make visited links default color different

[lilydjwg]

Browsers differ visited links with unvisited ones. And some users (like me) make use of this: it makes it easier to find frequently visited links, especially when there is a list and I often visit a small fraction of links in the list. It also tells me whether the content behind a link is fresh to me, or I've already read, as I don't remember the exact titles.

Making visited links default color different from unvisited ones, so when the doc authors don't find a reason to make them the same, they will be different, as the browsers always do.

[tk0miya]

In my short investigation:
I checked bundled themes and the alabaster theme.

• alabaster: NG (same color)
• classic: NG
• bizstyle: NG
• agogo: NG
• haiku: OK (different colors)
• nature: NG
• pyramid: NG
• scrolls: NG
• sphinxdoc: NG
• traditional: OK

alabaster theme: text color for whole of anchors (:visited too) is defined at alabaster/static/alabaster.css_t.

183:/* -- body styles ----------------------------------------------------------- */
184:
185:a {
186:    color: {{ theme_link }};
187:    text-decoration: underline;
188:}

classic theme: classic theme can use different colors for unvisited links and visited one. but, now, same color is used for both at sphinx/themes/classic/theme.conf.

26:linkcolor        = #355f7c
27:visitedlinkcolor = #355f7c

[tk0miya]

I'd change color of visited links, but I do not have design (coloring?) skills.
Can anyone support me about this?

[septatrix]

I would choose something similar to the html5 reference color as this is what most people probably expect...

:link { color: #0000EE; }
:visited { color: #551A8B; }
:link:active, :visited:active { color: #FF0000; }
:link, :visited { text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer; }

So maybe just add a bit more red to give it a purplish tint? An alternative would be to just define the default color as initial so the browser default will be chosen

[naveen8801]

Hiii @septatrix , is this issue open ? , can i work on it ?

[tk0miya]

@naveen8801 This issue have not been resolved yet. So any pull requests are welcome!

[naveen8801]

@tk0miya , Ok , thanks !

[Vaibhavi1707]

Hi @septatrix, can I work on this issue? I intend to change the visited link colour to initial as you suggested. I'm a beginner in open source and want to start off here.

[septatrix]

I am not a maintainer but by the looks of it no one has started to work on this. @naveen8801 has not posted an update or PR yet but you may want to ask him. Otherwise just go ahead - it should be rather simple.

[Vaibhavi1707]

Okay, thank you :)

[Vaibhavi1707]

Where can I find the alabaster theme module?

[tk0miya]

Here: https://github.com/bitprophet/alabaster

[septatrix]

All the bundled themes should be here IIRC: https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx/tree/3.x/sphinx/themes