@@ -209,8 +209,6 @@ public void setupGUI() {
       // other things that have to be set explicitly for the defaults
       theme.setColor("run.window.bgcolor", SystemColor.control);
 
-//      loadBackground();
-
     } catch (IOException e) {
       Messages.showError("Problem loading theme.txt",
                          "Could not load theme.txt, please re-install Processing", e);
 
@@ -81,7 +81,10 @@ public void mousePressed(MouseEvent event) {
 
 
   /**
-   * Loads theme for TextAreaPainter
+   * Loads theme for TextAreaPainter. This is handled here because in the olden
+   * days, Modes had different visual design. Now, these are just pulling the
+   * defaults from the standard theme, though there may be minor additions or
+   * overrides added in a Mode's own theme.txt file.
    */
   public void setMode(Mode mode) {
     errorUnderlineColor = mode.getColor("editor.error.underline.color");
@@ -101,8 +104,8 @@ public void setMode(Mode mode) {
 
 
   /**
-   * Paint a line. Paints the gutter (with background color and text) then the
-   * line (background color and text).
+   * Paint a line. Paints the gutter (with background color and text)
+   * then the line (background color and text).
    *
    * @param gfx the graphics context
    * @param tokenMarker
 
@@ -294,6 +294,9 @@ public void caretUpdate(CaretEvent e) {
     editorPanel.add(textarea);
     upper.add(editorPanel);
 
+    // set colors and fonts for the painter object
+    getPdeTextArea().setMode(mode);
+
     splitPane = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.VERTICAL_SPLIT, upper, footer);
 
     // disable this because it hides the message area (Google Code issue #745)
 
@@ -106,8 +106,6 @@ protected JavaEditor(Base base, String path, EditorState state,
     box.add(textAndError);
     */
 
-    getPdeTextArea().setMode(jmode);
-
     preprocessingService = new PreprocessingService(this);
     pdex = new PDEX(this, preprocessingService);