BeaDark

Colorful code, quieter surroundings. BeaDark is a collection of nine contrast-checked color themes for Visual Studio Code, including two optional Neon variants. It also offers independent, reversible commands for reading typography and focus.

The project explores ways to make code easier to read with strong contrast, consistent syntax colors and fewer visual distractions. It does not diagnose or treat ADHD or dyslexia, and no theme or font works best for everyone.

• Seven calm themes and two Neon themes, in light and dark variants.
• A consistent color role for keywords, functions, types, strings and more.
• Optional focus and typography settings, applied only after confirmation.
• No font downloads, telemetry, added animations or glow effects.

Get started · Themes · Reading fonts · Accessibility and evidence · Contributing · Report an issue

Installation

From a VSIX

BeaDark requires desktop VS Code 1.118.0 or later. Download a .vsix asset from the repository's GitHub Releases page, if a release is available. To install it:

1. In VS Code, open Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Shift+X on macOS).
2. Select … → Install from VSIX…, then choose the downloaded file.
3. If prompted, reload the window.
4. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P), run Preferences: Color Theme, and select a Bea Theme.

Alternatively, if the code command is installed, run:

code --install-extension /path/to/beadark.vsix

Replace the path with the downloaded file; quote it if it contains spaces. To build a VSIX from source, follow Develop and validate. The optional commands use a desktop extension host; VS Code for the Web is not currently a documented target.

First steps

Try Bea Theme Onyx for a dark, calm palette or Bea Theme Polar for a light one. For brighter syntax accents, select Bea Theme Neon Night or Bea Theme Neon Day. Choosing a theme does not change your font or enable the focus settings.

To try the optional settings, open the Command Palette and run BeaDark: Choose Reading Typography or BeaDark: Enable Focus Settings. You can review and cancel the proposed changes before they are applied.

Themes

Select Preferences: Color Theme and choose a Bea Theme. All nine themes are included in one VSIX. The original seven labels are unchanged, but their colors now have stronger contrast, including readable comments. These remain ordinary dark/light themes, not VS Code's native high-contrast modes. System high-contrast detection can take priority over a selected theme; BeaDark deliberately leaves that accessibility preference untouched.

Syntax color roles

Neon is an optional aesthetic, not a proven attention aid. Neon Day uses darker versions of the six accents: fluorescent colors on a pale background would not be readable. Neither collection uses halos, flashing or rainbow UI borders. Warnings have their own UI role, separate from types and decorators.

TextMate scopes provide the baseline. Language extensions can refine the result through semantic tokens; exact coverage depends on the grammar/provider. The same role keeps its color across languages within a collection. Use BeaDark: Show Syntax Color Legend for the selected theme's actual hex values. Color alone is not enough: syntax, squiggles and diagnostic messages remain useful, including for people who cannot distinguish all six hues.

Optional commands

Open the Command Palette:

• BeaDark: Choose Reading Typography — choose a locally installed family, size (10–40 px), line height (1–2 ×) and letter spacing (0–2 px). Proposed starting values: 16 px, 1.5 ×, 0.2 px; ligatures off.
• BeaDark: Enable Focus Settings — hide the minimap and CodeLens, use a solid cursor, disable smooth caret animation and smooth scrolling. Diagnostics, suggestions, inlay hints, guides and accessibility settings are not disabled.
• BeaDark: Restore Reading or Focus Settings — restore one group at a time.
• BeaDark: Show Syntax Color Legend — text labels, examples and actual colors; no permanent panel.

Typography and focus are independent. Each command lets you choose user settings in the current VS Code profile or workspace settings, then shows a change preview and asks for confirmation. Canceling makes no changes. The theme is never switched automatically.

Backups are saved locally before settings are written and survive extension-host restarts. Restoration removes values that were originally absent and preserves later user edits. Repeated applications keep the original backup; reapplying after a manual change takes that newer choice as the restoration point. If a write fails, BeaDark reports it, attempts rollback and retains any remaining recovery backup. Details appear in the BeaDark output channel.

Workspace/folder and language-specific settings can override user preferences. BeaDark warns about detected overrides in the active document; it does not rewrite them or inspect every possible language. Restore in the original profile/workspace before uninstalling, deleting that workspace, or changing profiles. Uninstalling an extension cannot reliably run a restoration command.

Reading fonts

Fonts must be installed manually on the computer running the VS Code UI. A color theme cannot install or enforce a font. BeaDark cannot enumerate installed fonts: if a family is unavailable, VS Code uses the configured monospace fallback. Check the result visually, especially 0 O, 1 l I, punctuation and indentation. The terminal and workbench fonts are not changed.

• Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono — Braille Institute: recommended starting point for code, with fixed-width and differentiated glyphs.
• OpenDyslexic: optional personal preference. The selected family is OpenDyslexic; proportional versions can disrupt code alignment. A monospace fallback does not make a proportional font monospaced. Use Custom installed font for another installed family/version.
• Dyslexie is a different font, not a synonym for OpenDyslexic. If you already have it installed under its applicable license, enter its family through Custom installed font. No font files are bundled or redistributed.

On macOS, install fonts using Font Book; on Windows, use the font file's Install action; on Linux, follow your distribution's font installation instructions. Restart VS Code if a newly installed font is not picked up.

No font is universally best for dyslexia, and this extension does not diagnose or treat ADHD/dyslexia. Larger spacing is adjustable, not imposed as a treatment.

Contrast targets and evidence

The build checks 134 declared foreground/background pairs per theme:

• 7:1 for code text on the normal editor background (comments excluded).
• 4.5:1 for comments, UI text and code on the declared selection, active-line, search and occurrence-highlight backgrounds.
• 3:1 for essential focus, input boundary and editor diagnostic/cursor cues.

Transparent backgrounds are composited before measurement; thresholds are not rounded to pass. Decorative borders and whitespace are intentionally quieter. This is not a blanket WCAG certification of VS Code, its extensions, terminal output, every popup, stacked decoration or custom user override. Terminal ANSI colors also depend on applications' chosen foreground/background combinations.

Sources informing the design:

• W3C: minimum text contrast, enhanced contrast, non-text contrast.
• W3C: Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities: personalization and avoiding unnecessary interruptions; supplemental guidance, not clinical evidence for this theme.
• Kuster et al.: Dyslexie font does not benefit reading in children with or without dyslexia. Font marketing is not evidence of universal benefit.
• Zorzi et al. (2012): Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia. A study of children reading prose, not proof about adults reading source code.

Try short, comparable reading tasks using your normal font and a proposed font. Compare comfort, mistakes and navigation in both light and dark environments. Keep what helps you; high contrast and saturated accents are not comfortable for everyone.

Troubleshooting

For a reproducible problem, open an issue and include the VS Code and extension versions, operating system, theme name, steps to reproduce and expected behavior. For syntax-color issues, include a small example, language extension and whether semantic highlighting is enabled. Remove private code and personal information from screenshots and logs.

Develop and validate

Node.js 22+ and npm:

npm ci
npm run check
npm run build:vsix

• npm run theme:build-all: deterministic generation from the manifest, palettes and the shared JSONC template.
• npm run theme:check-palettes: cold-tone policy for Calm; narrowly scoped pink/yellow exceptions for Neon types/decorators only.
• npm run theme:check-contrast: measured pairs and explicit failures.
• npm test: contrast math, theme contracts, metadata and command behavior.
• npm run theme:extract-and-apply: exploratory extraction into ignored themes/extracted/, never over the maintained palettes/template.
• npm run install:vsix: explicitly install the latest local VSIX.
• F5, configuration Theme Test (Extension Host): isolated development window.

See the specification and validation checklist for scope and visual checks. The contribution guide explains the source files, generated outputs and pull request workflow. package.json is the only publication-metadata source; the theme manifest only describes generation. The original 512 px BeaDark monogram is retained and packaged.

The build-only @vscode/vsce dependency is pinned. Its minimatch dependency is overridden to 11.0.8 to avoid GHSA-g3hv-75wg-m249; packaging is verified with that version. No npm dependency is shipped at runtime.

Releases

Pushes to main run checks and package all nine themes and commands. The existing GitHub workflow publishes a GitHub release containing a uniquely build-versioned VSIX. Local builds do not publish or install anything.

Marketplace publication is separate: after updating version in package.json and package-lock.json to a version not already published, run Publish to Visual Studio Marketplace manually from the GitHub Actions tab with main selected. The workflow validates and builds the VSIX before publishing it. It uses the Publish.yml Marketplace trusted-publishing policy and GitHub Actions OIDC (id-token: write), without a Marketplace personal access token. Runs on other branches or forks do not publish. A published Marketplace version cannot be overwritten; increase the version before the next publication. The existing GitHub release workflow does not publish to the Marketplace.

License and contributions

BeaDark is available under the MIT License. Contributions, bug reports and accessibility feedback are welcome; see CONTRIBUTING.md. Font files are not included in the extension and remain subject to their own licenses.