How to use visited links color ONLY, but NOT text and background colors?
I want the Firefox browser to use the link colors I specify, but not the text and background colors. Right now it's all or nothing. There is a major problem on most web sites if you tell it to use your text and background colors.
It says that it uses your colors ONLY for pages that don't specify it. That is simply not true. Even on the options page itself where I make my settings selections, the options web page has specified a dark gray panel on the left, BUT if I tell it to use my colors, even though you say it won't (because the page specified it), it totally gets rid of the dark gray left panel and makes it all white. With other, fancier third party web sites that I visit, it's far far worse. The pages are virtually unreadable if you tell it to use your colors. So I want it to use the web site's choice for text and background but my color choices for link colors. Why? Unfortunately, my favorite discussion forum uses blue for "new" links, and "visited" links are purplish-blue, which is barely distinguishable on one of my monitors (at work) and shows no difference at all on a different monitor (at home). How can I get it to use ONLY the link colors but not the text and background colors (which will mess up the web pages)?
All Replies (9)
I suggest trying an add-on such as: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/visited/ (I haven't used it myself, but the description sounds like a fit).
If you want something fancier than allowed by existing add-ons, you could create custom style rules for Firefox to apply to web pages. You can do that using either an option settings file named userContent.css or the Stylish extension.
Note that it isn't trivial to make changes to visited colors via userContent.css in case of links that are a background image or have a background color that matches the text color.
jscher, I installed that add-on but it doesn't seem to help with links. It will put a line around clickable images like it says, but the visited links do not change color, even links I've visited since installing the add-on.
cor-el, I couldn't figure out what to change on my system.
I guess I'll just have to wait that hopefully Firefox will fix this issue. Hopefully I won't have to wait until version 139 because I know that this annoys others also.
Hi Mark, you said
I installed that add-on but it doesn't seem to help with links. It will put a line around clickable images like it says, but the visited links do not change color, even links I've visited since installing the add-on.
Do you mean the links have the same color as they always did, or the same color as unvisited links? The extension defaults visited links to a bright orange color and that should have been visible immediately.
You could use the extension's Options button to experiment with different colors. You can access that using the Add-ons page. Either:
- Ctrl+Shift+a
- "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons
In the left column, click Extensions. Then, on the right side, check for an Options button for the Visited extension.
Or if visited links show the same color as unvisited links, are you using private browsing?
You could test it with an outline-color in userContent.css
Add code to the userContent.css file.
a:link {outline: 1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.5); outline-offset:-1px}
a:visited {outline-color:rgb(255,0,0);}
The customization files userChrome.css (user interface) and userContent.css (websites) are located in the chrome folder in the Firefox profile folder.
MarkHayworth said
I want the Firefox browser to use the link colors I specify, but not the text and background colors. Right now it's all or nothing. There is a major problem on most web sites if you tell it to use your text and background colors. It says that it uses your colors ONLY for pages that don't specify it. That is simply not true. Even on the options page itself where I make my settings selections, the options web page has specified a dark gray panel on the left, BUT if I tell it to use my colors, even though you say it won't (because the page specified it), it totally gets rid of the dark gray left panel and makes it all white. With other, fancier third party web sites that I visit, it's far far worse. The pages are virtually unreadable if you tell it to use your colors. So I want it to use the web site's choice for text and background but my color choices for link colors. Why? Unfortunately, my favorite discussion forum uses blue for "new" links, and "visited" links are purplish-blue, which is barely distinguishable on one of my monitors (at work) and shows no difference at all on a different monitor (at home). How can I get it to use ONLY the link colors but not the text and background colors (which will mess up the web pages)?
jscher2000 said
I suggest trying an add-on such as: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/visited/ (I haven't used it myself, but the description sounds like a fit). If you want something fancier than allowed by existing add-ons, you could create custom style rules for Firefox to apply to web pages. You can do that using either an option settings file named userContent.css or the Stylish extension.
OK, the add-on works and I can now select the "visited link" color that I like. The question remains, WHY IS THE FF OPTION IGNORED? Why does FF even have a "visited links" color option if it's only going to use it's preferred default color (lavender, in my case) and not the one the user selects?
Hi jal64, the link colors set in Options should apply when the website does not specify a different color. Otherwise, by default, the website's rules for link colors take precedence. The original question notes that overriding website color selections creates a variety of issues, so that's how we got around to add-on, to create the flexibility to control the links colors separately from all colors.