CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaintellij-idealook-and-feel
Zain Syed
Zain Syed

Reputation: 463

IDE - Add Custom Look and Feel to Intellij IDEA 11

I'd like to use custom Look and Feel's for IntelliJ IDEA (for the IDE itself). I've tried adding the L&F .jar to the libs directory in the IDEA installation folder, as well as in my {java_home}\libs\ext, and specifying the Look and Feel in {user}.IntelliJIdea11\config\options\options.xml, under the LAFManager component, and it would only revert to the default Alloy: IDEA theme.

Can this be accomplished? Or can I add themes to the selection drop down in the IDEA Appearance settings panel?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 2125

Answers (1)

Javaru
Javaru

Reputation: 31926

You basically have two choices:

  1. Go into the "Color & Fonts" settings and tweak them to your liking. Of course, this really won't be a look & feel change. You can only tweak the editor panel and not the rest of the IDE.
  2. Write a plug-in to add a new LAF. Keep in mind this is a lot of work. It took the JetBrains team a year to develop the Darcula L&F and that was with dedicated graphic artists to create a whole suite of icons and recommend color combinations. Since the IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition is open source, you could use that source code to develop your plug-in. I'm pretty sure Darcula is available in the community edition.

In the end, I think your best bet is to spring for a personal license of IDEA 14 if your company won't pay for an upgrade. At $99, that's about 40 cents a day for a year. Well worth it. And with the new subscription model, a license purchased now (good for 1 year of upgrades) will (most likely) be active when IntelliJ IDEA v15 is released assuming the typical late-November/early-December release time frame.

Upvotes: 2

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