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Mozilla Thunderbird Change Quote Text Bar Color

Problem

When replying to an email message the quoted text is rendered in a dark navy blue color and depending on your environment this may make the text hard to read.

Note

This is referring to rendering/displaying the text for the composer.

Note

This is not about how the text will look when viewed by the email message recipient(s).

Solution - Plain Text Mode

  1. Close Mozilla Thunderbird.
  2. Create userContent.css in the Mozilla Thunderbird profile directory (e.g. ~/.thunderbird/zzdvadd.default/chrome/userContent.css). If the "chrome" directory does not exist, then create it.
    $ mkdir ~/.thunderbird/zzdvadd.default/chrome
    
  3. Add the following to the "userContent.css" file.
    span[_moz_quote=true] {
      color: orange !important;
    }
    pre[_moz_quote=true] {
      color: orange !important;
    }
    
  4. Start Mozilla Thunderbird to see the changes.

Note

For changes to take affect Mozilla Thunderbird must be restarted.

Solution - HTML Mode

  1. Close Mozilla Thunderbird.
  2. Create userContent.css in the Mozilla Thunderbird profile directory (e.g. ~/.thunderbird/zzdvadd.default/chrome/userContent.css). If the "chrome" directory does not exist, then create it.
    $ mkdir ~/.thunderbird/zzdvadd.default/chrome
    
  3. Add the following to the "userContent.css" file.
    blockquote[type=cite] {
     color: orange !important;
     border-left-color: orange !important;
    }
    blockquote[type=cite] blockquote {
     color: aqua ! important;
     border-left-color: aqua !important;
    }
    blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote {
     color: greenyellow !important;
     border-left-color: greenyellow !important;
    }
    blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote {
     color: HotPink !important;
     border-left-color: HotPink !important;
    }
    blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote {
     color: yellow !important;
     border-left-color: yellow !important;
    }
    
  4. Start Mozilla Thunderbird to see the changes.

Note

For changes to take affect Mozilla Thunderbird must be restarted.