✨ Overview
Dark Aether started as my personal theme - I wanted something dark that wasn't just another clone of One Dark or Dracula. The background (#182126) is a deep teal-black that doesn't feel flat, operators stand out in rose-pink, strings sit in olive-gold, and teal covers functions and types. It's been tuned over time to work well across a lot of languages, but honestly the C/C++ support is where it gets specific.
🎨 Color Palette
| Role |
Color |
Hex |
| Background |
 Deep Ocean |
#182126 |
| Foreground / Text |
 Silver Mist |
#b4b9bb |
| Keywords |
 Coral Red |
#e15763 |
| Control Flow |
 Orchid |
#c25dc4 |
| Functions |
 Aether Teal |
#56b6c2 |
| Types / Classes |
 Deep Teal |
#30b0b6 |
| Strings |
 Olive Gold |
#aea926 |
| Numbers |
 Soft Violet |
#ba73cf |
| Operators |
 Deep Rose |
#DF3775 |
| Variables / Params |
 Amber |
#de9409 |
| Preprocessor / Macros |
 Plum |
#9d489e |
| Comments |
 Muted Sea |
#577c7a |
| Cursor |
 Cyan |
#00ffff |
🚀 Installation
Via VS Code Extension Marketplace (Recommended)
- Open VS Code
- Press
Ctrl+Shift+X (or Cmd+Shift+X on macOS) to open the Extensions panel
- Search for
Dark Aether Theme
- Click Install
- Press
Ctrl+K Ctrl+T → select Dark Aether Theme
Via Command Line
code --install-extension MechAsh.dark-aether-theme
Via Marketplace
👉 Open on Visual Studio Marketplace
🖥️ Language Support
Token scopes have been written or adjusted for each of these - it's not just "inherits the default":
| Language |
Support Level |
| C / C++ |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Full - macros, preprocessor, local/global vars, function types |
| Python |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Full - decorators, self, type hints, builtins |
| JavaScript / TypeScript |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Full - JSX/TSX, template literals, modules, DOM |
| Rust |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Lifetimes, traits, std functions |
| Go |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Operators, package names, goroutine keywords |
| PHP |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Blade templates, heredoc, type hints |
| Java / C# |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Imports, annotations, generics |
| JSON / YAML |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Keys, values, structure |
| HTML / CSS / SCSS |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tags, selectors, pseudo-classes |
| Markdown |
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Headings, bold, italic, inline code, links |
| SQL, Ruby, Groovy, Haskell, Elm, and more |
⭐⭐⭐ Good baseline coverage |
🎨 Design Highlights
Deep-Ocean Dark Background
#182126 is the background. It's dark without being pure black, which keeps the colored tokens visible without cranking up their saturation. Works well on both LCD and OLED displays.
Semantic Differentiation for C/C++
This is the part that took the most time. A lot of themes just throw everything into two or three colors for C. Here, each token type has its own slot:
#define / #include directives → Bold Plum (#9d489e)- Preprocessor macro names → Lime Green (
#7dae59)
- Global variables → Amber (
#bc7c06)
- Local variables → italic Orange (
#dd8143)
- Function definitions → Olive Green (
#8daf3d)
- Function calls → italic Green (
#59a353)
Italic Styling
Comments, local variables, and function calls are italicized. It adds a layer of visual distinction without needing more colors.
Teal UI Shell
The activity bar, sidebar, status bar, tabs, and terminal all share the same teal-dark palette. Nothing jumps out unexpectedly - the UI stays out of the way of your code.
⚙️ Recommended Settings
These work well alongside Dark Aether:
{
// A clean proportional font with good ligature support
"editor.fontFamily": "'JetBrains Mono', 'Fira Code', 'Cascadia Code', monospace",
"editor.fontSize": 14,
"editor.fontLigatures": true,
"editor.lineHeight": 22,
// Cursor that pops against the dark background
"editor.cursorStyle": "line",
"editor.cursorBlinking": "smooth",
// Reduce visual noise
"editor.renderLineHighlight": "gutter",
"editor.minimap.enabled": false,
"workbench.colorTheme": "Dark Aether Theme"
}
📋 Changelog
See CHANGELOG.md for version history.
🛠️ Contributing
Found a language that looks off, or want to add support for something new?
- Fork the repository
- Edit
themes/Dark Aether Theme-color-theme.json
- Hit F5 to open an Extension Development Host and test it live
- Open a Pull Request - describe what you changed and what it fixes
Language-specific token improvements are especially welcome.
📄 License
MIT
