Please officially improve the style and color of the interface. The current interface is too dark

Would it be much trouble to ask you for the RGB values of the theme?

It could be done, but prone to error (trying to copy each value), maybe it’s easier to share the preset? It goes in

%AppData%\Steinberg\Cubase 12_64\Presets\Configurations

Light Theme.xml (5.0 KB)

Note – the preset includes the settings other than RGB that affect the color tone of the track headers:

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They have changed and I am pretty sure they will continue listening to the userbase.
When I remember back from Cubase version 8-10 (or even 11) you really got a feeling, that nobody is listening.
But lately that has completely changed. The answer much faster to issues and reports, to a point where I think its nearly as good as it gets, if you count how many support tickets are getting opened.
Also all the new feature requests people are requesting for years and lately they implemented a lot of them. Therefore I am pretty sure Steinberg will not lose a big portion of its base.
There is still room for improvement, my personal list of reports and FRs contains about 10 things, but they are on the right way!

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Thank you very much for sharing the whole pref file! Switching back and forth now and checking differences.

The main color is the same I’m currently using. (108,108,108)

The background in your light theme is pure white (254,254,254) and I would love to work with a pure white background! But only if I could bring the main color up as well, because the contrast between the zones and the project window becomes too much with the all white background. (Plus I would need to use a very dark color for cycle regions because automation would then be hard to see.)

Right now I’m using this:

Lightish Theme.xml (45.7 KB)

Which is the best I could do, so that automation data is fairly visible when locators are set. I also have max saturation going on for the tracks because I use a large palette (many colors for PLE purposes) and I can’t tell the hues apart easily otherwise.

But now I see that it’s not just as easy as allowing values over 108 for the main theme. There’s a lot going on. Color strength of events compared to automation lane data and track headers, transparent events, outlines, fade handles. Many variables to balance against each other. It’s like an N-body problem. :grin: By no means an easy task. (Unless the solution is to unload all the variables on us and leave us to sort it out. A million sliders for everything!)

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TBH I’m cool with the default dark theme. That said I can understand about the need for lighter theme as a matter of preference.

In my case both my “far” screen and the “close” pc monitors are very detailed, I don’t have the feeling that I am missing something or so.

I believe that screens do make a difference.
FWIW I use a 50" Samsung QLED for the big one and 2 Asus touchscreens close to me. So they are kind of quality screens.

I would advise everyone for a quality screen. One of those things that are our primary tools so we don’t get ourselves strained when working many hours. Same for chair, keyboard, mouse, etc.

Everything is subjective, personally I love dark themes, I feel that they help and take better care of my eyesight, I would like to be able to customize many colors but well so far I am very satisfied, regards

Yeah the macro Hue/Color customization doesn’t always work holistically. I have shared my ideas on GUI design and aesthetics before…many times, and am hopeful that things will surely improve in the near future.

Steinberg you need to see how color changed realised in Studio One
This ir really simple and get users many variations with colors.
I hate dark colors but your vision with GUI really strange

My topic was locked because moderators didn’t like “multiple topic of same topic”: Cubase 12 light theme
It’s ok, I can also accept the fact that there are those who prefer dark over light theme, personal tastes are not discussed.

But, what I really find disappointing is this trend of doing everything dark not caring about those few people who need light theme not as a matter of taste but for the health of eyes and to avoid a bad (and true) headache.

“Yes who care. We’re still selling millions of license over the world”. Right? :neutral_face:

And we’re not just talking about Steinberg because this trend concerns a lot of software house out there but still, I find it hard to believe that a serious and high-level company with dozens of senior programmers and hundreds of millions of budgets do not want, by choice, change 2 colors.
This really hurt me

This topic, here, is where the discussion is ongoing about your feature request.

Be sure to vote for this request so the developers register your support for it.

No one has said this, of course.

Indeed there are no problems with that

… publicly*
Otherwise why would we still be here (after years) talking about the same problem?

Dark theme (white lettering on black background) → burning eyes and headache

That’s simple. You don’t need an MBA to understand it but a little common sense is enough to accept it and avoid it since your user base is… worldwide?

Well this is just rhetoric, we can sit here and talk about it for days. As long as the software house do not change course it will be useless and people like me will not be able to follow their passion

This is a valid feature request, but if dark interfaces are a consistent problem for you, then you should probably consider changing your monitor’s settings.

No two monitors are identical, even if they come from the same factory. I don’t know if Apple does something about it, but on Windows the default settings are rarely perfectly ideal. That’s why calibration tools are still a thing.

I sometimes work at night without any light in room and for me this is battle with Cubase. I close and go to S1 … this is my solution, but when day all not all bad, but sweet themes 100% need to be added.
I’m trying also edit .xml file but this is also not great solution

What about Key Editor background? I hope that Steinberg will add more color options like “contrast” for the white and black keys
Or give us the ability to choose the color of black and white keys each separately
Modify the Key Editor background color currently uncomfortable, whether in light or dark colors, No dynamic at all.

I must admit. I am also an “old-timer” and very disappointed that there is no care for people who simply want to use a white background, and when one does that by the color scheme, can’t really see anything, because the new Cubase has been programmed to only work when in dark mode.

Guys seriously, sort this out…

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Personally I prefer dark themes, it allows me to focus on the important stuff rather than all the peripherals. Light themes just hurt my eyes, everything looks like everything else. I work with sliders, knobs, text, numbers, waveforms, etc. not fluffy cloud backgrounds. But with that said everyone is different and perhaps a seperate theme maker would be a welcome addition?

Bill

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Well said, I agree completely.
There must be a choice of light and dark themes.

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i found biggest pain with cubase interface - Windows header.
When we match windows header with cubase color scheme - everyting looks awesome

mine

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Can we have a truly black option? - I’m dissapointed that Cubase won’t go as Dark as my Windows Dark theme. The Windows inactive title bar hack is annoying as well. Just implement proper Dark Mode - and Light mode for the people that prefer it :slight_smile:

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I just bought Cubase 12, and was immediately disappointed by the lack of light color themes.