Fonts and colors

Changing the font or color of messages you receive

You can set the default font of the message view in the Messages pane of Adium's Preferences. Your contacts can override that font for their own messages unless you uncheck the "Show received message fonts" checkbox.

Note that some message view styles ignore the font you set in the Preferences; if the style you prefer is one that has that problem, then you'll need to decide which you want more: the style or the font.

Changing the font or color of your own text

To change your font or your color, use the "Show Fonts" and "Show Colors" menu items in the Format menu. This works in messages, your profile, and status messages.

Note: Ordinarily, messages are sent in plain text, with no explicit font nor color attached to them. You can add a font or color (or both) using the steps in the next section.

Formatting an outgoing message

To add styles for one message, use the Show Fonts, Bold, Italic, Underline, or Show Colors menu item in the Format menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts for fast addition of simple styles.

Did you [⌘I]see[⌘I] that duck? Wow, what [⌘U]feathers[⌘U]!
↓
Did you see that duck? Wow, what feathers!

After the message is sent, the styles are dropped, and the next message is plain-text again.

Changing the font in which plain text is displayed

1. Open the Font Panel using "Show Fonts" in the Format menu.
2. Type some text into the input line.
3. Select it.
4. Set its font using the Font Panel.
5. Click the "Save This Setting As My Default Font" button. This saves the plain-text-display font.
6. Press Esc. This clears the input line; when you next type your message, it will be plain-text, displayed in the newly-selected plain-text font.

Changing the default styles

("Styles" here meaning the presence or absence of bold, italic, and underline.)

1. Type some text into the input line.
2. Select it.
3. Use the Bold, Italic, and Underline menu items in the Format menu to style the text as desired.
4. Open the Font Panel using "Show Fonts" in the Format menu.
5. Click the "Save This Setting As My Default Font" button. This saves the default styles for new text.
6. Press Esc. This clears the input line; when you next type your message, it will possess the newly-selected styles.

Setting a default color

Follow the same procedure as to change the default styles.

Clearing the default color

To revert to text having no color, set the default color to black using the procedure above. One difference: Even if you press Esc, the next message you send will still be explicitly black. The next message after that, and all messages thereafter (until you set a default color again), will have no color.

The difference

The default font is used for the display of plain text; it is not sent over the wire.

The default styles are applied to every message.

The default color is applied to every message, unless it is black, in which case the message will have no color.

Isn't this all one big mess?

Yes, it is. We'll iron this out in a future release.