ByteWave Retro Themes
A comprehensive collection of nostalgic and retro-themed color schemes for Visual Studio Code that bring back the aesthetic of classic computing eras with modern functionality.
🌟 Featured Themes
ByteWave Cyberpunk
A dark blue-black theme with neon blue, pink, and yellow accents. Features a modern, minimal design with no colored borders for a clean, professional look. Perfect for developers who love the cyberpunk aesthetic with excellent code readability.
Key Features:
- Dark blue-black background for reduced eye strain
- Neon blue, pink, and yellow syntax highlighting
- Transparent borders for a clean interface
- Optimized contrast for long coding sessions
ByteWave Pastel
A dark gray theme with soft pastel blue, lilac, mint, and yellow accents. Offers a gentle, soothing visual experience with transparent borders and excellent readability.
Key Features:
- Soft pastel color palette for a calming coding environment
- Dark gray background with high contrast
- Transparent borders for minimal distraction
- Perfect for extended development sessions
ByteWave Neon
A dark purple theme with neon blue, pink, and teal accents. Combines the energy of neon aesthetics with the sophistication of modern development tools.
Key Features:
- Dark purple background with vibrant neon highlights
- Neon blue, pink, and teal syntax colors
- Transparent borders for focus
- Ideal for night coding sessions
ByteWave Ocean
A deep ocean-inspired theme with turquoise, blue, and white accents. Creates a peaceful, underwater atmosphere perfect for focused development work.
Key Features:
- Deep ocean blue background
- Turquoise, blue, and white color scheme
- Transparent borders for immersion
- Calming effect for stress-free coding
🚀 Installation
From VS Code Marketplace (Recommended)
- Open Visual Studio Code
- Navigate to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X on Mac)
- Search for "ByteWave Retro Themes"
- Click Install and restart VS Code
Manual Installation
- Download the latest
.vsix file from the releases section
- Open VS Code and go to Extensions
- Click the "..." menu (More Actions)
- Select "Install from VSIX..."
- Choose the downloaded file and restart VS Code
🎨 How to Use
Quick Theme Selection
- Open VS Code
- Press
Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P on Mac)
- Type "Preferences: Color Theme"
- Select your preferred ByteWave theme:
- ByteWave Cyberpunk
- ByteWave Pastel
- ByteWave Neon
- ByteWave Ocean
Alternative Method
- Go to File → Preferences → Settings
- Search for "Color Theme"
- Select your preferred ByteWave theme from the dropdown
🎯 Theme Features
Universal Design Principles
- No Colored Borders: All themes feature transparent or subtle borders for a clean, modern look
- Consistent UI: Sidebar, activity bar, and tab backgrounds match the main theme
- High Contrast: Optimized for readability and reduced eye strain
- Professional Aesthetics: Each theme maintains a professional appearance suitable for work environments
Syntax Highlighting
Each theme includes carefully crafted syntax highlighting for:
- Functions: Distinct colors for easy identification
- Variables: Clear differentiation from other code elements
- Keywords: Highlighted for quick recognition
- Strings & Numbers: Proper contrast for readability
- Comments: Subtle but visible styling
- HTML/CSS: Specialized colors for web development
- Console Output: Enhanced visibility for debugging
🔧 Customization
Workspace Settings
You can customize theme behavior by adding these settings to your workspace:
{
"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
"editor.background": "#your-color",
"sideBar.background": "#your-color"
}
}
Font Recommendations
For the best experience with ByteWave themes, we recommend:
- JetBrains Mono - Excellent for coding
- Fira Code - Great ligature support
- Cascadia Code - Microsoft's coding font
🤝 Contributing
We welcome contributions from the community! Whether you're a developer, designer, or theme enthusiast, your input helps make ByteWave themes better.
How to Contribute
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
- Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
- Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
- Open a Pull Request
Development Guidelines
- Test themes across different file types
- Ensure accessibility standards are met
- Maintain consistent color schemes
- Update documentation for new features
🐛 Bug Reports & Feature Requests
Found a bug or have a feature request? We'd love to hear from you!
- Check existing issues to avoid duplicates
- Create a new issue with detailed information
- Include screenshots if relevant
- Specify your VS Code version and OS
📋 Requirements
- Visual Studio Code 1.60.0 or higher
- Compatible with all major operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux)
📄 License
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
🙏 Acknowledgments
- VS Code Team: For the excellent extension API and platform
- Community: For feedback, suggestions, and continuous support
- Design Inspiration: Classic computing aesthetics and modern UI principles
- Contributors: Everyone who has helped improve these themes
Made with ❤️ for the developer community
Transform your coding experience with ByteWave Retro Themes
