1y ago

Is there any way to get Firefox to use the native color picker?

I use KDE Plasma, and much prefer the KDE color picker over the GTK one that Firefox uses, with input type=color.

I know that I can set GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 to make Firefox use the native file picker, is there a way to make it use the native color picker as well?

I know there probably isn't a way, but I figured it's worth a shot asking.

104 comments

Entire Comment Section discussing the weird comment of @over_clox instead of OPs Question lmao.
- 😢
  
  I solved the issue of Firefox not following my theme on KDE by abandoning Firefox and using Waterfox.
  Functionally identical in every way except Waterfox follows qt instead of gtk.
  It’s a stretch, I’ve never used waterfox’s color picker. But it may also use qt instead of gtk.
- I'm even more intrigued by their idea for a "good" color picker. From the way they describe it it just sounds like a UX nightmare
- Ah, that's where the discussion is! Lovely!
  ignores OP question and scrolls down to join in
- I did try to find something last night but couldn't find anything unfortunately :(

Excuse me for not answering the question but are you using the color picker in Firefox really that frequently?
I would just choose a nice color with the picker of my choice and paste the hex-code / type the RGB in the custom panel of the default FF color picker and that's it.
- Not really. I just like tinkering, and customising things, and I wanted to see if I could.
  
  Ah, I see! In that case I can completely understand your intention.
  Edit:
  I feel like the guy on Stack Overflow who says something like "That's bad practice, why would you do that?" and then the thread is closed.
  And people who google how to solve a certain problem and get to the SO page never get to know the answer that would be relevant.
  
  I'm not a dev, but I'm wondering if the 'Plasma Browser Integration' package has any influence on the picker? Or maybe there are GTK app settings in play.
  Just a thought.
  It really annoys me that Firefox is not more integrated in KDE than it is.

I didn't even know there was a color picker in Firefox !? What it is used for?
- The color type form input. It’s a HTML standard, all modern browsers have it.
  
  Oh ok that makes sense I guess I don't usually use anything like that... Plus I was thinking of the browser itself using it for something...

In about:config see if setting widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal to true does anything for you.
- Hmm, it appears it already is set to true. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work.
  
  If I recall correctly that enables the kde file picker at least

Yo kde color picker exists? How do I use this?
- It pops up whenever a KDE application offers colour selection. Easiest way is probably to open settings to Appearance > Colors and click the Custom button.
  Falkon also uses it with input type=color which is why the screenshot says Falkon in it.

It is using a system color picker. That's the gtk color picker. You'd need to configure xdg-portal to utilize a different picker I'm pretty sure.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_Desktop_Portal might point you in the direction you're looking for... Not 100% on this though... maybe switch from portal-gtk to portal-kde?
- Alright, I’ll look into this. Thank you.

It's a bit of a PITA. If you're after a proper dark mode, there's an addon called 'Dark Reader' which works very well.

Are you kidding me? You mean the KDE Color Picker is basically an exact rip of the Windows Color Picker?
😂🤣
Edit: Look up the screenshots, I'm not in the least bit joking. That's an exact clone color picker to Win9X.
KDE couldn't be even marginally original?
- And..? So what, if a design works, a design works. This is a colour picker.
  
  IMHO a better design would be a mix between the two.
  The left one has much better color palettes. Bigger, with a much nicer color selection than just "neon colors" on the right one. But without a color selector/slider it's unusable for advanced users. Should have an expandable panel with the hue sliders. And a color picker if I want to take it from somewhere else in the screen
  
  I know. I wrote Color Painter, which also comes with its own very unique color picker.
  My design works. My design is also extremely unique. I didn't rip off an existing design.
  
  Isn't the purpose of Linux to actually step away from Windows, not copy it practically verbatim from 1993?
- Heaven forbid someone put hue on x axis and saturation on y axis and have a separate slider for value and allow you to manually input and allows you to save your favourites in a color picker they made.
  
  Please read my other comments. I put a literal text axis on my color picker. You know, like you want red, you type "red"...
  Don't none of the rest of them do that.
  Prove me wrong.
- Not complaining, windows does some things right
- By this logic, the fantastic WINE project is a heresy lol

104 comments