Mozilla Mailnews FAQ

How can I change the colour of the quoted text?

You can not only have one color for quoted material, you can have different colors for the different quoting levels.
This is done through editing the userContent.css (See Editing Config Files). For example, add the following lines:

blockquote[type=cite] {
color: navy ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote {
color: maroon ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote {
color: green ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: purple ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: teal ! important;
}

color specifies the color for the quoted material. In this case the first level of quoted material is "navyblue", the second "maroon" and so on. blockquote specifies the level of quotes, which the above example colors quotes up to 4 levels deep (color teal). You can add additional lines by just adding another blockquote level:

blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: yellow ! important;
}

This would make a five level (and higher) quote appear in yellow.
The colors are either specified by name or RGB ( for example #FF0000) and completely up to your personal choice .

You can also have the graphical vertical quoting bars in a different color. This should be self-explanatory:

blockquote[type=cite] {
color: navy ! important;
border-color: black ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote {
color: maroon ! important;
border-color: navy ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote {
color: green ! important;
border-color: maroon ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: purple ! important;
border-color: green ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: teal ! important;
border-color: purple ! important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: gray ! important;
border-color: teal ! important;
}

You can also change the font of the quoted text (for example Arial):

font-family: Arial !important;

Or a bigger font:

font-size: 18pt !important;

And you can change the background color:

background-color: gray !important;