Hi all,
I was tinkering with my theme for VS Code recently and find myself coming back to Solarized in the end. For me, it makes sense to have my main “writing programs” (code editor and app for notes) to have different colours from the black and white I find in many other applications. Makes it quciker to spot when I have multiple applications open. Especially on my phone.
So I was wondering what you guys like?
I just use Solarized Dark on most code and text editors.
I’m a Monokai fan. I use the VS Code one that came built into it.
I guess my main editors are Drafts, NotePlan (not really an editor, but I write a lot in its markdown during the day) and DevonThink.
For DevonThink I have distinct colours for the edit mode versus read mode so it probably doesn’t count for this conversation.
For Drafts, I’ve set up different themes for my different workspaces, so that I know where I am without checking. I tend to prefer “light” themes to dark themes. My general workspace is a solarised theme, then I have a light grey theme for a reading workspace and my work workspace is a dark mode (in teal, but only because teal is one of my employer’s brand colours and it helps me remember that I’m in work mode).
NotePlan is also a solarised theme. Solarised colours are my general preference I think - I nearly always change away from a white background if that is an option and prefer a deep cream/beige colour if I can.
Worth noting though that I also keep my device screens on a warm colour setting, so even white spaces (like this one!) don’t actually look white to me, they have a vague orange tinge (my eyes are sensitive so this is my concession to spending so many hours on my devices every day!).
I use the Nord theme wherever I can, so also in Visual Studio Code.
(Have used both Solarized and Monokai, before I discovered Nord)
Cobalt.
Try and it use it where I can, but there is some inconsistencies about how it’s put together, but generally speaking it works well.
Dark themes make my eyes hurts, and I like slightly lower contrast, so solarized generally. Although I’ll check out Nord - looks interesting.
With one tweak: I have a series of very similar themes where the background is a similar low saturation but different hue (light yellow, light green, light blue, etc), and I use them consistently for different things. That way I have a immediate indicator of what’s going on.
Usually, it’s an indicator of which remote computer that iterm window is logged into, but it could be useful for local-only work too if you tend to have multiple files or projects open.
Interesting choices what you all like. Checked out Nord as well and liked it. What drives me to Solarized is the attention to detail and symmetries.
The Verge had an article about it some years back.
I use sema light chroma which has the wonderful benefit in select languages of highlighting pieces based on language semantics instead of keywords. It really leverages color to guide you to what’s important instead of an absolute rainbow of colors for aesthetics (In my opinion). Most days I don’t get to use it for Rust which is what it works best with but I also find in other languages the color palette quite soothing to the eyes.
Shades of Purple is usually where I land.