This is a mirror of http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3520

Screenshots and details at http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized (includes Solarized for other applications including mutt, terminal emulators).

Can also be cloned from github at https://github.com/altercation/vim-colors-solarized for use with Pathogen, Vundle, etc.

* * *

Solarized is a beautiful, carefully designed 16 color, selective contrast colorscheme with both *light* and *dark* modes. It supports GUI full color, 256 color terminal mode and 16 color terminal mode (use Solarized terminal colorschemes with the latter for optimal results; see project homepage above).

It has been built on a foundation of eight monotones with precise CIELAB lightness relations. These monotones relations are symmetric, allowing for use in light and dark modes with identical readability.

Solarized Colorscheme for Vim

Developed by Ethan Schoonover <es@ethanschoonover.com>

Visit the [Solarized Homepage][solarized]

See the [homepage for the Solarized colorscheme][solarized] for screenshots,

details and colorscheme versions for Vim, Mutt, popular terminal emulators and

other applications.

Screenshots

[](https://github.com/altercation/solarized/raw/master/img/solarized-screen-ruby-dark.png)

[](https://github.com/altercation/solarized/raw/master/img/solarized-screen-ruby-light.png)

Downloads

If you have come across this colorscheme via the [vim-only repository on

github][vim-solarized-github], or the [vim.org script page][vimorg-script] see

the link above to the Solarized homepage or

visit the [github repository for Solarized][solarized-github].

[solarized]: http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized

[solarized-github]: https://github.com/altercation/solarized

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

[vimorg-script]: http://vim.org/script

[pathogen]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen

Installation

1. Move `solarized.vim` to your `.vim/colors` directory. After downloading the

vim script or package:

$ cd vim-colors-solarized/colors

$ mv solarized.vim ~/.vim/colors/

1. Download and install Tim Pope's [Pathogen].

2. Next, move or clone the `vim-colors-solarized` directory so that it is

a subdirectory of the `.vim/bundle` directory.

a. **Clone:**

$ cd ~/.vim/bundle

$ git clone git://github.com/altercation/vim-colors-solarized.git

b. **Move:**

In the parent directory of vim-colors-solarized:

$ mv vim-colors-solarized ~/.vim/bundle/

After either Option 1 or Option 2 above, put the following two lines in your

.vimrc:

set background=dark

colorscheme solarized

or, for the light background mode of Solarized:

set background=light

colorscheme solarized

I like to have a different background in GUI and terminal modes, so I can use

the following if-then. However, I find vim's background autodetection to be

pretty good and, at least with MacVim, I can leave this background value

assignment out entirely and get the same results.

if has('gui_running')

set background=light

else

set background=dark

endif

See the [Solarized homepage][solarized] for screenshots which will help you

select either the light or dark background.

If you are going to use Solarized in Terminal mode (i.e. not in a GUI version

like gvim or macvim), **please please please** consider setting your terminal

emulator's colorscheme to used the Solarized palette. I've included palettes

for some popular terminal emulator as well as Xdefaults in the official

Solarized download available from [Solarized homepage][solarized]. If you use

Solarized without these colors, Solarized will by default use an approximate

set of 256 colors. It isn't bad looking and has been extensively tweaked, but

it's still not quite the real thing.

If you do use the custom terminal colors, simply add the following line

*before* the `colorschem solarized` line:

let g:solarized_termcolors=16

Advanced Configuration

Solarized will work out of the box with just the two lines specified above but

does include several other options that can be set in your .vimrc file.

Set these in your vimrc file prior to calling the colorscheme.

"

option name default optional

------------------------------------------------

g:solarized_termcolors= 256 | 16

g:solarized_termtrans = 0 | 1

g:solarized_degrade = 0 | 1

g:solarized_bold = 1 | 0

g:solarized_underline = 1 | 0

g:solarized_italic = 1 | 0

g:solarized_style = "dark" | "light"

g:solarized_contrast = "normal"| "high" or "low"

------------------------------------------------

* g:solarized_termcolors

**The most important option** if you are using vim in terminal (non gui)

mode! See my diatribe above regarding terminal colors. This tells Solarized

to use the 256 degraded color mode if running in a 256 color capable

terminal. Otherwise, if set to `16` it will use the terminal emulators

colorscheme (best option as long as you've set the emulators colors to the

Solarized palette).

* g:solarized_termtrans

If you use a terminal emulator with a transparent background and Solarized

isn't displaying the background color transparently, set this to 1 and

Solarized will use the default (transparent) background of the terminal

emulator. *urxvt* required this in my testing; Terminal.app/iTerm2 did not.

* g:solarized_degrade

For test purposes only; forces Solarized to use the 256 degraded color mode

to test the approximate color values for accuracy.

* g:solarized_bold | g:solarized_underline | g:solarized_italic

If you wish to stop Solarized from displaying bold, underlined or

italicized typefaces, simply assign a zero value to the appropriate

variable, for example: `let g:solarized_italic=0`

* g:solarized_style

Simply another way to force Solarized to use a dark or light background.

It's better to use `set background=dark` or `set background=light` in your

.vimrc file. This option is mostly used in scripts (quick background color

change) or for testing.

* g:solarized_contrast

Stick with normal! It's been carefully tested. Setting this option to high

or low does use the same Solarized palette but simply shifts some values up

or down in order to expand or compress the tonal range displayed.

If you are running vim in a terminal, Solarized will run in 256 color mode if

the terminal supports it, but those 256 colors are (in all 256 color terminal

emulators) limited to a "degraded" color palette. While the colors will all

approximate the specific Solarized color values, if you prefer an accurate

color palette you can set the ANSI colors in your terminal and use the 16 color

terminal mode using the g:solarized_termcolors="16" option detailed below. The

ANSI color map is specified in the table below and terminal color themes are

available for download from the web page listed at the top of this file,

including xorg defaul color values and themes for OS X Terminal.app and iTerm2.

Toggle Background Function

Here's a quick script that toggles the background color, using F5 in this

example. You can drop this into .vimrc:

function! ToggleBackground()

if (w:solarized_style=="dark")

let w:solarized_style="light"

colorscheme solarized

else

let w:solarized_style="dark"

colorscheme solarized

endif

endfunction

command! Togbg call ToggleBackground()

nnoremap <F5> :call ToggleBackground()<CR>

inoremap <F5> <ESC>:call ToggleBackground()<CR>a

vnoremap <F5> <ESC>:call ToggleBackground()<CR>

Code Notes

Use folding to view the `solarized.vim` script with `foldmethod=marker` turned

on.

I have attempted to modularize the creation of Vim colorschemes in this script

and, while it could be refactored further, it should be a good foundation for

the creation of any color scheme. By simply changing the sixteen values in the

GUI section and testing in gvim (or mvim) you can rapidly prototype new

colorschemes without diving into the weeds of line-item editing each syntax

highlight declaration.

License

Copyright (c) 2011 Ethan Schoonover

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy

of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal

in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights

to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell

copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is

furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in

all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,

FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE

AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER

LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,

OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN

THE SOFTWARE.