microsoft / vs-colorthemes

Visual Studio Extension that installs additional color themes

Using this Extension

1. Download and install the extension
2. Restart Visual Studio
3. Navigate to Tools > Options > Environment > General and select your color theme:

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.

Steps to create a custom theme for this project

0. Prerequisite:

• For Visual Studio 2019, install the Color Theme Designer extension (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-madsk.ColorThemeDesigner).
• For Visual Studio 2017, install the Color Themes Editor extension (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioPlatformTeam.VisualStudio2017ColorThemeEditor).

1. Go to Tools -> Customize Colors (CTE extension), or File -> New -> Project and create a VSTheme Project (CTD extension).

2. Hover over the original theme you want to edit and click on 'Create Copy of Theme'.

3. Hover over the Custom Theme you created, and click on 'Edit Theme'.

4. Edit the colors to create a new custom theme.

5. Click on the Export Theme icon at the top and save the new theme as a vstheme. Then rename the file to xml.

6. Create a fork of the repo for your theme and add the file within the Themes folder.

7. Also update:

   a. The ThemeRegistration.pkgdef file (Please add entries in alphabetical order and rootkey token from the GUID of the xml file)

   b. The VSColorThemes.csproj file (include the theme file to the project)

   c. The source.extension.manifest (don’t update the version – just add to the assets)

8. Open a pull request and sign the Contributor License Agreement. We'll work with you to get it merged :)

NOTE: Please check the ShellColorTokens.md to ensure your theme contains all of the color tokens listed therein.

vs-colorthemes's Issues

Solarized Dark with VsVim has extra highlighting

When using the Solarized Dark theme with vsvim, The entire line at the caret will be highlighted in an annoying way. The other themes do not appear to do this. Happy to help, but I don't know what value to change.

[Unrelated to themes in Repo] White border around suggestions in VS2017

This is unrelated to any themes in this repository, i did not know where to post this.

I have been working on this theme for awhile and i have seen this border around the suggestions, i am unsure of what the property name is and how to disable it / recolour it. I am going for a almost no distraction layout for the theme like a flat style taking influence from "One Dark". The only issue is that i cannot find the property that the white border belongs to. There are other sections like the docs popup which i am finding it hard to locate, maybe im missing it like a idiot.

If at all possible i could get some help or guidance on this issue that would be amazing.

Theme - One Dark - CallumC.zip

Bad Contrast for keywords in Dark Solarized Theme

Discovered an issue with the dark solarized theme. Most of the keywords seem to be black, which really are hard to see with a dark theme. https://imgur.com/tus3o60

'Dark with Light Editor' tooltip text unreadable

Issue: when hovering over an html tag, the tooltip text is the same color as tooltip background http://zinzinzibidi.com/img/major_issue_with_dark_with_light_editor.jpg
Possible solution: http://zinzinzibidi.com/img/visual_studio_2017_color_theme_editor_dark_with_light_editor_temp_solution.jpg

It is not clear how to use this plugin.

I have install this plugin from within Visual Studio. When I installed the extension I did not see any obvious new menu entries (though there are many things in the menu so I might have missed it) and I also could not find anything new in the options page (again, hard to know if I missed it). The "more information" link in the "Extensions and Updates" window took me to this github page. However, the readme file in this repo only tells me how to contribute to the project but says nothing about how to actually use this extension.

It would be very nice if there were some instructions.

Unexpected Behaviour: Background can't be transparent

I've been messing a bit with the custom themes and have discovered that if I change the background of the main code window, it doesn't register changes to opacity. For example, if I set its source to 0000FF00(fully transparent yet 100% green). It is simply green.

Is this a limitation? If so, is it something that will never be added? Having your code window at about 80% opacity gives you the ability to do so many more things.

Cannot change the selected blue color. In create Project

Adding palenight material theme

It would be nice to have palenight theme as part as VS-ColorThemes.

Unexpected error while importing theme: System.Xml.XmlException

When I want to import any theme in Visual studio 2017, I get an XmlException error:

---

Microsoft Visual Studio

Unexpected error while importing theme: System.Xml.XmlException: For security reasons DTD is prohibited in this XML document. To enable DTD processing set the DtdProcessing property on XmlReaderSettings to Parse and pass the settings into XmlReader.Create method.

at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ThrowWithoutLineInfo(String res)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDoctypeDecl()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
at System.Xml.XsdValidatingReader.Read()
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Themes.Data.RegistryThemeIO.ReadThemeTemplatesFromXmlStream(Stream stream)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Themes.Designer.CommandHandlers.ImportTheme(ColorManager manager)

The odd thing is that this happens as well with Visual Studio 2015 and any VS2015 theme, even themes I once have been able to import without any problems.

Do you have any idea/clue on what's wrong?

Any hints are highly appreciated.

Cheers
Daniel

Choosing Tools>Customize Colors crashes VS 2017

Fresh VS 2017 install with the Color themes extension installed. When you go to Tools at the top, and then Color Themes, Visual Studio crashes and then restarts. Happens each time, whether you're on the Start page or a solution is open.

Cannaot install it

The VS 2019 option in installed is grayed out with message
The extension cannot be installed to this product due to prerequisites that cannot be resolved.
So, ok, what prerequisites this extension requires and where to get them please.
Thank you

Solarized Dark - Member Signature Background

Member Signature documentation background doesn't seem to be set properly.

Is there a way to change its background to match its window's? Not very easy on the eyes, and i'm at a loss as to what property it is called to change it myself.

Rest to standard schemes

After applying a new color theme, there isn't a way to reset everything back to the standard VS color schemes. Even when applying one of the standard color schemes or uninstalling this extension (and color editor), certain color settings are not reset. It should be simple for users to completely undo whatever this extension did.

Can't import this extension (json missing)

If I try to import this xsix file VS Code says "extension/package.json not found inside zip."

Dark (Extra Constast) is not the original theme

I checked out the Dark (Extra Contrast) theme. It seems that this theme not only increases contrast but also alters the colors. For example in the original dark theme visibillity modifiers were cyan. In this theme they are pink.

I would like to add an request for a theme that is exactly like the original dark theme but with ligher and darker colors. For example could the background be darker and the cyan color be lighter. This would greatly increase the visibillity! I have tried doing this myself and it works fine except that Resharper messes up some colors. I think it is because Resharper detects my theme as still being a "white theme".

VisualStudioHighConstrastDark.zip

Original Dark theme

My high contrast theme

Weird behavior from Restsharp

Returns error message when "edit theme" is clicked

find all references box not showing nice colors

When using the dark with light editor scheme the colors in the "find all references" box isn't updated.
the text is grey on a black background, this doesn't make it readable.

The "Light with Dark Editor" uses black text on black background, so not super useful.

User Jason.heeris raised the issue on Color Themes Editor QA:

The "Light with Dark Editor" uses black text on black background, so not super useful.

Can anyone port beautiful-ui themes from VS Code?

I use this theme pack for VS Code: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=swashata.beautiful-ui
It would be great if someone ported these themes, especially the Zenburn theme)

Sublime Material is still using default VStudio color in Verbatim String Literal.

suggestion: Add column "Default source" and a new filter to the theme editor

Context:
There are so many items (nearly 2700) in the color list that it is almost impossible to set all of them.
The goal of my proposal is to reduce the work for the theme creators and let the color schemes be more consistent.

First I suggest adding a new column, named "Default source", in the theme editor.
. Each item in this column would display the name of the item that is its default source. That is the item from which we get the color if no color is set.
. The source name should have a link so when we click on it the cursor goes to the source color.
. The same column, or an additional column, should display the default color (but it can't be edited from here).

Then I suggest adding an icon (to the tool bar of the theme editor) that filters the list in order to display the source items only.
This way, the user can edit the source colors first, then edit other colors only when needed.

I believe the source colors total number should be intentionally limited to less than 30, once for all.
That may need the reorganization of the color inheritance scheme.

Cursor (insertion point) invisible

I like the Mariana theme's dark background and pastel colors. I want to change the blinking cursor (insertion point) colors, as the problem I'm experiencing is that the cursor color is black and invisible on the black background (I cannot see it blinking).

The cursor looks fine when I disable the VsVim extension for Visual Studio, but I rely on VsVim quite heavily for editing. I may also file an issue report at the VsVim site, but I'm asking about this here first on the premise that I know VsVim works fine with Visual Studio's built-in Dark theme. So I'm wondering what I can change about the Mariana theme to make it likewise work with VsVim. Offhand, I can't imagine what the difference would be between the built-in Dark theme and the custom Mariana theme that would account for the disappearing cursor.

I've made a copy of the Mariana theme and have it open in the Color Theme Editor for Visual Studio 2019. I have clicked the "Show All Elements" button on the Editor toolbar. I then clicked in the Search box and typed in the word "cursor", but found that there are no properties which match. Therefore, I am at a total loss as to how to deal with this issue.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cannot apply my custom theme

I have a single, customized theme that I use based upon the existing Tan theme. I am able to import the theme and use it on one machine. On another machine though I can import it and it'll let me customize it some more but no matter what I do it won't allow me to set it as the theme to use. Clicking Save and Apply while editing simply saves it. Going to the Tools menu and trying to select it does nothing. It stays with the previous theme.

Suggestion: Gruvbox

An assortment of Gruvbox based themes would be fantastic.

Unreadable colors

Love the themes, however certain colors are very bad and completely unreadable for most of the dark themes. Two locations I have run into is:

• Powershell files
• TFS Code compare

I am not good at picking colors, else I would fix them and submit changes myself. Can anyone take a look at these?

When will the marketplace's version of color themes for visual studio be updated?

Just wanted to check in and ask how the progress is going for rolling out my updated theme?

Improve workflow for themes created externally

I see that both Color Themes and Color Theme Editor points to this repo. I’m working on a theme named Dainty for Visual Studio. I would love to get its default configuration merged into Color Themes at some point if you’re interested, but I think it needs more work.

Now, regarding the Color Theme Editor – the way my theme is built might be a bit different than usual. Instead of setting colors from the Color Themes page, it is built from a Node.js script using a combination of search–replace, and setting specific colors for categories afterwards.

My workflow consists of compiling the theme, importing into Color Themes by clicking “Import Theme”. After some changes it’s not unusual to have 150 themes in the list. I realize that this might be a bit of a different workflow than usual, and deleting the themes requires lots of pointing and clicking – and this is the biggest pain point.

So I’m just wondering if there is a better way. I would love to open one of the command windows and type something similar to:

Import-ColorTheme path
Delete-ColorTheme -Custom -All

Or even better:

Update-ColorTheme path

I’m not sure if it’s necessary, but I currently assign a unique UUID to each compiled theme. I had some issues that might have been caused by reusing the same UUID and doing many imports, although I find the issue hard to reproduce. With an update command it might be preferable to have one UUID for the theme.

If this is not something you plan to implement then I would appreciate if you told me how to delete the theme files from the file system. I’ve looked in a few different directories in AppData, but I can’t find them. I’m not that familiar with Visual Studio extensions.

Suggestion: A new Color Theme

Could create a new color theme like Visual Studio Code, with the style of the IDE Visual Studio Code.

VS Marketplace hyperlink not working

The link to Color Theme Editor (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.VisualStudio2017ColorThemeEditor) in the VS Marketplace site (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=JustinClareburtMSFT.ColorThemesforVisualStudio) is broken.

So this isn't a bug as such, just minor cosmetic issue with the VS Marketplace text.

Issue copying Dark theme: function names turn from white to black

User "Cracklings 3D" raised issue on Marketplace Ratings & Reviews:

As soon as I copy the dark theme over (as a starting template), the function names (c++) turn from white to black. Literally just copied the setting, nothing changed yet. And the identifiers don't react to the font adjustments in settings anymore in any way. Wasted a whole evening for this, guess I'll stick to the default grey.

Question: Where can I find more themes?

Are there any more themes other than the the ones bundled in the extension? Or a website dedicated to them like studiostyl.es or vimcolors.com

I want to change Method/Function's color in C#,what should i do?

Do‘t change local/system symbols/fields.

This used Visual Assist, I want like this but not used plugin.

Solarized Dark theme issues with CSHTML files

Customer raised issue on Marketplace Q&A.

Steven Salat on 13-Oct-2017 commented:
I found another problem with Solarized Dark theme in cshtml files. The C# code is highlighed in gray.

https://i.imgur.com/KPDJyhW.png

Suggestion: Monokai

Great work creating this pack. I like the Monokai theme a lot which is used in VSCode and Atom. Might be nice if it is included in this pack.

Scrolling up and down the scroll bar really quick freeze Visual Studio 2017

video repro -> https://youtu.be/GZuBC_5wr9w
Noticeable things:
-Scrolling up and down the scroll bar really quick freeze visual studio
-If scrolled slowly the scroll bar shrinks, as if it is re-calculating its size based on how far we went down the list.

Add support for VS 2019

It's super easy and quick to do. See how here https://madskristensen.net/blog/how-to-upgrade-extensions-to-support-visual-studio-2019/

Matching Brackets unreadable in all dark themes

Hi
In all available dark themes, the matching parantheses function makes the bracket unreadable:

Example: https://i.imgur.com/99Dv9QA.png

Especially when there are squigglies this is really annoying since it's not possible to see if the error is that bracket without unfocussing it.

Really like the pack though, keep it up!

Solarized Dark cshtml colors look wrong

I found a problem with Solarized Dark theme in cshtml files.
The C# code is highlighed in gray.

Font changed during theme changing

When u changing the theme the font is dropping to default (consolas).

Is there any theme gallery?

Creating a theme can be difficult. Is there any gallery to download more themes?

I would like one based on VS 2010 :)

Cannot install on Visual Studio 2019

I have tried to install this extension by using the .VSIX and also from the extensions menu in Visual Studio 2019. In all cases the installation fails with the following exception:

This extension cannot be installed because the following references are missing:

• Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.CoreEditor

Surprisingly, the full-fledged Color Theme Editor extension installs with no issues.

Attached to this issue is the log from the last failed installation.

dd_VSIXInstaller_20190404131539_2d50.log

Visual studio 2015 or whatever

It really boggles my mind that you would change the colors, make a mechanism for customizing the colors, and then fail to provide a customization profile for re-establishing the old colors. But yet here we are.

Can you please make an actual "Blue (2015)" theme and include it in this package, or at least link it to this thread?

Background at Breakpoint in Lambda Expression Color Not Listed

When I set a breakpoint within a Lambda expression, and the breakpoint is hit at runtime, the background colorization in imcomplete, low-contrast, and very distracting.

I'd like to change it to just be my regular background color so that it's invisible.

However, that particular color appears not to be listed in the Color Theme Editor. I've even extracted the RGB color values from a screen shot, and searched for them in the Theme Editor, and no color settings have that color value.

There is more discussion, sample code, and screen shots, here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49077869/prevent-visual-studio-2015-from-colorizing-background-at-breakpoint-in-lambda-ex

Is there a way to change this color that I'm missing, or is there some other Studio extension that's doing this, or what?

Rainglow support?

So I've been trying to wrap my head around away to get rainglow support in this system. If you don't know about rain glow you can check it out here https://github.com/rainglow/vs .

I could write a "transpiler" of sorts but that raises some questions around how the GUIDS are generated and keeping ThemeRegistration.pkgdef up to date. Do you even want to track 320 + themes in this repo? What are some other options?

Looking at the license redistributing the themes is possible, I just want to make sure this is the right option before I write the tools required to transpile their themes into the format that is currently being used.

Error when using theme editor on VS2019 16.0-preview-3

I realize these things take time to get updated, but I didn't see an issue yet. The plugin is currently incompatible with the latest preview.

SSMS Theming

Not sure if you are interested or not, but I have been incorporating your themes for SSMS. I had to edit the dark themes to fix the environment colors for SSMS as the Object Explorer and other windows do not play nice with themes.

How Do I install Custom Color Themes for SSMS?

I also wrote a very simplistic editor for editing the font colors for SSMS.

Dark theme with Extra Contrast

I have experimented a little bit but can't seem to make any of my changes work. I am looking for a dark theme with a little bit better contrast than the original dark theme. Is there any repository for themes where you can download other themes?

Material Dark theme color issue with Visual Studio 2019

When using the Material Dark theme, the platforms under the different project types are unreadable on the New Project window.

Sublime Material Theme not working

I am trying to import this theme but since it is an xml I am unsure what to do... I just renamed the file to a .vstheme and imported it... however it does not change the look, what I am looking forward to is something similar to this, I am amazed nobody has done it for VS IDE
https://github.com/equinusocio/material-theme

Extension keeps losing the custom theme I have

I am using a custom theme. Rather frequently I will restart VS 15.6 and the theme gets reset. When I go to switch it back the theme is gone. I import the theme again. Because of another issue the theme doesn't show up and you have to restart VS. The theme is then applied correctly.

Some things that may be cause it to lose the theme.

1. I uninstall and/or install an extension in VS. Doesn't matter what that extension is.
2. Starting multiple instances of VS. Note that would all use the same theme but that doesn't seem to matter.
3. Using different instances of VS 2017 (I have both 15.5.4 and 15.6 preview installed.

I cannot really identify the trigger state but it happens several times a week (and sometimes a day).