Visual contrast of text - KDE (x11) - ui/ux is black on slate

I found this problem can occur with the following combination:

  • system light theme
  • Shotcut default Fusion Dark theme
  • The environment variable QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_CONF is set. Shotcut needs to set this on itself to set the palette for some components. However, it will not if it is already set (respect the user-defined env var).

Change one of these and the problem goes away. I have a KDE Neon (based on Ubuntu 24.04) system, and it does not define that env var.

Run echo $QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_CONF in a terminal to see if it affects you. The path might reveal a reason why it is set. If set, another workaround is
$(unset QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_CONF; shotcut)