Perceptually balanced syntax palette with a restrained interface. Two variants — alpha dark and alpha light.
- Two variants.
alpha darkandalpha light. Switch with your OS, or pin one. - Equal-weight syntax palette. Seven hues calibrated so no token visually dominates another — the eye reads structure, not emphasis.
- Restrained interface. Editor, sidebar, status bar, tabs, panels, terminal — all tuned to stay out of the way.
- WCAG-AA on light. Light variant retuned per hue to clear ≥ 4.5:1 contrast on white.
- Free & open source. MIT-licensed. No telemetry, no account, no paywall.
From VS Code
- Open the Extensions panel (
⌘+Shift+X/Ctrl+Shift+X). - Search for Alpha.
- Click Install.
- Run Preferences: Color Theme (
⌘+K ⌘+T/Ctrl+K Ctrl+T) and pick alpha dark or alpha light.
From the command line
code --install-extension gokhangunduz.alphaOr grab it directly from the Visual Studio Marketplace or Open VSX.
To switch between dark and light automatically with your OS:
- Open settings (
⌘+,/Ctrl+,) and search for Auto Detect Color Scheme, enable it. - Set Preferred Dark Color Theme to alpha dark.
- Set Preferred Light Color Theme to alpha light.
The dark variant locks every syntax color at HSL(h, 100%, 68%) — only the hue rotates, so weights stay equal across all seven colors. The light variant keeps saturation at 100% but lowers lightness per hue so each one clears WCAG-AA contrast on white.
| Hue | Used for | Dark | Light |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0° | variables, tags | #ff5c5c |
#ed0000 |
| 20° | constants, numbers | #ff925c |
#d14600 |
| 49° | classes, types | #ffe15c |
#8c7300 |
| 143° | strings | #5cff9a |
#008734 |
| 186° | functions | #5cefff |
#008391 |
| 221° | operators | #5c8fff |
#266bff |
| 284° | keywords | #d35cff |
#bd08ff |
Bug reports, palette suggestions, and pull requests are welcome.
MIT © Gökhan Gündüz