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🎨 Themes & Appearance

How to select, switch, and customize the look of your Vim.

Quick Switch

Open your vimrc (<leader>ev) and change one line:

let g:dotvim_theme = 'solarized8'

Save and reload (:source $MYVIMRC or <leader>sv).

Available Themes

Theme Value Vibe
Solarized (default) 'solarized8' The classic blue-tinted dark theme. Precision-engineered contrast.
Gruvbox 'gruvbox' Warm, retro, earthy tones. Easy on the eyes for long sessions.
Catppuccin Mocha 'catppuccin_mocha' Pastel, modern, soft. Popular in the Neovim community.
Everforest 'everforest' Soft green, nature-inspired. Low contrast, high comfort.
NewProggie 'newproggie' The original theme from this repo. Minimal, dark, no frills.

How It Works

The theme system uses a single variable g:dotvim_theme that controls:

  1. Colorscheme which color palette loads
  2. Airline theme statusbar automatically matches
  3. Plugin-specific settings contrast levels, highlight groups, etc.
" In vimrc this is all you need to change:
let g:dotvim_theme = 'solarized8'

" The rest is handled automatically:
" - colorscheme loads
" - airline theme matches
" - transparency applies (if enabled)

Transparency

Terminal transparency is on by default. Your terminal's background (wallpaper, blur, opacity) shows through Vim.

Disable Transparency (Use Solid Background)

let g:dotvim_transparent = 0

Enable Transparency (Default)

let g:dotvim_transparent = 1

When transparent, these highlight groups have their background cleared:

  • Normal, NonText, LineNr, SignColumn, EndOfBuffer, Folded, CursorLineNr

Note: Transparency depends on your terminal emulator supporting it (most modern ones do: Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm, Windows Terminal, iTerm2).

Light Mode

Some themes support light backgrounds. To switch:

set background=light

Works well with:

  • solarized8 the iconic solarized light palette
  • gruvbox warm light variant
  • everforest soft green light

Add this line before the colorscheme loads (or just put it near the top of your vimrc).

Try a Theme Without Committing

Switch temporarily in a running session:

:colorscheme gruvbox
:colorscheme solarized8
:colorscheme catppuccin_mocha
:colorscheme everforest
:colorscheme newproggie

This lasts until you close Vim. To make it permanent, update g:dotvim_theme in vimrc.

Preview All Installed Themes

" Cycle through all available colorschemes
:colorscheme <Tab>

Press <Tab> repeatedly to cycle through options. Press <Enter> to apply.

Adding Your Own Theme

  1. Install via vim-plug add to the plugins section in vimrc:
Plug 'folke/tokyonight.nvim'    " Example: Tokyo Night

  1. Run :PlugInstall

  2. Set it:

let g:dotvim_theme = 'tokyonight'
  1. (Optional) Add airline matching in the theme selection block:
elseif g:dotvim_theme ==# 'tokyonight'
  let g:airline_theme = 'tokyonight'

Recommended Terminal + Theme Pairings

Terminal Theme Why
Alacritty + transparency solarized8 Clean blue tones with wallpaper bleed
Kitty (opaque) gruvbox Warm and cozy, no transparency needed
Windows Terminal + acrylic catppuccin_mocha Pastels pop against frosted glass
tmux + minimal everforest Low contrast, easy on eyes in splits
Any terminal, SSH session newproggie Minimal, works in 256-color mode

Font Recommendations

Themes look best with a proper Nerd Font (required for devicons):

Font Style
JetBrains Mono Nerd Clean, modern, great ligatures
FiraCode Nerd Popular, excellent ligatures
Hack Nerd Classic monospace, no ligatures
Iosevka Nerd Narrow, fits more columns
CaskaydiaCove Nerd Microsoft's Cascadia Code + Nerd glyphs

Install from: https://www.nerdfonts.com/font-downloads

"A good theme is one you forget is there. It should serve the code, not compete with it."