The "Layers" preferences (in menu File / Preferences..., "Display" section, "Layers" tab) control the appearance of layers and other display elements. The top of the dialog lists all possible things that can have their color changed:

- The layers in each technology.
- Special colors such as the background, text, waveform windows, etc. (These are found at the bottom of the "Layer" list.)

Each layer has a color on the left and a pattern on the right. The color can be specified directly in the color picker, or it can be set to one of the transparent layers. If you change the color of a layer that has transparency assigned to it, the change will affects all layers assigned to that transparency.

You can draw in the pattern area to set a pattern, and you can choose from a set of predefined patterns by clicking on their image below the pattern-editing area. You can also choose an outline texture to draw.

The lower-right controls the appearance of the layer on the printed page. It lets you set an opacity which will control its appearance on the printed page.

When changing the background color, note that it must contrast with both the highlight color and the inverse of the highlight color (the inverse is black in the default settings).

Electric has three different color schemes which have predefined colors. The commands of the Window / Color Schemes menu let you switch between them. With the Black Background Colors command, the background becomes black; with the White Background Colors command, the background becomes white; with the Restore Default Colors command, the background becomes gray (the default).