How to Change Chart Background Colour on MT4

The default colour scheme on MT4 (black bars on a white background) suits some traders but not others. Many prefer a dark background to reduce eye strain during long sessions, while others swap default colours for personalised combinations that match their workflow or screen setup. Changing the chart background colour is one of the simplest customisations in MT4 and uses the Chart Properties dialog under the Colors tab.

This guide walks through opening the Properties dialog, changing the background and other chart colours, and saving your colour scheme as a template so it can be applied to other charts or set as the default.

How to Open Chart Properties

There are three ways to open the Properties dialog for a chart.

The first is to right-click anywhere on the chart and select Properties from the context menu.

The second is to press F8 with the chart window in focus.

The third is to use the menu bar: with the chart active, click Charts > Properties.

All three methods open the same dialog. The Properties dialog has two tabs: Colors and Common. Colour settings live in the Colors tab.

Using the Colors Tab

The Colors tab shows a list of chart elements down the left-hand side and a colour selector for each on the right. The available elements include:

Background: the main chart background colour.

Foreground: the colour of axis labels, price markers, and grid co-ordinates.

Grid: the colour of the gridlines that overlay the chart.

Bar Up and Bar Down: the colours used in bar chart mode for bars where the close is above (up) or below (down) the open.

Bull Candle and Bear Candle: the colours used in candlestick chart mode for candles where the close is above the open (bull) or below the open (bear).

Line Chart: the colour of the line in line chart mode.

Volumes: the colour of the volume bars at the bottom of the chart.

Ask Line: the colour of the optional horizontal line showing the current ask price.

Stop Levels: the colour used for the stop-loss and take-profit visualisation lines, when these are enabled.

Click the colour swatch next to any element to open a colour picker. Choose a colour and click OK in the picker. The change is previewed in the small chart preview at the bottom of the Properties dialog.

When you are satisfied with the choices, click OK on the Properties dialog to apply the colours to the chart. Cancel discards the changes.

Applying a Built-in Colour Scheme

The Colors tab includes a Color Scheme dropdown at the top with three built-in presets:

Yellow on Black: yellow text and gridlines on a black background, with green bullish candles and red bearish candles.

Green on Black: green and red bars on a black background.

Black on White: the default scheme, with black bars on a white background.

Selecting a preset populates all the colour options below. You can then fine-tune individual elements before clicking OK.

Saving Your Colour Scheme as a Template

A template in MT4 stores the chart's visual settings (colours, indicators, timeframe, scaling) so they can be reapplied to other charts. Saving your custom colour scheme as a template means you can apply it to any pair without redoing the colour setup each time.

To save a template, right-click the chart and select Template > Save Template, or use Charts > Template > Save Template from the menu bar. Choose a descriptive name (for example, "DarkScheme") and click Save. The template is saved as a .tpl file in the MQL4/Profiles/Templates folder of your MT4 installation.

To apply the template to another chart, open the target chart, right-click it, select Template > Load Template, and choose your saved template from the list. The colour scheme and any other settings stored in the template are applied immediately.

Setting a Default Template for New Charts

If you want every new chart you open to use your custom colour scheme automatically, save your template with the filename "default".

Open the chart with your preferred colour scheme, then go to Charts > Template > Save Template (or right-click > Template > Save Template) and save the file with the name "default". From that point on, any new chart opened in MT4 uses this default template, including its colour scheme.

To revert to the original MT4 default, save a template using the original Black on White preset under the name "default", overwriting the previous default.tpl file.

How It Works on MT5

The process on MT5 is similar but with minor differences. Right-click the chart and select Properties, or press F8. The Colors tab in MT5 has additional options compared to MT4 and uses an updated dialog layout. Templates work in the same way: save via Charts > Template > Save Template, and load via Charts > Template > Load Template. The storage location on MT5 is the MQL5/Profiles/Templates folder.

If you use both MT4 and MT5, note that templates are not transferable between platforms: a .tpl file saved in MT4 cannot be loaded in MT5 because the underlying data structures and template format differ between the two platforms.

Practical Considerations

A high-contrast scheme (such as bright candles on a dark background) makes individual price action easier to read but can be tiring during extended sessions. A low-contrast scheme is gentler on the eye but can make subtle moves harder to distinguish.

Colours have no effect on the underlying price data, indicator calculations, order behaviour, or backtesting results. Charts colours are purely visual.

For traders with multiple monitors or multiple chart windows open simultaneously, applying a consistent template across all charts helps with quick visual recognition of which pair is on which screen.

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