How to change the Spyder editor background to dark?

Yes, that’s the intuitive answer. Nothing in Spyder is intuitive. Go to Preferences/Editor and select the scheme you want. Then go to Preferences/Syntax Coloring and adjust the colors if you want to.
tcebob

Tools->Preferences->Syntax coloring->Scheme changed to "Spyder Dark"

For Spyder 2.3 which is still installed via apt-get on linux, you change the theme via

Tools > Preferences > Editor > Syntax Color 

The

Tools > Preferences > Syntax Coloring

only shows options for adjusting the different themes, but not actually applying a different theme. Spyder 3.x uses the second option via Syntax Color.

I like matching the editor dark scheme to IPython dark scheme. As for IPython, go to

Tools > Preferences > IPython cosole > display tab

and check Dark background.

Restart the kernel. Then look at the colors you get, say, when you import. My spyder2 (python 2.7) uses Anaconda’s ipython 5.3.0 and import is pink, the best matching scheme for the editor is Monokai, you choose this in

Tools > Preferences > Syntax coloring

My spyder3, when choosing dark IPython (2.4.1) background prints colors a bit different than Monokai, but if you go to

Tools > Preferences > Syntax coloring  

you go to Monokai tab and tweak the colors a bit. I had to change builtin from lilac to cyan

I tried the option: Tools > Preferences > Syntax coloring > dark spyder
is not working.

You should rather use the path:
Tools > Preferences > Syntax coloring > spyder
then begin modifications as you want your editor to appear

If you are using MacBook Pro (OS X) follow the following steps:

python > Preference > Syntax coloring

@D.Wolf — if Preferences doesn’t appear in the drop-down under Tools, there is also an icon in the toolbar that is a direct path to tools -> Preferences, and the Syntax Coloring is on the left-hand side. See the wrench? Just click that.

On mine it’s Tools –> Preferences –> Editor and “Syntax Color Scheme” dropdown is at the very bottom of the list.

I think some of the people answering this question don’t actually try to do what they recommend, because there is something wrong with way the Mac OS version handles the windows.

When you choose the new color scheme and click OK, the preferences window looks like it closed, but it is still there behind the main spyder window. You need to switch windows with command ~ or move the main spyder window to expose the preferences window. Then you need to click Apply to get the new color scheme.

In Spyder 2.3.8 on Ubuntu, I found several settings to do this – each one for a different part of the window… Seems that you can’t make all areas dark though.

And the final result looks like this:

At First click on preferences(Ctrl+Shift+alt+p) then click the option of syntax coloring and change the scheme to “Monokai”.Now apply it and you will get the dark scheme.

1.Click Tools
2.Click Preferences
3.Select Syntax Coloring

I want to add that you can change the theme of Spyder 3 to a dark on Linux by using:

Qtmodern

---

Install Qtmodern with pip3

pip3 install --user qtmodern

---

Open the file:

python-site-packages/spyder/app/mainwindow.py

---

Import modern style

Find:

# Qt imports

Add:

import qtmodern.styles
import qtmodern.windows

---

Theme the app

Find method:

def run_spyder(

Add:

#wrapper for custom theme
qtmodern.styles.dark(app)

---

Theme the window

Find:

main.show()

Replace it with:

##wrapper for dark window theme
mw = qtmodern.windows.ModernWindow(main)
mw.show()

I’ve seen some people recommending installing aditional software but in my opinion the best way is by using the built-in skins, you can find them at:

Tools > Preferences > Syntax Coloring

In Spyder 4.1, you can change background color from:
Tools > Preferences > Appearance > Syntax highlighting scheme

For Spyder 3: In case you don’t find Preferences under Tools > Preferences, thats probably because Preferences is pinned onto your tool bar by default Preferences in Tool Bar