On: 63% Prefer a Dark Themed Text Editor

[billybob]

I use the Solarized theme in Vim and find it's very nice: http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized

It has a dark version, which I use for coding, and which I think works better with syntax highlighting. It also has a light version, which I like for regular text editing.

Both have nice contrast, and you can toggle between the two with a single keypress.

[mattdeboard → billybob]

You may be pleased to note that this comment finally pushed me over toward finally trying Solarized in Emacs. I'm very used to high-contrast themes (blackboard for almost a year) so it's taking some getting used to. Especially in the emacs rcirc client where chat text is low contrast on the background.

edit: Lasted about a half hour for me; too low contrast and the cursor seems to be invisible, so impossible to tell where I'm about to type.

[tyler_ball → billybob]

I use a modified version of molokai: http://winterdom.com/2008/08/molokaiforvim

I like the look of solarized, but in practical use it doesn't have enough contrast for me.

[lloeki → tyler_ball]

> in practical use it doesn't have enough contrast for me

This is actually what makes the deal for me. On my bright, (nonprofessionally) calibrated IPS screens most color schemes are just too much of an eyestrain for long coding sessions. Solarized (either Dark or Light) is deliciously smooth and pleasing.

[burke → billybob]

I didn't understand the love for solarized until I got a decent quality monitor. Now I use it for MacVim, iTerm2, and Adium (I just tweaked the colours in minimal_mod, and can share if anyone cares). It's perfect.

[teilo → burke]

Yes, if you don't have a proper gamma curve, a lot of the medium-contrast darker themes look poor.

[JoshMock → billybob]

I've been using Jellybeans for Vim (https://github.com/nanotech/jellybeans.vim) for some time and, try as I might, I can't make the switch to Solarized.

[blaenk → JoshMock]

Nice theme! All of the vim themes I tend to see are very simple in terms of color. Understandable that some might find more than a couple colors to be distracting, but I find it very helpful.

Syntax highlighting was the one last thing I regretted leaving TextMate for, but yesterday I spent a day tweaking my own theme (based off of Tomorrow-Night https://github.com/ChrisKempson/Tomorrow-Theme , which does have a vim theme but I found it lacking and not at all like the TextMate version) and I like it so far. But it's nice to finally know of another theme with nice colors. Thanks :)

In fact I think I like the string highlighting on this one, I might try it on mine :)

[darkandbrooding → JoshMock]

Thanks for the recommendation. I've been using solarized, but I like the slightly higher contrast that Jellybeans provides. Just updated my configs and looked through a several different file types (.sh, .rb, etc) and I'll be using Jellybeans from now on. Thanks again!

[Derbasti → billybob]

I think the real beauty of Solarized is how it works equally well in light and dark mode. Also, how it is explicitly not trying to be as high contrast as possible. I don't think I have ever used any color scheme as consistently as Solarized.

[flatline → billybob]

I like both Twilight and Zenburn. I've ended up sticking with Twilight for several years now, Solarized looks similar to it. Zenburn is lower contrast which I sometimes had trouble with.

[mrtron → billybob]

I use solarized in textmate and my terminal, I have been very happy with it.

[dlikhten → billybob]

Its the reason I went from the dark side to the light side. I use it everywhere now, terminal, etc. Terminal uses the dark solarized theme though.