[Tags] Can't see grayed-out entries in dark theme

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On my Ubuntu 25.10 system with Gramps 6.0.1, some entries appear with black text and are very difficult to read – see the screenshot.

Is there a way to make those entries easier to see?

Also, what does that black text / dimmed / grayed-out entry even mean? I don’t know why some people, families, events and so on appear that way.

Thanks!

Screenshot From 2026-01-03 17-17-29
Screenshot From 2026-01-03 17-17-29384×216 11.3 KB

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Those are actually “Tag” colors.

The topmost tag for those People is still the default color: black.

Go into Edit:Tags:Organize Tags and change any Black tags to other colors

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Feature request: 0006300: Organize Tags be able to select a background color also for visability

Approved by @Nick-Hall who mentions:

No, it will need an extra column in the tags table. This change is quite easy to code, I don’t know if we really want it though.

and

I don’t know if such a change would be accepted. It is best to ask on the list first.

You would have to do the following:

  1. Add a field to the Tag object.

  2. Create a database upgrade.

  3. Modify the XML import/export.

  4. Change the interface in the Tag Organiser and Edit Tag dialog.

  5. Add an extra field to all the listview models.

  6. Modify listview to display the new field.

I think that the default background colour should be ‘None’.

I’m unable to find the previous discussion on the list.

Happy new year.

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Ah, that’s helpful. Thanks!

Is there a way to configure the default color for those import tags?

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No. But such an enhancement has been requested.

0011974: Add Preference option to Colorize new Tags

Hasn’t caught the interest of a developer though.

Maybe we ought to try exploring how to hack the default tag color? Black is not a good default

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We haven’t had a “hunt the code and hack” thread for awhile.

The default Tag color seems like it’d be a very small and isolated tweak.

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Yes, indeed. PR with fixes: https://github.com/gramps-project/gramps/pull/2164

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Thanks @dsblank !

This is a nice change … and much more powerful than the simple “non-black” default change I was considering for the hack.

A rotating pallette of 16 colors vivid colors? And smart enough to skip colors in use? Nice!

Now I need to paste in the patched modules and do some testing. (Like whether the new tag is added at top or bottom of the list since re-ordering with a long tag list is painful. And what happens if all 16 colors are already in use.)

Thanks for the code!

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You’re welcome!

I can tell you what will happen:

  1. New tag placement is not changed, but we can change that
  2. When we run out of colors, they repeat
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BTW, if you do test the changes, please “Approve” the PR with a note saying so. That will help moving the PRs along to being merged.

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