences > Editor > Syntax Color

If you’re using a Mac, the steps are as shown below.

How to Get Dark Mode for Spyder IDE on Mac: 3 Steps

Step 1: Click on Python form the top-right hand corner and then from the dropdown list, choose Preferences.

Step 2: Next, click on Syntax Coloring and you can then choose the Scheme that you want.

Wait, hollup, how do I make Sypder use the dark theme for the entire interface? 🧐

One of the most requested features was that for the dark mode to fully apply the theme over the entire interface (since the top menu still remains as the light theme).

Thankfully, we will be getting the full dark theme mode interface with the release of the Spyder 4 version which has been stated by a Spyder maintainer over at Stack Overflow for release in late 2019.

Until then you may try and have a go at the Sypder 4 beta version by using the instructions provided here. Just take note that using a beta version of an IDE is prone to having bugs and hiccups along the way.

This update was provided by Carlos Córdoba, Spyder maintainer who first mentioned it over at Stack Overflow.

If you have other questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Originally published at https://www.saintlad.com on October 22, 2019.