07-15-2018, 07:50 AM
You likely installed the latest version, 2.10. This version is known to use a default theme which is way less colorful than the previous versions.
As a short-term solution, you can go to Edit>Preferences>Themes and see if there us a "Legacy" or "System" theme which is a bit more colorful (the light grey themes are a bit easier on the eyes IMHO). Note that there are separate themes for icons.
In the long term, you can fully redefine the interface looks but this requires some skills, or locating a theme shared by someone else (but 2.10 is quite new, so not that many themes are available).
Important: most of the tutorials you will come across have been written/shot in Gimp 2.8 (or even 2.6) days. In 2.10, the user interface has changed, tools have changed, and some of the new things work completely differently. So take all the tutorials with a huge grain of salt (they are often not that reliable anyway).
As a short-term solution, you can go to Edit>Preferences>Themes and see if there us a "Legacy" or "System" theme which is a bit more colorful (the light grey themes are a bit easier on the eyes IMHO). Note that there are separate themes for icons.
In the long term, you can fully redefine the interface looks but this requires some skills, or locating a theme shared by someone else (but 2.10 is quite new, so not that many themes are available).
Important: most of the tutorials you will come across have been written/shot in Gimp 2.8 (or even 2.6) days. In 2.10, the user interface has changed, tools have changed, and some of the new things work completely differently. So take all the tutorials with a huge grain of salt (they are often not that reliable anyway).