Select the Use colours from system theme option to use the colors that are specified in the MATE Desktop theme that is selected in the Theme tab of the Appearance preference tool.

Use the Built-in schemes drop-down list to specify the foreground and background colors for the terminal. MATE Terminal supports the following foreground and background color combinations:

The actual display of the foreground and background colors can vary depending on the color scheme that you choose. For example, if you choose White on black and the Linux console color scheme, the application displays the foreground and background colors as light gray on black. The Built-in schemes drop-down list is only enabled if the Use colours from system theme option is unselected.

Click on the Text colour button to display the Choose terminal text colour dialog. Use the color wheel or the spin boxes to customize the color that you want to use as the text color, then click OK. The Text colour button is only enabled if the Use colours from system theme option is unselected.

Click on the Background colour button to display the Choose terminal background colour dialog. Use the color wheel or the spin boxes to customize the color that you want to use as the background color, then click OK. The Background colour button is only enabled if the Use colours from system theme option is unselected.

The terminal emulation can only use 16 colors at a time to draw text. The color palette specifies these 16 colors. Applications that run in the terminal use an index number to specify a color from this palette.

Use the Built-in schemes drop-down list to choose a preset color schemes. The color palette below and the contents of the terminal window both update to show the scheme.

Use the Colour palette to customize the 16 default colors in the custom color palette. To customize a color, click on the color to display the Palette entry dialog. Use the color wheel or the spin boxes to customize the color, then click OK.