How to: Change Fonts and Colors in Visual Studio

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Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

You can customize the color of the IDE frame and tool windows in Visual Studio in several ways.

Tip

For information about how to change the colors of the code editor, see How to: Change Fonts and Colors in the Editor.

Change the Color Theme of the IDE

  1. On the menu bar, choose Tools, Options.

  2. In the options list, choose Environment, General.

  3. In the Color theme list, choose either the default Blue theme, Dark or Light.

    Important

    When you change a color theme, text in the IDE reverts to the default or previously customized fonts and sizes.

    If you have Visual Studio Professional, Visual Studio Premium, or Visual Studio Ultimate, you can install additional predefined color themes and create your own by downloading and installing the Visual Studio 2013 Color Theme Editor.

Use Windows High Contrast Colors

  • Choose the Left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen keys.

    Warning

    This option sets high contrast for all applications and UI on the current computer.

Change IDE Fonts

You can change the font and text size for all windows and dialog boxes in the IDE. You can choose to customize only certain windows and other text elements.

To change the font and size of all text in the IDE

  1. On the menu bar, choose Tools, Options.

  2. In the options list, choose Environment, Fonts and Colors.

  3. In the Show settings for list, choose Environment Font.

    Tip

    If you want to change the font for tool windows only, in the Show settings for list, choose [All Text Tool Windows].

  4. In the Font list, choose a font.

  5. In the Size list, choose a text size, and then choose the OK button.

See Also

Accessibility Features of Visual Studio How to: Change Fonts and Colors in the Editor