Comment 23 for bug 734428

There are two issues here. The first is that LibreOffice doesn't correctly handle cases where the GTK theme's text color is something other than black or white. (See comment 14.) This is the case in Ambiance, Ubuntu's default theme. Thus, all Ubuntu users are potentially affected by this bug. This should be fixed to work correctly with all arbitrary colors.

Additionally, there's the issue of what behavior is correct here. In my opinion, LO should ignore the GTK theme entirely and default to black text on a white background. Here's a use case to illustrate: When I produce a document, the difference between the Ambiance default text color (#3C3C3C) and black isn't readily apparent on the screen unless the two colors are next to each other. (This probably explains why there haven't been too many bug reports about this issue.) However, when I print a document using auto colors on a black and white laser printer, the printer dithers the text to create a dark gray. That makes the text look messy.

Following the GTK theme is useful for situations where the content will blend in with other content on the screen. But for Writer, what counts is the paper and printer, not the on-screen appearance. And for Impress, presentations are shown without reference to the current theme. In fact, in general, a good GTK theme wouldn't make a good presentation theme, just as a good GTK theme wouldn't be good for a printed document.

At the very least, please set the auto text color for light backgrounds to black, without reference to the GTK theme.