Field Research

A dark VSCode theme.

Theme screenshot

About

Inspirations:

Built on Solarized's principle of perceptual uniformity: all accent colors are normalized to L* ≈ 65 in CIELAB, ensuring no single hue dominates visually. Keywords use weight (bold) rather than a separate hue, reducing chromatic noise.

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

Open VS Code
Go to Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux)
Search for "Field Research"
Click Install
Open Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
Type "Color Theme" and select Preferences: Color Theme
Choose Field Research

From Command Line

code --install-extension LA1CH3.field-research

Manual Installation

Download the .vsix file from the releases page and install via:

code --install-extension field-research-0.1.0.vsix

Base Tones

Background and foreground tones derived from the editor background hue (≈163° teal). These create the structural scaffold of the UI.

Name	Role	Hex	RGB	L*	a*	b*
bg-darkest	Title bar, activity bar, status bar	`#071512`	`7, 21, 18`	5.6	-5.3	+0.2
bg-darker	Sidebar, inactive tabs	`#0a1f1a`	`10, 31, 26`	9.9	-10.0	+0.8
bg	Editor background	`#103029`	`16, 48, 41`	17.4	-13.9	+0.9
base01	Gutter, line numbers	`#2a5548`	`42, 85, 72`	32.8	-18.6	+3.0
base00	Inactive icons, disabled text	`#3d6e62`	`61, 110, 98`	42.8	-19.8	+1.5
base0	Secondary labels, breadcrumbs	`#5a877a`	`90, 135, 122`	52.8	-18.4	+2.1
base1	Editor foreground, keywords (bold)	`#88a099`	`136, 160, 153`	63.9	-9.8	+0.8

Accent Colors

Syntax highlighting and semantic UI accents. All normalized to L* ≈ 65 for perceptual uniformity.

Name	Role	Hex	RGB	L*	a*	b*
yellow	Functions, methods	`#94a731`	`148, 167, 49`	65.1	-22.5	+55.7
orange	Classes, constants	`#d29123`	`210, 145, 35`	65.0	+15.9	+62.7
rose	Numbers	`#cd8d91`	`205, 141, 145`	65.0	+24.9	+7.8
red	Operators, special functions	`#e78175`	`231, 129, 117`	64.9	+37.9	+23.9
blue	Variables, properties	`#5ea9b6`	`94, 169, 182`	65.1	-19.8	-13.9
cyan	Strings	`#00b3a0`	`0, 179, 160`	65.6	-42.5	-1.1
green	Comments	`#00b573`	`0, 181, 115`	65.2	-54.5	+23.0

Syntax Mapping

Scope	Color	Style	Hex
Keywords (`if`, `else`, `return`, `import`, `class`, etc.)	base1	bold	`#88a099`
Functions, method names	yellow	normal	`#94a731`
Strings, string interpolation	cyan	normal	`#00b3a0`
Numbers, booleans	rose	normal	`#cd8d91`
Classes, types, constants	orange	normal	`#d29123`
Variables, properties, parameters	blue	normal	`#5ea9b6`
Operators, punctuation	red	normal	`#e78175`
Comments	green	normal	`#00b573`
Default text, brackets	base1	normal	`#88a099`

UI Accent Usage

Element	Color	Value
Active tab border	orange	`#d29123`
Text selection	base00 @ 50%	`#3d6e6280`
Find match highlight	orange @ 33%	`#d2912355`
Current line highlight	base00 @ 25%	`#3d6e6240`
Button background	green	`#00b573`
Button foreground	bg-darkest	`#071512`
Borders (chrome)	bg (editor)	`#103029`
Links, info messages	blue	`#5ea9b6`
Git: added	green	`#00b573`
Git: modified	orange	`#d29123`
Git: deleted	red	`#e78175`
Errors	red	`#e78175`
Warnings	orange	`#d29123`