Hanalei, Hawaii Wednesday, March 10, 2010

TextMate Theme For Visual Studio, Take 2

Previously I posted my modified version of Jon Lam's Vibrant Ink theme (which is a copy of the TextMate/Rails theme), and I've received a lot of queries about it, including some tips and changes. I've updated this theme, and you can download it here.

Previously I posted my modified version of Jon Lam's Vibrant Ink theme (which is a copy of the TextMate/Rails theme), and I've received a lot of queries about it, including some tips and changes.

I've updated this theme, and you can download it here.

Last night I geeked out completely and sat down with my Mac and a color selector, and wrote down all the colors and so forth that make up the really really nice Vibrant Ink theme for TextMate (this is TextMate on a Mac):

textmate

A few things stood out as I was looking over this theme:

  1. Mac's font rendering, while questionable, is really, really nice on the eyes. I really like how it renders Monaco, versus the way Vista seems to render it. Monaco, on Vista, is supposed to be fixed-width, which makes it a good choice for a code editor.
  2. I've changed my mind about using it as I agree with Atwood - Consolas butter's my bread, it's so nice to read.
  3. The current Vibrant Ink theme has too much contrast (for my eyes). I really like the colorfulness of the original, and I like how it's toned down a bit.
  4. Bolding Consolas makes it far better to read on a black background - it also makes it appear smoother.

I adhered as closely as I could (minus Monaco) to the way TextMate does it, and without further ado, here is my updated Vibrant Ink theme:

codefile
A Code file. I'm playing with some mocked MVC bits to get SubSonic ready!

html

ASPX page with inline scripting and server control. Takes some getting used to but hopefully not that long. I tried to set the background to white but they both use "Text Editor" settings so ... no joy there.

output

The output window. Ahh the good old CRT days. This is untouched from Atwood's settings.

You can download the tweaked theme here.


Kevin Isom - October 17, 2007 - Rob,
That's great, I love that theme. Just one thing. The file is for VS 2008, and VS 2005 won't let you import it, but if you change to and it works fine.
Cheers
Kev
DotNetKicks.com - October 17, 2007 - Another Vibrant Ink Theme for Visual Studio... You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.com...
Kevin Isom - October 17, 2007 - Oops. That should be ApplicationIdentity version="9.0" to version="8.0"
Tomas Restrepo - October 17, 2007 - Looks good, Rob. Personally, I've never been a fan of vibrant ink (but then again, I'm unfortunately not a user of the mac & textmate combo!), mostly because it is too much contrast for me. However, maybe if I slightly changed the background and made identifiers in a slight darker (grayer) tone.... I wonder hum....
adminjew - October 17, 2007 - I am using it since you last post it is gr8
Jon Galloway - October 17, 2007 - The previous TextMate theme had problems with XAML - the background was dark, and so were the words. Have you looked at XAML in this new version of the theme?
Rob Conery - October 17, 2007 - @Jon - What's XAML? :p
Simone Busoli - October 17, 2007 - @Jon: I bet Rob did it by purpose ;)
andy - October 18, 2007 - Thanks for that... i was getting sore eyes from the white background when coding late at night :)
asbjorn - October 18, 2007 - Thank you. Looks amazing. Just changed background to very dark blue to reduce black on white contrast and font to BitStream Vera Mono Sans. Also setting the Brace Matching colour to something different is also useful.
CodeClimber - October 18, 2007 - For all the TextMate wannabe: Vibrant Ink for Visual Studio v2... For all the TextMate wannabe: Vibrant Ink for Visual Studio v2...
Colour schemes for Visual Studio - October 18, 2007 - [...] Rob Conery's port of Vibrant Ink [...]
Damien Guard - October 18, 2007 - The Mac and PC have different gamma's so a great scheme on one platform won't necessarily be so great on the other even when the exact same colours are chosen especially if it relies on subtle shades. If you like the Mac's softer font rendering try Inconsolata which has a similar appearance on Windows. If you want a scheme for Visual Studio that doesn't have a really dark or really light theme then try my HumaneStudio scheme ;-) [)amien
Alan Patrick - October 18, 2007 - I've been using it since you last post too. Just one niggle with the new version, underscores are a little hard to make out.
Stuart Allen - October 18, 2007 - thanks Rob
Ben - October 18, 2007 - Was it intended that all the text is bold? I've turned it all off after importing the settings. Other than that very nice!
Ben - October 18, 2007 - Doh. Just RTFA! Disregard the bold comment :)
Joe - October 18, 2007 - Does it work with resharper? Last time I imported some settings I spent 2 hours getting my R# fonts, etc working.
Denny Ferrassoli - October 18, 2007 - Just wanted to throw out a really great programming font for black backgrounds: Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
josh - October 18, 2007 - I started with the last one, but felt like the darkness was a little hard on my eyes, and other devs couldn't read code over my shoulder. So I lightened it up; here is a jpg and the settings: http://www.box.net/shared/itgzt859eg
julian - October 20, 2007 - Hi tanks,
Somehow the editor even seems more responsive but I guess that's just my imagination.

One little note..
The brace matching doesn't highlight the matched braces.
I changed the backgroundcolor and that fixed it.
My VS 2005 Theme -TextMate Theme For Visual Studio | johnadonline.com - October 29, 2007 - [...] is my VS 2005 Editor Theme, A modified(modified by Rob Conery) version of Jon Lam’s Vibrant [...]
raffaeu - October 30, 2007 - Very cool theme, but i've changed font to the old Courrier New 11 pt ... ;-) I'm little bit Blind ...
sandromark78 » Blog Archive » Tema “Vibrant Ink” - November 6, 2007 - [...] Come si può vedere da questo post, il lavoro iniziale per questo tema è stato compiuto da John Lam e successivamente è stato perfezionato da Rob Conery (che però ha ulteriormente personalizzato solo il tema per VS2005, vedere quest’altro post). [...]
Sandro M. - November 6, 2007 - Rob, thank you very much for your fantastic job. I have just announced your theme on my blog! Good work!
Visual Studio .NET 2005 te renk semalarinin degistirilmesi (Visual Studio Color Themes ) | Yurtman.net - a .NET fan - November 8, 2007 - [...] tarafindan düzenlenmis semayi deneyebilirsiniz oldukça güzel bir renk uyumumu var. Dosyayi buradan [...]
Daniel Nolan - November 15, 2007 - Lovely theme, ive never been a big fan of high contrast black themes but I thought I'd give it a shot. Absolutely adore it now. One thing that bugs me tho, and I've not figured out how to change the colour yet, is the bracket highlighter, its showing white on light grey.
7 Links Today (2007-11-28) - November 28, 2007 - [...] TextMate Theme For Visual Studio, Take 2 [...]
WooHoo - December 1, 2007 - Great theme, really nice on the eyes.

The problem i have is that in the HTML editor i lose the cursor, it stays the same colour as the black background. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.
Pálesz feljegyzései » DARKSIDE - Visual Studio dark theme - December 1, 2007 - [...] via [...]
vlad - December 4, 2007 - Thanks!
Jerry - December 10, 2007 - Hi, Rob
The theme is super cool ^_^
The only problem is cursor is black too. So it can't be distinguished between backgroud? Do you know how to set cursor color to white?
Marco - December 12, 2007 - Hi Rob! Your VibrantInk V2 scheme looks evry nice, but I don't like these hard and aggressive contrasts between white and black resp. bright/dark, two complementary colors. I tried a little with other colors especially for the background the scheme looks much more smoother and is not so aggressive. Actually I've changed background for Text Editor and Output Window from black to RGB (25, 25, 25) and plain text from white to RGB (225, 225, 225). These are very simple changes and maybe the background could be a little darker and text color a little brighter (but still dark/bright gray) which I haven't tried.
Ivo - December 19, 2007 - Great theme ;) ...
Ricardo Stuven - December 29, 2007 - Thanks for this theme. I've really enjoyed it.
My customizations (mostly for better contrast):

Selected Text: Item background = Gray
Brace Matching (Rectangle): Item background = rgb(96,96,96)
Collapsible Text: Item foreground = Gray
String (C# @ Verbatim): Item foreground = rgb(232,74,74)
Warning: Item foreground = Lime
Visual Basic Read Only Marker: Item foreground = Gray
XAML Attribute Quotes: Item foreground = White
XAML Text: Item foreground = rgb(165,194,92)
XML Attribute Quotes: Item foreground = White
XML Doc Comment: Item foreground = rgb(124,226,124)
XML Text: Item foreground = rgb(165,194,92)
Ricardo Stuven - January 2, 2008 - Please, ignore my "Collapsible Text" above.

...And Happy New Year! :-)
Visual Studio Color Scheme | TechToolBlog - January 21, 2008 - [...] I can be as cool as Grant with a textmate like color scheme with Rob Conery vss color [...]
Rafal - January 31, 2008 - Is there a way to import these settings into VS.NET 2003? Yes I know I could upgrade, but current project I'm working on at work requires 2003....
Steve Cooper - March 6, 2008 - Another thank-you for bringing a little bit more pleasure to coding. Very nicely done, and appreciated.
Seth - March 13, 2008 - Great!
Dan Crowell - March 14, 2008 - I love the color scheme. Is there a way to use it will SQL Server Management Studio?
The Journey of [D] - March 15, 2008 - [...] decided to adapt the Rob Conery - Textmate theme, with few minor [...]
Visual Studio Editor Renk Ayarlari | CopLux - Xyle… - March 19, 2008 - [...] burada ve surada da bu konulara deginilmis hatta sura bir de export [...]
Visual Studio 2008 Contrast Theme - March 22, 2008 - [...] decided to adapt the Rob Conery - Textmate theme, with few minor [...]
Importance of Comfort - DerekHammer.Com - April 29, 2009 - [...] how important it is to actually go through that process. Every time I install Visual Studio, I go directly to the WekeRoad blog and grab the Vibrant Ink theme for Visual Studio (then modify it to have 14 pt. font). This, I believe, makes coding more enjoyable. I think that [...]
VismGossy - May 9, 2009 - Интересный блог, подписался на rss.
VismGossy - May 9, 2009 - спасибо
VismGossy - May 9, 2009 - круто
Visual Studio Color Scheme « mqaa - May 21, 2009 - [...] around for a wile it looks like I settled with the color scheme shown below. It is based on the TextMate scheme Rob Connery [...]
VS10 minimal theme | I love .NET! - August 5, 2009 - [...] VS10 in a minimal theme works out well. Rob Connerys Vibrant Ink theme with the toolbox and navigation windows removed, you can find it here. Share and [...]
guarita - October 15, 2009 - LOVED this theme, gave my eyes some rest! thanks for publishing the settings for VS2005!
Rick - November 19, 2009 - Tried using this theme, colors are really good, but I guess the font size is way too small giving too much strain...
Gecko