Visibility issues in the Metadata panel of Zotero 7

rufftuffcluff · 2025-12-13T19:09:20+00:00

I've been using Zotero for around 15 years and I'm really grateful for such a professional app. My general approach to things is 'stick with it if it ain't broke'. But after frequent prompts to upgrade, I finally upgraded from Version 6 to Version 7.0.24. My eyesight is not so good these days and the light grey colour of the field names in the metadata panel does not provide enough contrast for me to see them clearly. I also have a problem seeing the icons in the panel to the right of the metadata panel. This applies to both light and dark (my preferred) themes. I should add that I am using Linux (Debian Bookworm) with the KDE Plasma desktop. So my question is, is there a hidden setting somewhere that I can tweak to provide better contrast?

dstillman · 2025-12-16T15:24:34+00:00

Can you provide a screenshot of what you're seeing?

I assume you know you can increase the interface font size from the View menu?

rufftuffcluff · 2025-12-17T11:18:42+00:00

Thank you for the quick response. Yes, I know how to change the interface font. The problem is the lack of contrast between the font colour and the background, or the icons and the background in the areas bounded by a red box on the right side of the screenshot below. For me, simple monochrome (i.e. black on white or white on black) would be far more visible than that shown in the screenshot. So, I guess the question is, is there some hidden setting that I can tweak that will allow the text or images in the red boxes to be displayed in monochrome.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u19139707/7oazibqv5bvjt2kfx7uh.jpg

dstillman · 2025-12-17T16:03:31+00:00

There are currently no settings within Zotero to control this, but a few things:

1) You can try Light mode, in case that helps.

2) A plugin could alter the default styling, though I'm not aware of any existing ones that affect this.

3) Your OS may have an option to increase contrast system-wide. (E.g., macOS has a setting for this.)

4) Firefox, on which Zotero is based, does have a Contrast Control setting, accessible in the Zotero Config Editor via the browser.display.document_color_use setting, but that only affects the reader, not the rest of the UI. It's also pretty stark — it just limits the colors used altogether. An OS setting could better preserve the actual design while just affecting contrast.

rufftuffcluff · 2025-12-22T13:59:32+00:00

Thank you dstillman for your feedback and suggestions. I find light mode even more difficult to see and I have already tuned all the settings in the Plasma desktop to maximize visibility for all apps - but that doesn't solve my issue. As I don't sync online and these days I'm not a power user, I think I'll just stay with Zotero 6.
Thank you for your help and a great application.