Iron Orange
A metallic orange theme for Visual Studio Code: copper and mandarin surfaces, orange bars,
and text that stays readable everywhere, including inside selections.
Iron Orange Dark
Iron Orange Light
Highlights
- Two variants, one family. Dark puts a bright copper editor inside light orange title, activity and status bars. Light pairs a soft mandarin editor with orange bars and a deep copper status bar.
- Contrast you can rely on. Every syntax color reaches at least 4.5:1 (WCAG AA) against the editor background, and the main text reaches at least 7:1 (WCAG AAA). 360 automated checks run on every build, so a palette change can't ship if it breaks readability.
- Selections that stay readable. Most themes lose contrast when you select code. Iron Orange checks every syntax color on top of the selection too. The dark variant uses a translucent gunmetal selection that makes selected text more legible, not less.
- A metallic palette. Keywords in orange, functions in light copper, strings in patina green, types in steel blue, numbers in amber, constants in rose copper.
- Complete coverage. 453 workbench colors per variant, the full 16-color terminal palette, bracket pair colorization and semantic highlighting.
Installation
- Open the Extensions view (
Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows and Linux, Cmd+Shift+X on macOS).
- Search for Iron Orange and select Install.
You can also use Quick Open (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P):
ext install db0w.iron-orange
Or the command line:
code --install-extension db0w.iron-orange
Usage
Open the theme picker with Ctrl+K Ctrl+T (Cmd+K Cmd+T on macOS) and choose Iron Orange Dark or Iron Orange Light.
To follow your operating system's light or dark mode automatically, add this to your settings.json:
{
"window.autoDetectColorScheme": true,
"workbench.preferredDarkColorTheme": "Iron Orange Dark",
"workbench.preferredLightColorTheme": "Iron Orange Light"
}
With Settings Sync turned on (with Extensions and Settings selected), your other machines install Iron Orange and switch to it automatically.
Palette
| Role |
Dark |
Light |
| Editor background |
 #5C2E0E |
 #FFE8D1 |
| Side bar and panel |
 #4F270C |
 #FFDDBC |
| Title and activity bars |
 #FF9B55 |
 #E97A2A / #F59346 |
| Status bar |
#FF9B55 |
 #9C4209 |
| Selection |
 #121417 at 60% |
 #D66014 at 20% |
| Text |
 #FFF6EE |
 #241005 |
| Keywords |
#FF9B55 |
 #9E3800 |
| Functions |
 #FFC894 |
 #8A3A0A |
| Strings |
 #CFE8B4 |
 #566010 |
| Types and classes |
 #A6D3E8 |
 #1F5F82 |
| Numbers |
 #FFD66B |
 #7F5100 |
| Constants |
 #F7AE9A |
 #A33129 |
| Comments |
 #C19F87 |
 #6C5546 |
Measured contrast
| Measurement |
Dark |
Light |
| Main text on the editor |
10.6:1 |
15.4:1 |
| Main text on a selection |
14.9:1 |
12.4:1 |
| Lowest syntax color on the editor |
4.6:1 |
5.7:1 |
| Lowest syntax color on a selection |
6.5:1 |
4.6:1 |
| Title bar text |
9.2:1 |
6.7:1 |
| Status bar text |
9.2:1 |
6.6:1 |
Customization
You can override any color for one variant in your settings.json:
{
"workbench.colorCustomizations": {
"[Iron Orange Dark]": {
"statusBar.border": "#00000000"
}
},
"editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
"[Iron Orange Dark]": {
"comments": "#D2B49C"
}
}
}
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub.
The theme files in themes/ are generated, so don't edit them by hand. Colors live in src/palettes.mjs, and src/template.mjs maps them onto VS Code's theme keys.
git clone https://github.com/db0w/iron-orange-vstheme.git
cd iron-orange-vstheme
npm install
npm run build && npm run check
| Command |
What it does |
npm run build |
Generates themes/*.json from the palettes |
npm run check |
Runs the contrast checks and fails if any color falls below its threshold |
npm run preview |
Renders a mock editor for each variant to preview/ |
npm run screenshots |
Renders the README screenshots to images/screenshots/ |
npm run package |
Builds, checks and packages the .vsix |
Press F5 in VS Code to open an Extension Development Host with the samples/ folder and see your changes on real code.
Support
If Iron Orange makes your editor a nicer place, star the repository or leave a review on the Marketplace. Both help other people find it.
License
MIT © 2026 db0w
