Color Schemes¶

Overview
File Format
Where to Store Color Schemes
Structure of a Color Scheme File
- Topmost Elements in Color Schemes Files
- Sub-elements of Settings
Minimal Scope Coverage
Sublime Text Settings Related to Color Schemes
- View Settings

Overview ¶

Color schemes define the colors used to highlight source code in Sublime Text views and to style different elements found in the editing area: background, foreground, selection, caret…

File Format ¶

Format	Property List
Extension	`.tmTheme`
Name	Any
Location	Any under `Packages`
Content	Described in Structure of a Color Scheme File

The file format of color scheme files is inherited from Textmate.

Note

Sublime Text uses the .tmTheme extension for color scheme files to maintain compatibility with Textmate. Rather confusingly, Sublime Text also has a notion of a user interface (UI) theme. A UI theme is a set of styles and decorations to alter the look of the editor’s UI.

It’s important to remember that UI themes and color schemes are two different customization mechanisms. Generally speaking, it is far less complex to create a new color scheme than it is to create a new UI theme.

Where to Store Color Schemes ¶

By convention, packages primarily containing a set of color scheme files have the Color Scheme - prefix. For example: Color Scheme - Default.

The file names of all available color schemes are displayed in the Preferences → Color Scheme menu, grouped by the containing package.

Structure of a Color Scheme File ¶

All color scheme files share the same topmost structure.

Colors can be expressed in the following formats: #RRGGBB, #RGB, X11 color names

Most elements controlling colors accept an alpha channel value: #RRGGBBAA.

Contents

Topmost Elements in Color Schemes Files
Sub-elements of Settings
- Global Settings
  - General
  - Brackets
  - Tags
  - Find
  - Gutter
  - Selection
  - Guides
  - Highlighted Regions
  - Shadow
- Scoped Settings

Topmost Elements in Color Schemes Files ¶

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>name</key>
    <string>Monokai</string>
    <key>settings</key>
    <array>
        <!-- INSERT DICTIONARIES WITH COLOR SETTINGS HERE -->
    </array>
    <key>uuid</key>
    <string>D8D5E82E-3D5B-46B5-B38E-8C841C21347D</string>
</dict>
</plist>

name: Optional. Name of the color scheme. Ignored by Sublime Text.
settings: Required. Container for further color scheme settings. See Sub-elements of Settings for details.
uuid: Optional. A unique identifier for the file. Ignored by Sublime Text.

Sub-elements of Settings ¶

Sublime Text supports the following color scheme settings:

Global Settings ¶

Not associated with any scope. These settings affect global visual items in the editing area.

Global settings go inside a <dict> element within the topmost <array>.

<array>
   <dict>
      <key>settings</key>
      <dict>
         <key>background</key>
         <string>#272822</string>
         <key>caret</key>
         <string>#F8F8F0</string>
         ...
      </dict>
   </dict>
...
</array>

General ¶

foreground

Default foreground color for the view. Affects file contents, the gutter, rulers and guides.

The alpha channel does not apply to file contents.

Because there is no override setting for rulers, the only way to change the color of rulers is a “hack” further described here.

background

Default background color of the view (and gutter).

invisibles

Ignored.

caret

Color of the caret.

lineHighlight

Color of the line the caret is in.

Only used when the higlight_line setting is set to true.

Brackets ¶

bracketContentsOptions

Controls how brackets are highlighted when a caret is between a bracket pair. Expects a space-separated list of the available options.

Only applied when the match_brackets setting is set to true.

Options: underline, stippled_underline, squiggly_underline, foreground

Default: underline

bracketContentsForeground

Color of the highlighting(s) selected by bracketContentsOptions.

Only applied when the match_brackets setting is set to true.

bracketsOptions

Controls how brackets are highlighted when a caret is next to a bracket. Expects a space-separated list of the available options.

Only applied when the match_brackets setting is set to true.

Options: underline, stippled_underline, squiggly_underline, foreground

Default: underline

bracketsForeground

Color of the highlighting(s) selected by bracketOptions.

Only applied when the match_brackets setting is set to true.

Tags ¶

tagsOptions

Controls how tags are highlighted when a caret is inside a tag. Expects a space-separated list of the available options.

Only applied when the match_tags setting is set to true.

Options: underline, stippled_underline, squiggly_underline, foreground

Default: stippled_underline

tagsForeground

Color of the highlighting(s) selected by tagsOptions.

Only applied when the match_tags setting is set to true.

Find ¶

findHighlight: Background color of regions matching the current search.
findHighlightForeground: Foreground color of regions matching the current search.

Gutter ¶

gutter: Background color of the gutter.
gutterForeground: Foreground color of the gutter.

Selection ¶

selection: Color of the selection regions.
selectionBorder: Color of the selection regions’ border.
inactiveSelection: Color of inactive selections (inactive view).

Guides ¶

guide

Color of the guides displayed to indicate nesting levels.

Only used if the indent_guide_options setting includes``draw_normal``.

activeGuide

Color of the guide lined up with the caret.

Only applied if the indent_guide_options setting includes draw_active.

stackGuide

Color of the current guide’s parent guide levels.

Only used if the indent_guide_options setting is set to draw_active.

Highlighted Regions ¶

highlight: Background color for regions added via sublime.add_regions() with the sublime.DRAW_OUTLINED flag added.
highlightForeground: Foreground color for regions added via sublime.add_regions() with the sublime.DRAW_OUTLINED flag added.

Shadow ¶

shadow

Color of the shadow effect when the buffer is scrolled.

shadowWidth

Width of the shadow effect when the buffer is scrolled.

Values greater than 32 cause the shadow to be hidden. The default is 8.

Note that, despite its nature, this expects a string value.

Scoped Settings ¶

Settings associated with a particular scope.

<array>
   ...
   <dict>
      <key>name</key>
      <string>Comment</string>
      <key>scope</key>
      <string>comment</string>
      <key>settings</key>
      <dict>
         <key>foreground</key>
         <string>#75715E</string>
      </dict>
   </dict>
   ...
</array>

name

Descriptive name of the item.

scope

Target scope name.

settings

Container for settings.

Valid settings are:

fontStyle

Space-separated list of styles for the font.

Options: bold, italic, nothing (resets fontStyle to normal)

foreground

Foreground color.

background

Background color.

Minimal Scope Coverage ¶

Refer to the official Scope Naming guidelines in order to find out which scopes a color scheme should cover at minimum.