How to enable Adobe Reader Dark Mode

PDF is a common file format that you probably work with on a regular basis, so it's a shame that not all PDF readers have a Dark Mode.

If you have the rest of your system set to Dark Mode — with light text on a dark background — opening a PDF at night can be a shock to your eyes with its extreme brightness. This is a particularly annoying problem if you often read PDFs at night or for long periods of time, such as with PDF textbooks.

Today's article will guide you how to use Adobe Acrobat Reader in dark mode for a more comfortable viewing experience.

How to use Dark Mode in Adobe Reader

To enable dark mode for your PDF files in Adobe Acrobat Reader, follow these steps:

1. Open Adobe Reader and go to Edit > Preferences (use the shortcut Ctrl + K if you prefer).

2. There, select the Accessibility tab from the left sidebar.

3. Next, look for the Document Colors Options section at the top. Inside this section, select the Replace Document Colors checkbox , then select Use High-Contrast colors . Don't select Use Windows Color Scheme ; even with dark mode enabled in Windows, this option didn't work in testing.

4. Select White text on black from the drop-down box next to High-contrast color combination . This theme is the darkest and easiest on the eyes. If you want, you can also try Green text on black , which looks like an old-fashioned terminal.

5. Now, click OK to exit the Preferences window. You should immediately see that any PDFs you open now display in dark mode. Any PDFs you view in the future will also use this dark theme.

Note that this only affects text, so it won't change the color of images and other content. This can make it difficult to see some items on the page after the conversion, so look around and make sure everything looks good before you turn on dark mode in Adobe Reader all the time.

You may need to turn this off depending on the file you're reading. To adjust how dark mode is applied, consider toggling one or both of the checkboxes here: Only change the color of black text or line art and Change the color of line art as well as text .

If you’re not happy with how your PDF looks in the dark theme, you can adjust the color scheme on the same Accessibility options page mentioned above. Try using the Custom Color option to set your own Page Background and Document Text colors . For example, a gray background instead of black might be easier on your eyes or reduce distortion on certain PDFs.

And if you ever open a PDF in Adobe Reader and don’t want to use dark mode, you can turn this setting off. Just go back to Edit > Preferences and uncheck the Replace Document Colors box to remove the setting.

How to change Adobe Reader theme to Dark Mode

In addition to changing the color of actual PDFs, Adobe Reader includes two themes for its other elements (like the home page and menu bar). By default, these themes follow your system theme settings, but you can change the Adobe Reader theme if it doesn't automatically display in dark mode.

To do this, go to View > Display Theme in the top menu bar of Adobe Reader. There, you can choose from Light Gray and Dark Gray options . Dark Gray is closer to dark mode. It’s not completely black, but it’s the best choice for dark mode fans. If you frequently change your operating system theme, select System Theme here.

This is independent of the above option, so you can use a dark theme for PDFs while keeping a light theme for menu elements, if you want.

With these two little tricks, you can give Adobe Reader a pretty decent dark mode. It's not perfect, but it's better than blinding yourself with bright elements in the software.

If you don't like Adobe Reader's dark theme, why not try another PDF reader? Several other PDF software also support dark mode. You can also open PDFs in your browser and use a dark mode extension to invert their colors.