Appearance and themes

Every appearance setting lives in Settings → Appearance. Saved themes are a section at the bottom of the same panel.

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Theme

Match your Mac, or pick one yourself: System, Light, or Dark. System follows your macOS appearance and switches automatically when it changes.

Accent color

Used for the cursor, active state, and unread dot. Four built-in accents are available:

• Edge — #C8412E. Scratch’s default.
• Anodized — #1F6B5C. Deep green.
• Cobalt — #2C5C8A. Cool blue.
• Brass — #B8842C. Warm gold.

Need a specific color? Type any six-digit hex value (e.g. #3a6f8c) into the hex field next to the swatches.

Spacing

How much room between lines and edges in the editor. Three presets:

• Compact — tightest. More text per screen.
• Cozy — the default.
• Comfortable — most breathing room.

Spacing changes the room around lines, not the size of text. Adjust font size in Settings → Editor.

Cursor

• Cursor shape — line, block, or underline.
• Cursor blink — on or off. Off when Reduce Motion is on in System Settings.

Fade between buffers

Off by default. When on, Scratch fades when you switch buffers. Turn off for instant switches.

Themes

A theme is every appearance setting saved under a name. Pick a built-in theme, or save your current setup as your own.

Built-in themes

Five ship with Scratch:

• Bone — brand default. Light, Edge accent, cozy, line cursor.
• Slate — dark, same Edge accent.
• Tungsten — dark, muted accent (#6B6B66), comfortable spacing, cursor doesn’t blink.
• Edge — light, compact spacing, block cursor.
• Midnight — near-black with a blue accent (#4D85B8), comfortable spacing.

Your themes

Use Save current as theme to capture whatever you have set right now under a new name. From the Your themes list you can:

• Apply a theme — overwrites your current appearance settings with the theme’s values.
• Delete any custom theme. Built-in themes can’t be deleted.

Themes only cover appearance. They don’t change shortcuts, general settings, or privacy.