A dark 256-color color scheme for vim.

Have you ever wondered why most syntax highlighting of source code is about as subtle and pretty as a candy shop explosion? A technical reason is the historical constraints imposed by 16 color terminals, but fortunately this limitation is easy to overcome.

• Minimal colors, to avoid distracting:
  • Shades of gray for most elements
  • Bright keywords to highlight structure.
  • Dark comments & strings to emphasize surrounding code.
  • Red for exceptional elements (constants & errors)
• Works in vim and gvim. Rudimentary support for 16-color terminals.

• Enable 256 colors in vim. Note that when using ssh, both client and server need to be properly configured.
• Put 256_noir.vim in ~/.vim/colors/
• Add the following to ~/.vimrc:

colorscheme 256_noir

" Change highlighting of cursor line when entering/leaving Insert Mode
set cursorline
highlight CursorLine cterm=NONE ctermfg=NONE ctermbg=233 guifg=NONE guibg=#121212
autocmd InsertEnter * highlight CursorLine cterm=NONE ctermfg=NONE ctermbg=234 guifg=NONE guibg=#1c1c1c
autocmd InsertLeave * highlight CursorLine cterm=NONE ctermfg=NONE ctermbg=233 guifg=NONE guibg=#121212

The font in the above screenshots is the default xterm bitmap font fixed at 6x13.

• mc, add the following to e.g. ~/.bashrc:

  export MC_SKIN=dark

• mutt, add the following to ~/.muttrc:

  color normal      white default
  color status      black white
  color indicator   white red
  color hdrdefault  yellow default
  color signature   yellow default
  color attachment  brightyellow default
  color markers     brightred default
  color quoted      green default
  color tilde       blue default
  color tree        red default
  

Other recommended terminal apps with dark colors by default:

• https://ranger.github.io/
• http://hisham.hm/htop/
• https://github.com/andreasvc/cplay/