Hi,
A minor annoyance, but maybe not less than the wrong colored light bulb or incense in the studio — can the background color, around the score, be customized? That delicate blue is nice and good, but makes me feel too good, and prevents me from writing aggressive and dissonant brass+percussion passages. I feel too relaxed when working in Dorico! It would be great if I could change it to something like bloody red when needed…
Paolo
It cannot be changed at the moment, but we do plan to provide control over the various colours Dorico uses in future. I can’t say when for sure at this point.
Thank you Daniel. It will be nice not to be nice (at least with color choice)!
Paolo
I agree. The blue is very nice but it is distracting me from the score. The option to choose a colour from a palette would be a smart move. A grey colour would be perfect for me.
+1. I really hate the blue that is used around the score pages. Very distracting. I would much rather you guys make it a more neutral color like grey until you can provide complete customizability
Thanks for the feedback, but we have no plans to change the default gradient at the moment.
As the original poster, may I say that I’m happy with the current background color? It’s not disturbing, and it is Dorico’s color. I appreciate that we can now work with either a light or dark UI, and this can let everyone feel at home with the workplace.
Paolo
I complained about the darker canvas for a week, and then promptly forgot about it. 
I had a wise professor who was fond of saying, “People don’t know what they like; they like what they know.”
Similar to a saying of one of my mentors (who claimed it was a quote from his 12-year-old daughter:) “I don’t like mushrooms, I’ve never eaten them”.
How often do I hear that from people talking about opera ? « You’re an opera singer ? Well, I confess I don’t like opera. And by the way, I’ve never been to the opera… »
I invited my sister and her husband (who is a young, very talented mathematician with two doctor titles…) to a Handel opera performance (of about 3 1/2 hours). My brother in law had never in his life been to an opera performance. So I asked him afterwards wether he liked it. His answer, he liked and enjoyed it very much, and are there also operas that last a bit shorter?..
Some UI elements are hard to get accustomed to. Take the old Microsoft UI, with all those menu strips, and the childish icons. It was made for an anti-creative crowd, and was quite offensive for creative artists. It was not possible to get accustomed to (I never did, after years working on it). Not strange that there were so many jokes on it.
In this case, the infringement of Apple UI conventions is in any case done with good taste. As in Adobe programs, you enter a different environment, but it is a nice one. The background color has character, calls for attention, but is not harsh and distracting. So, getting accustomed is easy.
Paolo
Exactly ptram. In this aspect Dorico is shining compared to its ugly ancestor Sibelius 
Hello, I created an account here just so I could share my thoughts on this, because it is not a minor annoyance for me. I purchased Dorico 3 in September. I had been waiting for version 3 for quite some time until I pulled the trigger and was ready to make the switch from Finale. Unfortunately I CANNOT STAND the horrible blue background color! I expected Dorico 3 to have the option to change it. I have synesthesia and I am sensitive to colors as they can trigger unwanted thoughts. Right now the blue reminds me of a weird chemical smell of a plastic, the scent of Loctite or epoxy comes to my mind whenever I see it. The option of customizing the background color would substantially improve my workflow. As of now the UI is consuming too much of my thoughts and energy and I had to return to Finale to be productive without the distraction of the horrible blue. Also why can’t we change it from a gradient to a solid? Or at least just a neutral color. Imagine having to work on a bright blue desk.
After various frustrations with the messiness of Finale while composing for small ensembles over the past few months, I decided to give Dorico another shot.I updated Dorico to the latest version, once again hoping for this option to be implemented and I am once again saddened by the blue color. Please reconsider allowing us this customizability in the near future. Thank you.
Thanks for your feedback, augustfey. We’ll certainly take it into consideration.
Augustfay, I don’t know which operating system you use, but FWIW in OSX it’s possible to set your monitor to filter certain colours, and I can imagine that Windows has a similar function. I just tried loading Dorico and then cycling through the monitor colour profiles and several of them change the background colours considerably. You can also make your own custom calibration which could tackle that specific range of colours. Perhaps that’s worth a try.
Color scheme customization would indeed be a most welcome feature, most of all because of that abrasive background gradient — as others have also expressed ever since Dorico 3 came out. It would be great to have the vintage Dorico color scheme as an option in there too, Dorico 1 and 2 are mightly good looking and kind on the eye.
Dorico 4 - For some reason I can’t change the background colors in Engrave Mode (Preferences > View > Background Colors). The preset ‘custom’ is grayed out. Works fine in D3.5