A faithful port of Vim’s classic “desert.vim” colorscheme — now available for Visual Studio Code.
This theme recreates the warm, balanced contrast and soft readability that made Vim’s Desert a community favorite since the early 2000s.
The original desert.vim by Hans Fugal was one of the most popular dark color schemes in Vim history — known for its gentle contrast, readable comments, and earth-toned palette that worked well across terminals and GUI Vim.
This VS Code port preserves that distinctive look and feel, matching Vim’s highlight groups as closely as possible within VS Code’s syntax system.
| Group | Color (hex) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | #ffffff on #333333 |
Subtle dark base |
| Comment | #6dceeb |
Soft cyan |
| String | #ffa0a0 |
Warm pinkish tone |
| Keyword | #f0e68c |
Pale gold |
| Function | #89fb98 |
Vibrant green |
| Type | #bdb76b |
Muted khaki |
| Visual | #f0e68c on #6b8e24 |
Olive visual selection |
Search directly in VS Code:
Desert (Vim Port) by r11s
or visit the Marketplace page: 🔗 https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=r11s.desert-vscode-theme
Once installed, open the Command Palette → Preferences: Color Theme and select:
Desert (Vim Port)
If you built or downloaded a .vsix file manually:
- Open Command Palette (
Ctrl+Shift+P/Cmd+Shift+Pon macOS) - Run “Extensions: Install from VSIX...”
- Select
desert-vscode-theme-<version>.vsix - Restart VS Code ✅
To retain Vim’s clean, focused aesthetic:
These options remove unnecessary color distractions and keep the interface faithful to the Vim look.
Released under the Vim License.
This theme is based on “desert.vim”, originally created and maintained by Hans Fugal and the Vim Project. All modifications and adaptations are provided under the same terms as Vim itself.
- Ported by: Rainer S. (r11s)
- Original desert.vim author: Hans Fugal
- Vim Project: https://www.vim.org
{ "editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true, "editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": false, "editor.guides.bracketPairs": false, "editor.renderWhitespace": "none", "editor.cursorBlinking": "solid" }