What are the best VIM color-schemes?

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29

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1.4K

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6 mins

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Here’s the Deal

The Best 2 of 26 OptionsWhy?

Best VIM color-schemes	Price	Last Updated
96 Gruvbox	Free	May 9, 2022
91 Molokai	-	May 17, 2022
87 Dracula	-	May 7, 2022
84 onehalf light	-	May 7, 2022
80 vim-atom-dark	FREE	May 12, 2022

See Full List

24 Other Options Considered

Dracula

Top Pro

Comfortable, non popping colors

The colors used are very comfortable on eyes and do not pop, giving ease during prolonged viewing of the code. See More

Top Con

Hard on eyes

ResourcefulAhBolomTzacab's Experience

Looks beautiful and easy on eyes See More

Top Pro

Proper separation in colors

The colors don't mix with each other so the text is always clear. See More

Top Con

Latest update breaks install (as of May 2020)

PrincipledCaerIbormeith's Experience

It is fantastic theme See More

Top Pro

Available for many popular editors, terminals, etc.

Sublime, Atom, Vim, iTerm, Terminal.app, Zsh, Slack, TextMate, Emacs, Visual Studio Code/Visual Studio, Xcode, IntelliJ, and more. See More

SuavePluto's Experience

Dracula creator here! I love this theme, it's well-maintained and one of the most popular themes we have. See More

Top Pro

Well designed

SophisticatedHypate's Experience

The best See More

Top Pro

Great in lots of languages

Even for Markdown. See More

See All

vim-atom-dark

Top Pro

Easy on the eyes

Solarized Dark

Top Con

Too much blue

People caring about the color intensity in their screens, will notice that this theme is not useful for night use. If you use software like Flux to dim the blues in your screen this theme loses its enchant. See More

Top Pro

There are versions for a lot of applications or it's easy to make your own

There are ready-made packages for Vim, IntelliJ, Emacs, iTerm, etc. If your app isn't supported the website explains clearly what colors are used, so it should be easy to wrap up your own. See More

PatientAgon's Experience

blot; gets old See More

Top Con

Low contrast

Comments for example, have very low contrast against the background which makes it harder to read. See More

Top Pro

It seems that is has been given the most thought

Judging from the description that has been given by the author, it seems that this color scheme has been designed with huge background knowledge about colors and relations between them. See More

ComposedLeucothea's Experience

I prefer it over warm colors. Blues have the tendency to increase concentration, and I need this during my late night work hours. See More

Top Con

Vanilla version doesn't work with htop

Half of the usernames in htop have the same color as the background. One has to use a patched version of htop. See More

Top Pro

Works well with multiple fonts

Since Solarized has pretty good color separation it's easier to distinguish both thin and bold fonts. See More

DashingCaoGuojiu's Experience

It just works. See More

See All

Base16 family

Top Pro

Contains many color-schemes

Top Con

Schemes are limited to 16 colors

You may not be able to use as many colors as you want for a particular application without manual manipulation since base 16 color schemes are limited to 16 colors. See More

WorthyNinigi's Experience

I use base16-default-dark for vim and terminals. See More

Top Pro

Out of the box support for many applications (vim, terminals, etc...)

Base16 template repositories on github have configurations for most popular applications where a color scheme can be applied. This reduces headache for users when applying or switching color schemes. See More

Top Con

Each theme needs manual tweaking

The base16 color schemes are really great but as a vim theme they require a lot of manual tweaking to be viable. One example is that in one theme a neon green bg is used with a white fd rendering any part of the vim UI that uses those two colors together illegible. See More

Top Pro

Its Solarized Dark scheme is compatible with htop

This is just one example of an app that doesn't work with vanilla Solarized Dark (half of the usernames in htop have the same color as the background) One has to use a patched htop version. See More

See All

Nord

Top Pro

Great on the eyes, looks good

Top Con

Low contrast

Colors are very pale and similar. See More

InquisitiveAngitia's Experience

very soothing, harmonious colorscheme many ports for other code editors as well See More

Top Pro

You can easily theme your whole Linux OS with it

WiseEndovelicus's Experience

great color scheme, easy in the eyes, and consistent among most programming languages, highly customizable See More

Top Pro

Blue-based

DynamicAlalu's Experience

Extremely pleasant, easy on the eyes See More

Top Pro

Simply beautiful

Easy on your eyes and super nice looking, especially noticeable in VS code. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

Compatible with tons of editors or terminals. See More

Top Pro

Lots of ports

The website provides steps on each individual port and how to activate them. See More

See All

badwolf

VersatileGnowee's Experience

If you're a fan of dark themes and bright colors, badwolf is perfect. See More

JoyousNilus's Experience

Simple to install, and colors everything that should be. See More

Snazzy Clear

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Hybrid Material

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Monokain

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Gruvbox

Top Pro

Very easy on the eyes

Both the light and dark version have a reddish background for a consistent look when toggling between them. See More

Top Con

It looks like you're staring at a dusty chalkboard

Thøger Emil Rivera-Thorsen's Experience

This theme Just Works^TM, it supports a wealth of highlight groups that most other themes don't, has a nicely balanced contrast and a distinct feel to its colors that makes it avoid the Angry Fruit Salad problem many color themes has. See More

Top Pro

Official support for true color

Top Con

Syntax highlight zeems to be outdated and therefore doesn't highlight correctly

Syntax highlighting is off in files containing ES6 classes. See More

cosmo's Experience

It's all the beauty of Solarized without any of the eyestrain. The contrast is so much better, and the colors are delightfully warm. See More

Top Pro

Light/Dark options

Top Con

Hell to configure

HumbleMaia's Experience

Was fairly easy to set up, but unfortunately is incomplete. See More

Top Pro

Best colors

Top Con

No list of supported editors

Tried to find out which editors are supported, but could not find the information. See More

ExceptionalAlcyoneus's Experience

easy on the eyes See More

Top Pro

You can go all day with Gruvbox

PrincipledEndovelicus's Experience

It never failed me and is easy on eyes See More

Top Pro

Multiple contrast settings

Choose low, medium, or high contrast for your color scheme. See More

NonchalantPoludnica's Experience

Very relaxing See More

Top Pro

Made ready for multiple text-editors

Ports for Atom, Sublime, TextMate and Emacs and other text editors are available. For a full list of available ports: https://github.com/morhetz/gruvbox-contrib If you are using a Jetbrains IDE: https://github.com/morhetz/gruvbox-contrib See More

Top Pro

Easy on the eyes for late night coding

It's like a Zenburn you can put up with. See More

Top Pro

Multiple contrast options

Three different variants are available, each with different contrasts. See More

Top Pro

Has light and dark version

Dark background has brown-yellowish retro colors, light background is yellowish with pastel highlights. See More

Top Pro

It can be customized in detail

Size of the tabs, icons of file types, contrast of the color schemes, accented colors, indentation in the sidebar, sizes of the status bar and dozens more. See More

See All

The Best 2 of 26 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for Gruvbox

My Recommendation for Gruvbox

Very easy on the eyes

It looks like you're staring at a dusty chalkboard

Official support for true color

Syntax highlight zeems to be outdated and therefore doesn't highlight correctly

Light/Dark options

Hell to configure

Best colors

No list of supported editors

You can go all day with Gruvbox

Multiple contrast settings

Made ready for multiple text-editors

Easy on the eyes for late night coding

Multiple contrast options

Has light and dark version

It can be customized in detail

My Recommendation for Molokai

My Recommendation for Molokai

Looks great

One of the most common dark themes

Easy to install with Vundle

Strong enough contrast

24 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for Dracula

My Recommendation for Dracula

Comfortable, non popping colors

Hard on eyes

Proper separation in colors

Latest update breaks install (as of May 2020)

Available for many popular editors, terminals, etc.

Well designed

Great in lots of languages

My Recommendation for onehalf light

My Recommendation for onehalf light

Best color palette out there

Doesn't have Bat theme (or theme for sublime text)

Light and dark versions

Looks great

My Recommendation for vim-atom-dark

My Recommendation for vim-atom-dark

Easy on the eyes

My Recommendation for Solarized Dark

My Recommendation for Solarized Dark

Too much blue

There are versions for a lot of applications or it's easy to make your own

Low contrast

It seems that is has been given the most thought

Vanilla version doesn't work with htop

Works well with multiple fonts

My Recommendation for Tender

My Recommendation for Tender

Nice for long coding sessions

Doesn't look so good when using older versions of vim

Highlights key parts of code well

Looks great with lightline & nvim

My Recommendation for Base16 family

My Recommendation for Base16 family

Contains many color-schemes

Schemes are limited to 16 colors

Out of the box support for many applications (vim, terminals, etc...)

Each theme needs manual tweaking

Its Solarized Dark scheme is compatible with htop

My Recommendation for One Dark

My Recommendation for One Dark

Available for vim

Colors are calm and easy to distinguish

My Recommendation for papercolor-theme light

My Recommendation for papercolor-theme light

Clean readabable looks

Default vote for light theme

My Recommendation for Zenburn

My Recommendation for Zenburn

Low blue-light for eye health

Quite low in contrast

Low contrast

Exceptionally easy for your eyes

Low contrast color theme

Ported to a lot of apps and software