Default color scheme

[frankie-loves-jesus]

https://github.com/altercation/vim-colors-solarized

(using Windows Classic Vs)

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[justinmk]

Solarized is not a good default choice, because:

• it requires advanced configuration
• it has unresolved issues for popular terminals
• the maintainer has lost interest

[frankie-loves-jesus]

You're right. However I should have been more specific - I meant Solarized-like colors.

[justinmk]

Ok, #276 is related, but we should start breaking out those issues. So, I'll keep this open.

Regarding solarized specifically, however, it's very unlikely, unless someone creates a fork that is reliable and consistent on most terminals and GUIs.

Renaming this issue to "Default color scheme" to avoid duplicates.

For those worried about issue bloat: use the milestone filters (you can also choose "show issues without milestones").

[alvaromartin]

Can we vote or make a poll? I would prefer molokai as the default. https://github.com/tomasr/molokai

[justinmk]

If you know of a poll app that doesn't involve parsing github comments, then sure. @jdavis What do you think about opening up this question on twitter and maybe doing another poll like you did for autocomplete?

[jdavis]

I could totally do that. Should we do an option based poll with a handful of choices with a place to write in? Do we have some choices in mind?

[justinmk]

@jdavis That sounds good. Let's leave this issue open for a week to collect suggestions, then start the poll next week.

We probably need separate polls for "dark" and "light" themes.

[aignas]

My suggestion is Base16. It is a very good theme and has a few build scripts, to easily build modified themes. This could even act as a good starting point for neovim's own theme.

[cjxgm]

I prefer the current default one for now because my terminal has only 8-bit color support. (And most of my time is spent in terminal)
In fact, I think it's better to detect for the color support:

• If the user didn't customize color scheme:
  • If vim is running as gvim or in a terminal supporting 256-color, default to some advanced color scheme;
  • Otherwise, default to the current 8-bit colored scheme.
• If the user customized color scheme, obey the user's customization.

P.S.: When using gvim, I prefer molokai anyway...

[dusans]

Wombat:

https://github.com/cschlueter/vim-wombat
http://dengmao.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/vim-color-scheme-wombat/
Suggestion for the poll. Also has a terminal version.

[aktau]

I think that it would be not only a good idea to pick a decent default (whatever the community thinks is decent). But to deliver a good set of themes with neovim. Molokai, solarized, zenburn et cetera are good options because they are well known. Let's follow sublime text in this regard. Making neovim more usable out of the box would be a nice thing. Editors have been evolving towards enabling color schemes by default for some time now (even Gedit does it...)

[1100110]

molokai gets my vote, if we are voting.

[aktau]

I think we've pretty much established github issues are a poor excuse for a voting system (see the style guide voting issue). Better we do it via a proper polling web app or some such (I think this has already happened for the most requested feature poll).

[ZyX-I]

I use wombat256mod colorscheme.

[jdavis]

Yeah, we definitely won't use Issues for voting. We used Google Docs/Forms last time and it worked great. I think we can use it again unless there is a better fit.

So far for suggestions for the poll:

• Molokai
• wombat256mod
• Base16

[adelarsq]

My suggestion for light theme is the Github theme:
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2855

About the dark themes I think that Molokai is the best so far.

[adelarsq]

@cjxgm I don't use, but may be that this plugin can be helpful. https://github.com/godlygeek/csapprox

[ZyX-I]

@adelarsq I think instead of using csapprox we should finally add support for true color in console. It will be good addition to the list of advantages over Vim.

[adelarsq]

@ZyX-I Would be great if possible.

[tarruda]

This is my colorscheme(this is the GUI version, I use csapprox to make it work on 256 color terminal). It's a small variation of textmate's twilight theme that was ported to vim

[tarruda]

@adelarsq I think instead of using csapprox we should finally add support for true color in console. It will be good addition to the list of advantages over Vim.

@ZyX-I I'm currently working on redraw events, which will only use RGB to describe colors. After that it will be possible to write a terminal UI that supports true color and degrades to less capable terminals automatically.

[felipecrv]

Can't we have something new for Neovim? Something based on the colors of the logo and the http://neovim.org/ website? I bet there are some designers that use Vim who would like to help with a color scheme.

[hotgloupi]

Instead of choosing a default color scheme, we should try to decide who will choose it for us. I think that most of the constraints have been listed here (terminal compat, dark/light bg support, low contrast, ...), so for me, the final choice will be good, but highly subjective.

@tarruda @justinmk can we settle this ?

[justinmk]

https://github.com/freeo/vim-kalisi will probably be the default. I don't know how complete it is, haven't had time to look at it. We may need to change the name too.

[freeo]

Sounds wonderful! As stated before, in case of my colorscheme becoming the default, I suggest renaming it to "neovim". About completeness, I strive for supporting every language the community asks me to. Many look ok out of the box, but some languages strangely link to "wrong" highlight groups. It's easier to fix that within the colorscheme itself, rather then rewriting all the syntax files, although it feels dirty...

[greduan]

@freeo Are you suggesting NeoVim includes very good syntax files? :P

[glittershark]

Feel like Kalisi is a fantastic choice as a default - non-polarizing (or solarizing, lol), adequately branded (shares colors with the logo) and nice-looking.

[jdavis]

I've been using it for about a month and haven't had any issues. Plus, @freeo is obviously pretty active and always responds to my requests/questions.

[alexispurslane]

I would suggest using light kalisi by default, because it looks most like the neovim colors/site/brand.

[glittershark]

👍 @ChristopherDumas

[matthiasbeyer]

I like molokai and wombat for dark schemes but I also like the github light theme for a light scheme (although I'd prefer a semi-dark theme)!

vim-kalisi is ugly IMHO. Much to much pale colors...

[VelocityREST]

OK, why not to have a poll and ask as many people (here, on reddit, and IRC) to vote for their favorite theme then make it the default in Neovim?

I can't shake the idea that only a handful of people saw this post and voiced their opinions here ..

[matthiasbeyer]

@habash1986 👍

[VelocityREST]

@matthiasbeyer I'm working on one, and I could use some help (as English is not my first language) please visit the link
and feel free to edit.
Everyone who wants to help with this, your help is highly appreciated.

[VelocityREST]

The form is ready, I've included all the color schemes that where mentioned in this post, also added both Tomorrow & Mustang, you can edit the form from this link, or view it's final look from this link.

Kindly check it, if something is missing, then please add it, if something is not compatible then delete it.
Here also two pages that have some interesting color schemes to consider 1, 2

Let's approve on this before we start sharing it.

[fwalch]

Whatever the outcome, inevitably, somebody won't like Neovim's default color scheme. But that's okay; it's only a default, and it can be changed quite easily.

But, really, who is the default theme for? Reasonably experienced vim users know how to set up a color scheme and probably won't care about the default anyway. It's the beginners that will be exposed to the default theme. So what would we gain with a survey? It would be asking experienced Vim users (I guess beginners don't hang around reddit/IRC) what they think new users should see when they open up Neovim. I don't think that's all that helpful.

vim-kalisi uses the Neovim colors, so it would surely be the most fitting default theme. Neovim could still ship all kinds of other color schemes.

So what about just using vim-kalisi as default, since it best represents the "Neovim brand", and instead ask people:

• What Vim colorscheme do you currently use? (provide URL)

That way Neovim could ship popular color schemes, making it easy for (Neo)Vim beginners to see what colorschemes are "out there" and choose what they like best. GUIs could provide some kind of colorscheme preview to make it even easier.

If you want to go with a survey for a default theme, asking for an URL could be better there as well; we can't list all possible color schemes as choices on the survey form.

[justinmk]

@fwalch Agreed. I think we should focus on working out bugs/issues with vim-kalisi (at the vim-kalisi issue tracker)

[robertmeta]

I hope that when a theme is considered that both poor monitors (high contrast) and the most common forms of color blindness are at least marginally considered. I have been surprised over the years by the number of complaints I have fielded due to minor issues with themes that I didn't even create (I just bundled them in http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=625).

Consistency and universal accessibility should be the keystone for the default themes, and people can always add fancier ones as long as they can actually use the application. If the interface is impossible to be navigated (due to lack of visibility) that is the ultimate fail.

[justinmk]

@robertmeta Agreed, the default really should be close to bulletproof. It's going to be a lot of work, so we need to start improving a single theme instead of suggesting random prototypes. If you are colorblind, could you leave feedback on the vim-kalisi issue tracker?

I'm going to lock this thread for now because it's insanely long. If anyone has a high-quality theme that meets the requirements discussed here, and hasn't already been mentioned, please open a new issue.

[justinmk]

https://github.com/morhetz/gruvbox looks like a robust theme, and works well in the terminal.

[justinmk]

Closing in favor of #14790