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Solarized is a sixteen color palette (eight monotones, eight accent colors)designed for use with terminal and gui applications. It has severaluniqueproperties. I designed this colorscheme with both preciseCIELAB lightness relationshipsand a refined set of hues based on fixed color wheel relationships. It has beentested extensively in real world use on color calibrated displays (as well asuncalibrated/intentionally miscalibrated displays) and in a variety of lightingconditions.

See thechangelog for what's new in the most recent release.

Currently available in formats for (cfscreenshots below):

• Vim byme (the Vim-only portion of Solarized isavailable here, for use withPathogen, etc.). See also theVim README.

• Emacs courtesy ofGreg Pfeil(@sellout)in the main repo and in astandalone repository

• IntelliJ IDEAcourtesy ofJohan Kaving and(@flangy)in the main repo and in astandalone repository

• NetBeans courtesy ofBrian Fenton andin the main repo and in astandalone repository

• SeeStyle theme for Coda & SubEthaEdit courtesy ofJustin Hileman(@bobthecow),in the main repo and in astandalone repository

• TextMate ---NOTE: Dark Theme is work in progress
  courtesy ofTom Martin(@deplorableword)in the main repo and in astandalone repository(with key work fromMark StoryandBrian Mathiyakom)

• TextWrangler & BBEdit courtesy ofRui Carmo(@taoofmac)in the main repo and in astandalone repository

• Visual Studio courtesy ofDavid Thibault(@leddt)in the main repo and in astandalone repository

• Xcode work in progress ports are available forXcode 3 andXcode 4and will be pulled into the main Solarized project soon.

• Xresources / Xdefaults
• iTerm2
• OS X Terminal.app
• Putty courtesyBrant Bobbyand onGitHub
• Xfce terminal courtesySasha Gerrandand onGitHub

• Mutt e-mail client also byme (just the Mutt colorscheme isavailable here)

• Adobe Photoshop Palette (inc. L*a*b values)
• Apple Color Picker Palettes
• GIMP Palette

Don't see the application you want to use it in? Download the palettes (or pullthe values from the table below) and create your own. Submit it back and I'llhappily note the contribution and include it on this page. See also theUsage & Development section below for details on thespecific values to be used in different contexts.

Current release isv1.0.0beta2. See thechangelog for details on what'snew in this release.

You can also use the following links to access application specific downloadsand git repositories:

• Canonical Project Page:

  Downloads, screenshots and more information are always available from theproject page:http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized

• Full Git Repository:

  The full git repository is at:https://github.com/altercation/solarizedGet it using the following command:

  $ git clone git://github.com/altercation/solarized.git

• Application Specific Repositories:

  You can clone repositories specific to many of the application specificcolor themes. See links in the list above or select from this list:

  • Vim Repository

  • Mutt Repository

  • Emacs Repository

  • IntelliJ Repository

  • NetBeans Repository

  • SeeStyle-Coda-SubEthaEdit Repository

  • TextMate Repository

  • TextWrangler-BBEdit Repository

  • Visual Studio Repository

  • Xcode 3 work in progress

  • Xcode 4 work in progress

Note that through the magic ofgit-subtreethese repositories are all kept in sync, so you can pull any of them and get the most up-to-date version.

1. Selective contrast

   On a sunny summer day I love to read a book outside. Not right in the sun;that's too bright. I'll hunt for a shady spot under a tree. The shadedpaper contrasts with the crisp text nicely. If you were to actually measurethe contrast between the two, you'd find it is much lower than black texton a white background (or white on black) on your display device of choice.Black text on white from a computer display is akin to reading a book indirect sunlight and tires the eye.

   

   Solarized reducesbrightness contrast but, unlike many low contrastcolorschemes, retainscontrasting hues (based on colorwheel relations)for syntax highlighting readability.

2. Both sides of the force

   

   I often switch between dark and light modes when editing text and code.Solarized retains the same selective contrast relationships and overallfeel when switching between the light and dark background modes. Alot ofthought, planning and testing has gone into making both modes feel likepart of a unified colorscheme.

3. 16/5 palette modes

   

   Solarized works as a sixteen color palette for compatibility with commonterminal based applications / emulators. In addition, it has been carefullydesigned to scale down to a variety of five color palettes (four basemonotones plus one accent color) for use in design work such as web design.In every case it retains a strong personality but doesn't overwhelm.

4. Precision, symmetry

   

   The monotones have symmetric CIELAB lightness differences, so switchingfrom dark to light mode retains the same perceived contrast in brightnessbetween each value. Each mode is equally readable. The accent colors arebased off specific colorwheel relations and subsequently translated toCIELAB to ensure perceptual uniformity in terms of lightness. The huesthemselves, as with the monotone *a*b values, have been adjusted withina small range to achieve the most pleasing combination of colors.

   See also theUsage & Development section below fordetails on the specific values to be used in different contexts.

   This makes colorscheme inversion trivial. Here, for instance, is a sass(scss) snippet that inverts solarized based on the class of the html tag(e.g.<html> to give a dark background with red accent):

   $base03:    #002b36;$base02:    #073642;$base01:    #586e75;$base00:    #657b83;$base0:     #839496;$base1:     #93a1a1;$base2:     #eee8d5;$base3:     #fdf6e3;$yellow:    #b58900;$orange:    #cb4b16;$red:       #dc322f;$magenta:   #d33682;$violet:    #6c71c4;$blue:      #268bd2;$cyan:      #2aa198;$green:     #859900;@mixin rebase($rebase03,$rebase02,$rebase01,$rebase00,$rebase0,$rebase1,$rebase2,$rebase3){    background-color:$rebase03;    color:$rebase0;    * { color:$rebase0; }    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { color:$rebase1; border-color: $rebase0; }    a, a:active, a:visited { color: $rebase1; }}@mixin accentize($accent) {    a, a:active, a:visited, code.url { color: $accent; }    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {color:$accent}}/* light is default mode, so pair with general html definition */html, .light { @include rebase($base3,$base2,$base1,$base0,$base00,$base01,$base02,$base03)}.dark  { @include rebase($base03,$base02,$base01,$base00,$base0,$base1,$base2,$base3)}html * {    color-profile: sRGB;    rendering-intent: auto;}

   See alsothe full css stylesheet for this site.

Installation instructions for each version of the colorscheme are included inthe subdirectory README files. Note that for Vim (and possibly for Mutt) youmay want to clone the specific repository (for instance if you are usingPathogen). See the links at the top of this file.

Solarized has been designed to handle fonts of various weights and retainreadability, from the classic Terminus to the beefy Menlo.

Clockwise from upper left: Menlo, Letter Gothic, Terminus, Andale Mono.

Preview all code samples in specific font faces by selecting a link from thislist:

• DejaVu Sans 18

• DejaVu Sans 14

• Letter Gothic 18

• Letter Gothic 14

• Andale Mono 14

• Monaco 14

• Skyhook Mono 14

• Terminus 12

• Terminus 20

Click to view.

These screen shots show Vim running with my ownPandoc Kit Syntax.

L*a*b values are canonical (White D65, Reference D50), other values arematched in sRGB space.

SOLARIZED HEX     16/8 TERMCOL  XTERM/HEX   L*A*B      RGB         HSB--------- ------- ---- -------  ----------- ---------- ----------- -----------base03    #002b36  8/4 brblack  234 #1c1c1c 15 -12 -12   0  43  54 193 100  21base02    #073642  0/4 black    235 #262626 20 -12 -12   7  54  66 192  90  26base01    #586e75 10/7 brgreen  240 #585858 45 -07 -07  88 110 117 194  25  46base00    #657b83 11/7 bryellow 241 #626262 50 -07 -07 101 123 131 195  23  51base0     #839496 12/6 brblue   244 #808080 60 -06 -03 131 148 150 186  13  59base1     #93a1a1 14/4 brcyan   245 #8a8a8a 65 -05 -02 147 161 161 180   9  63base2     #eee8d5  7/7 white    254 #e4e4e4 92 -00  10 238 232 213  44  11  93base3     #fdf6e3 15/7 brwhite  230 #ffffd7 97  00  10 253 246 227  44  10  99yellow    #b58900  3/3 yellow   136 #af8700 60  10  65 181 137   0  45 100  71orange    #cb4b16  9/3 brred    166 #d75f00 50  50  55 203  75  22  18  89  80red       #dc322f  1/1 red      160 #d70000 50  65  45 220  50  47   1  79  86magenta   #d33682  5/5 magenta  125 #af005f 50  65 -05 211  54 130 331  74  83violet    #6c71c4 13/5 brmagenta 61 #5f5faf 50  15 -45 108 113 196 237  45  77blue      #268bd2  4/4 blue      33 #0087ff 55 -10 -45  38 139 210 205  82  82cyan      #2aa198  6/6 cyan      37 #00afaf 60 -35 -05  42 161 152 175  74  63green     #859900  2/2 green     64 #5f8700 60 -20  65 133 153   0  68 100  60

If you are considering developing a port for Solarized, please see also thedeveloper notes forinformation about optional repository structure and readme formats.

Solarized flips between light and dark modes. In each mode, four monotones formthe core values (with an optional fifth for emphasized content).

Thus in the case of a dark background colorscheme, the normal relationship forbackground and body text isbase03:base0 (please note that body text isnotbase00). Note also that in cases where the background and foregroundcan be specified as a pair value, text can be highlighted using a combinationofbase02:base1. The L*a*b lightness difference betweenbase03:base0 andbase02:base1 is identical by design, resulting in identical readabilityagainst both normal and highlighted backgrounds. An example use case is foldedtext in Vim which usesbase02 for the background andbase1 for theforeground.

The values in this example are simply inverted in the case of a lightbackground.