GREP Colors

Click the GREP Colors button on the Editors page in the Preferences dialog to customize the color palette that RegexBuddy uses for the results on the GREP panel.

GREP Colors

Color Palettes

Default light: The default color palette when the white theme is selected in the View menu. The palette’s plain text color uses the theme’s window text and background colors, which for the white theme are the default window text and background colors used by Windows itself. In Windows 7 you can change these colors in the Appearance section in the Windows Control Panel. Windows 10 and 11 don’t have these settings, but still allow the window colors to be changed by loading a Windows 7 theme or changing some registry keys.
Default dark: The default color palette when the dark or black theme is selected in the View menu. The palette’s plain text color uses the theme’s window text and background colors, which are white on dark gray for the dark theme and white on black for the black theme.
Silver: Same colors as the default light palette, but with black text on a silver background. This is easier on the eyes if your monitor has a very high brightness.
Gray: Same colors as the default dark palette, but with white text on a gray background that is not as dark as the dark gray used by the dark theme. The reduced contrast is easier on the eyes on monitors with very deep blacks.
JGsoft classic: The color scheme used on the GREP panel in RegexBuddy 1 and 2. The palette’s plain text color uses the theme’s window text and background colors. Only works well with the light theme. RegexBuddy 1 and 2 did not have any other themes.
Harmonized light: Uses shades of dark gray for plain text and shades of light gray for background and highlighting. Uses 12 colors that are equidistant on the color wheel and of equal brightness for highlighting GREP results. This gives the results a uniform low-contrast look. Match highlighting is done with underlining using some of those 12 colors.
Harmonized dark: Uses the opposite shades of gray as “harmonized light” and exactly the same 12 colors for highlighting.
Harmonized shades light: Same as “harmonized light”, but adds a lighter, less saturated shade of the 12 colors for match highlighting.
Harmonized shades dark: Same as “harmonized dark”, but adds a darker, less saturated shade of the 12 colors for match highlighting.
Harmonized shades print: Same as “harmonized shades light”, but using pure black on pure white for plain text.
Solarized light: Using the 16 colors of the Solarized palette created by Ethan Schoonover.
Solarized dark: Same as “solarized light” but using the opposite content and background tones.
Amber: Amber text on a dark gray background like old terminal monitors. Uses green for emphasis and a variety of colors with an amber cast for match highlighting.
Green: Green text on a dark gray background like old terminal monitors. Uses amber for emphasis and a variety of colors with a green cast for match highlighting.
Night light: Very dark palette with amber text. Uses colored underlining for match highlighting. Does not use any blue text and background colors, but uses some blue underlining for match highlighting.
Sunshine: Colorful palette with a pastel yellow background.
Log cabin: Colorful palette with a dark brown background.
Blue sky: Colorful palette with a sky blue background.
Twilight: Colorful palette with a navy blue background.
Monochrome light: Dark gray text on a light gray background. Uses different shades of gray for match highlighting.
Monochrome dark: As “monochrome light” with the inverse shades of gray.
Monochrome amber: Amber text on a dark gray background like old terminal monitors. Uses different shades of amber for highlighting.
Monochrome green: Green text on a dark gray background like old terminal monitors. Uses different shades of green for highlighting.
Monochrome print: As “monochrome light” but with pure black text on a pure white background.
Red-green color blind light: Intended for people who cannot perceive the difference between red and green. All colors have equal amounts of red and green. Dark gray text on a light gray background. Uses shades of yellow and blue for match highlighting.
Red-green color blind dark: As “red-green color blind light” but with light gray text on a dark gray background.
Red-green color blind print: As “red-green color blind light” but with pure black text on a pure white background.
Yellow-blue color blind light: Intended for people who cannot perceive the difference between yellow and blue. All colors have equal amounts of green and blue. Dark gray text on a light gray background. Uses shades of red and cyan for match highlighting.
Yellow-blue color blind dark: As “yellow-blue color blind light” but with light gray text on a dark gray background.
Yellow-blue color blind print: As “yellow-blue color blind light” but with pure black text on a pure white background.

List of Individual Colors

Editor: Plain text: The default text colors. The editor’s background is filled with this color, and text that is not syntax colored is drawn in this text color.
Editor: Selected text: Selection highlight.
Matched text highlight: Highlights search matches.
Replaced text highlight: Highlights search matches that have been replaced.
Collected text highlight: Highlights text that was collected instead of the actual match or that the match was replaced with.
File name: Path to the file that the matches were found in.
Section number: Line number or other section number.
Indicator for the number of matches: Header or footer indicating the total number of matches.
Search list step header: Used by PowerGREP to indicate which search term from a list of search terms that found the matches.
Error message: Error indicating why a file could not be processed.
Warning message: Message indicating why a file was skipped.
Matched text fountain 1 to 10: Used by PowerGREP instead of “matched text highlight” when searching for a list of multiple search terms.
Editor: Page break: Color of the horizontal line indicating a page break.
Editor: Line breaks: Color used to draw line break symbols when you’ve turned on the option to visualize line breaks.
Editor: Whitespace: Color used to draw whitespace. The background color is always used if you set it to anything other than “default”. The text color is used to draw the space and tab symbols when you turn on the option to visualize spaces.
Editor: Control characters: Color used to draw control characters other than tabs and line breaks. Such control characters normally should not appear in text files.
Editor: Invalid bytes: Color used to draw stair-stepped hex numbers to indicate invalid bytes. These can end up in GREP results if the regular expression matched invalid bytes in a file. It may indicate the file was read with the wrong encoding. It’s also possible the file actually contains bytes that are invalid for its encoding.
Editor: Margin and line numbers: Color used for the left and top margins in which line numbers are displayed.
Editor: Extra space between lines: If the text layout adds extra space between lines then this color is used for that extra space. This can simulate the appearance of lined paper.
Editor: Matching brackets: Color used to highlight matching brackets that do not contain any unmatched brackets.
Editor: Incorrectly nested brackets: Color used to highlight matching brackets that contain unmatched brackets.
Editor: Unmatched brackets: Color used to highlight brackets that do not have a matching opening or closing bracket.
Editor: Folding icons: Color used to draw buttons and lines for folding files in the left margin.
Editor: Folded lines: Highlight applied to the first line in a block of folded lines when the block is actually folded.

Example

A made-up example that illustrates how PowerGREP would use all the colors. RegexBuddy does not use the step and fountain colors because it doesn’t have an option to use multiple regular expressions at the same time. The colors are still present in RegexBuddy’s GREP palette to keep it compatible with PowerGREP’s Results palette.