Share Your Syntax Color Theme (Page 1 of 3)

TextMate's default.

I'm not a big fan of the Vibrant Ink or All Hallows Eve theme.  I think the problem, for me, is that those don't seem to have a color "family".  The colors are garish and clash.  Most of the "default" on most IDEs tend to be rather unabstrusive, while being useful.  I've always like how comments almost disappear when they use a generally lighter color than all others.  The way unclosed strings/comments turn the whole screen a color is fine, and as the whole screen changes, it doesn't have to be a saturated color to be noticed.

The textmate default seems to use the same about of "gray" mixed into each color that the colors feesl harmonious.  Personally, if I had to look at the more saturateed colors on black, I'd have a headache after about 30 minutes.

So I just checked out oceandeep;  that has a very nice zen quality.  I'm not sure if I'd find the contrast good over long periods or late at night, but during the day I can see that being a very nice theme to work in.

I also just previewed all the TestMate built-in themes for the first time..

The ones I liked (in no particular order) :Twilight, IDLE, Expresso Libre,  & Dawn.  (Two light on dark, two dark on light) all three subdued colors and consistent amounts of gray mixed in).

The ones that would drive me crazy to use Brilliance Black, iPlastic, &  MagicWB

Guess I'm changing from MacClassic.  I'm going to give Espresso Libre a try for a few days...  I wish it wasn't quite so bright,  with its "accents", but I like that its not white on black for "normal" text -- I find that too high contrast for some reason.  However I'm not enough of a designer to think I could tweak the colors in an intelligent way to make what I want.

If you want to see something odd, try iPlastic with LucidaCalligraphy Font

Last edited by NielsenE (2006-10-11 23:28:32)

Oh man you guys. I'm not getting any work done now, just perfecting my syntax highlighting! LOL.

Do you prefer anti-aliased? And at what font-size?

I just found this great list of fonts on the textmate page. I'm trying out Bitstream Vera and am really liking it so far (at 11 anti-aliased)

Last edited by ryanb (2006-10-12 11:22:58)

my textmate theme:

using monaco at llpt anti-aliased

I find themes with light backgrounds much harder to look at for long periods of time than themes with dark ones... they make me feel tired more quickly

Last edited by idlefingers (2008-07-23 10:50:42)

Cheers. I think I started with all hallows eve and just went nuts with it until I was happy.

Here you go..

http://idlefingers.co.uk/

(I couldn't think of an original name for it )

Last edited by idlefingers (2009-03-21 18:18:33)

I agree it's a lovely theme you've got there, love the blue symbol colouring (then again everything about ruby's symbols fill me with joy )

I wonder, is there anybody who likes coding for long periods with a dark on light scheme? Perhaps my eyes are getting old but they really begin to hurt after even a short time with a bright background

You guys all seem to be on Macs, do you agree with a lot of comments on the 'net that Macs tend to 'blur' fonts too much, or is it a lot of rubbish?

I like dark on light and I regularly code close to 12 hours straight with only minor breaks.

Cool! I'm glad you're liking it, ryan. I like the purple you've used for the variables.