vim-solarized8/Readme.md

# Solarized 8: True Colors

Solarized 8 Flat Dark      |  Solarized 8 Flat Light
:-------------------------:|:-------------------------:
![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_dark_flat.png)  |  ![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_light_flat.png)

This is yet another Solarized theme for Vim. It places itself half way between
the original [Solarized](https://github.com/altercation/vim-colors-solarized)
and the [Flattened](https://github.com/romainl/flattened) variant. It
removes only *some* of the bullshit. The color palette is exactly the same as
in Solarized, of course, although some highlight groups are defined slightly
differently (for instance, I have tried to avoid red on blue).

The main reason for the existence of this project is that the original Solarized
theme does not define `guifg` and `guibg` in terminal Vim, making it unsuitable
for versions of Vim supporting true-color (i.e., 24-bit color) terminals.
Instead, this colorscheme works **out of the box everywhere**. For the best
experience, you need:

- Vim ≥7.4.1799, or NeoVim, with `termguicolors` set, **and**
- [a true-color enabled terminal](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728).

Solarized 8 also works in MacVim, gVim, etc…: no configuration is needed.


## But, my terminal has only 256 colors!

For terminals not supporting true colors, Solarized 8 will fall back
to use an approximate palette based on xterm's 256 colors. This is a very crude
approximation, which looks more or less like this:

Dark 256 color palette     |  Light 256 color palette
:-------------------------:|:-------------------------:
![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_dark_256.png)  |  ![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_light_256.png)

(Yeah, it looks like a different colorscheme.)

If you don't like this approximation, to get exact colors with such terminals
you have two possibilities:

1. Modify some of your terminal colors in the range 16–255 to match Solarized
   palette. For this purpose, you may run `scripts/solarized8.sh`; no setting is
   needed in Vim. Note, however, that this is not supported by all terminals
   (e.g., in macOS's Terminal.app this approach does not work: the script has no
   effect).

2. Set your terminal's 16 ANSI colors (the colors in the range 0–15) to the
   Solarized palette. Most terminals allow you to do that: see the manual of
   your terminal to learn how. Then, put this line in your `vimrc` before
   loading the colorscheme:

   ```vim
   let g:solarized_use16 = 1
   ```

   Be aware that, if you set the variable above, but your terminal does not use
   the Solarized palette, your colors will be completely off.

Finally, if your terminal does not support true colors, you must *not* set
`termguicolors`.


## Installation

If your Vim supports packages (`echo has('packages')` prints `1`), I strongly
recommend that you use them. Just clone this repo inside `pack/*/opt`, e.g.:

    git clone https://github.com/lifepillar/vim-solarized8.git ~/.vim/pack/themes/opt/solarized8

Otherwise, use your favourite installation method.

There are actually four optimized<sup>*</sup> colorschemes:

- `solarized8`: the default Solarized theme (screenshot below, middle);
- `solarized8_low`: low-contrast variant (screenshow below, right);
- `solarized8_high`: high-contrast variant (screenshow below, left);
- `solarized8_flat`: “flat” variant (not present in the original Solarized, see
   screenshots above).

![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8-normal-high-low.png)

To use any of them, set the background (`dark` or `light`) then load the
colorscheme, e.g.:

    set background=dark
    colorscheme solarized8

To switch the background from dark to light or vice versa, just set `background`
accordingly.

If you use Vim packages, there is no need to `packadd solarized8`. Keep your
`runtimepath` clean!

<sup>*</sup> On my machine, the original Solarized loads in ~3.5ms, while the
command above takes ~1.6ms. Even with extra highlight groups on (see options
below), Solarized 8 loads in about ~2.0ms. The loading time depends on the
background and on the terminal palette, but it should never be more than 3ms on
average (light background, 16 colors).


## Options

The following options are inherited from Solarized:

- `g:solarized_visibility`: one of `"normal"` (default), `"low"`, `"high"`;
- `g:solarized_diffmode`: one of `"normal"` (default), `"low"`, `"high"`;
- `g:solarized_termtrans`: make terminal background transparent if set to `1`
  (default: `0`).

The following options were not available in the original Solarized:

- `g:solarized_statusline`: one of `"normal"` (default) or `"low"`;
- `g:solarized_term_italics`: set to `1` to enable italics in the terminal
  (default is `0`).
- `g:solarized_old_cursor_style`: set to `1` if you want to use the original
  Solarized's cursor style (default: `0`). By default, the cursor is orange/red
  in light themes, and blue in dark themes (but please note that your terminal
  may override the cursor's color).
- `g:solarized_extra_hi_groups`: set to `1` to enable Solarized
  filetype-specific syntax highlighting groups (default is `0`). Please be aware
  that there is [a long standing
  issue](https://github.com/altercation/solarized/issues/102) with extra
  highlight groups.
- `g:solarized_use16`: see above.

All these options may be used with any Solarized 8 variant.


## Troubleshooting

**Hey, I do not get the right colors when running Vim inside tmux or in my
favourite true-color enabled terminal!**

Try putting this in your `.vimrc`:

```viml
let &t_8f = "\<Esc>[38;2;%lu;%lu;%lum"
let &t_8b = "\<Esc>[48;2;%lu;%lu;%lum"
```

See `:h xterm-true-color` for the details.


## Hacking

Do you want to hack the theme? Install
[Colortemplate](https://github.com/lifepillar/vim-colortemplate), edit the
`*.colortemplate` files, then rebuild the colorschemes by sourcing
`scripts/make_colorschemes.vim`.

If you extend or improve Solarized 8, please consider submitting a pull request!