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intellij-idea

Can you change IntelliJ colors on per project basis?

I often have 2-4 projects open at the same time in IntelliJ IDEA 15. It quickly becomes confusing switching between them, especially when classes are similarly named. Is there any way to use a different color scheme, or change a visual component of the IDE to easily identify which project is open?

Update: As of IntelliJ IDEA 2016.2, the accepted answer is correct. When this was written I was using IntelliJ 15, and there was no way to accomplish this.

Update: Due to JetBrains releasing a feature for this natively now (IntelliJ IDEA 2023.2), marking a new accepted answer. Setting a custom background is still very valid though!

Solution

  • 7 years later, it's now available in IntelliJ 2023.2 (Released on July 26, 2023). No additional Plugins are needed anymore! In addition, with a project icon, it's very easy to recognize a workspace:

    Colored Toolbar

    Screenshot colored IDEA

    Settings > Appearance > Use project colors in main toolbar

    Screenshot IDEA Settings

    It's now activated by default. In addition, you can add a project icon. To do so, simply put an icon named icon.svg and save it in the .idea folder in your project.

    Change Color

    The color can be changed in the right-click menu on the title bar. Screenshot change color

    Per default, the toolbar color is chosen by an index in the .idea/workspace.xml:

    <component name="ProjectColorInfo">
   <![CDATA[{ 
             "customColor": "e55f25ff",
             "associatedIndex": 2 
            }]]>
</component>

    The associatedIndex represents the order of your projects in the JetBrains Toolbox app. The customColor is the color in HEX format.