from Hacker News

What VS Code theme do you use?

by jayFellows on 9/19/22, 6:23 AM with 27 comments

I can't seem to settle on one. They all seem to have small things about them that annoy me.

  • by sph on 9/19/22, 2:51 PM

    The one with fewest colours. I have no idea why people really love colour vomits on their screens. Reading and writing code consumes enough mental CPU that syntax highlighting needs to be a helpful tool, not an overstimulation. Might be my ADHD. The most ridiculous ones are those that have a different colour for methods, variables, free standing functions, classes vs structs. Do people really go "ah, name's yellow, must be a struct"?

    Ideally only keywords, numbers, strings would be highlighted, and symbols de-highlighted. And comments need to stand out. Theme designers really like making comments almost impossible to read for some reason.

    I tend to prefer muted colours, which are extremely rare to find in the VSCode marketplace. My favourite light is Alabaster by Nikita Propokov, but the best is the dark one One Monokai 80s

    - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=tonsky.t...

    - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=axiomati... (there might be a more active fork)

    These days I use Emacs with the excellent Modus Operandi/Vivendi by Prot (in muted colours mode), and experimenting with ef-themes by the same author.

  • by koenvdb on 9/19/22, 8:00 AM

    One Dark Pro Darker. But I have a long list of themes where I just randomly pick on ones in a while. Sometimes I switch to a light theme and sometimes a dark one. I have the same thing as you, it's also dependent on which language I'm working on the most. Some themes work better with one language than the other.

  • by Zizizizz on 9/19/22, 4:03 PM

  • by SxC97 on 9/19/22, 9:53 PM

    I quite like Nord. The color scheme is pleasing to look at, available in most editors and terminals for consistency, and looks good at night and during the day.

  • by tmm84 on 9/21/22, 1:56 AM

    For me I do rotate depending on the time of day or the weather.

    If I want less color then it is Py Light. If I want a good light theme then Solarized Light Alternate (really great compared to regular solarized). If I want a dark theme then it'll be Base16 Mocha, Base16 Paraiso, Pudding or skyline.

  • by nkristoffersen on 9/19/22, 4:38 PM

    Dark High Contrast (built in theme). It looks extreme but I love how the editor gets out of the way.

  • by jstx1 on 9/19/22, 7:40 AM

    > They all seem to have small things about them that annoy me.

    You can always take a theme that you like and customise it so it doesn't annoy you. Go to .vscode/extensions/<theme-name>/themes/ (or equivalent location for your system) and edit the json file.

  • by viginti_tres on 9/19/22, 8:19 AM

    I found that if I force myself into using one theme, I got accustomed to it over time so it's just a matter of time. Github Dark Dimmed initially, got annoyed by Tokyonight but forced myself through it. Ended up loving it.

  • by jo_beef on 9/19/22, 11:08 AM

  • by iamwpj on 9/19/22, 3:00 PM

    Ayu Mirage Bordered. One Dark Pro was my go to for a long time, but I think Ayu and I have been together for at least 18 months and I haven't had any interest in switching away.

  • by MisterSandman on 9/19/22, 7:42 PM

    Default Light Theme. Yes, my eyes still work. No, I don't hate myself. I just usually code firing the day and light mode feels more uplifting.

    I also use Discord Light Mode.

  • by joshxyz on 9/21/22, 1:44 AM

    SONOKAI it is like MONOKAI PRO but it is FREE. sorry for the all caps, i love it so much.

  • by tipsytoad on 9/19/22, 7:38 PM

    Default dark GitHub theme. Maybe you've seen it before :)

  • by matthewwolfe on 9/19/22, 10:31 PM

    Tomorrow Night. Only the best theme out there.

  • by alsoicode on 9/19/22, 12:20 PM

    Night Owl with the Dank Mono font

  • by lukaszkups on 9/19/22, 12:07 PM

    Monokai

  • by I_am_tiberius on 9/19/22, 9:36 AM

    Ocean Next is the only one.

  • by wen_1k_btc on 9/19/22, 2:51 PM

    Gruvbox is pretty cool

  • by teejmya on 9/19/22, 2:49 PM

    Dracula