Um, is there a way to change the normal font colour from black to something else?
You don't set the color just for the normal font. If, for example, you want to change the color of display messages you need to create a custom textwindow (add a new GUI and covert it to the textwindow) and set its foreground color - that would affect the color of display messages provided you set this textwindow GUI to show messages on (see general settings: Text windows use GUI option and specify the textwindow GUI number there).
~Cheers