Aquarelle Color Theme for Visual Studio Code
Aquarelle is a thoughtfully crafted color theme that combines the minimalist highlighting approach of Alabaster with the warm, ink-inspired palette of Flexoki. It's designed for developers who value focus, readability, and visual calm in their coding environment.
Philosophy
Most syntax highlighting themes highlight everything they can, turning your code into a distracting rainbow. Aquarelle takes a different approach, focused on what really matters:
- Minimal highlighting — Only essential elements are highlighted: strings, constants, comments, and global definitions
- Enhanced readability — No font variations (bold, italic) that make text harder to scan
- Thoughtful color choices — Using Flexoki's carefully calibrated colors inspired by analog inks and warm paper
- Balanced contrast — Optimized for both light and dark modes without straining your eyes
Like Alabaster, Aquarelle doesn't highlight standard language keywords—they're usually the most obvious part of code. And like Flexoki, it uses colors that feel comfortable and familiar, like ink on paper, while maintaining excellent legibility across devices and modes.
Dark theme preview
Light theme preview
Highlighting Philosophy
Aquarelle only highlights things that really matter and that parsers can identify reliably:
What Gets Highlighted
- Strings — The actual data your code is working with, including regular expressions and symbols
- Escape sequences — Special characters within strings (like
\n, \t) are highlighted differently for clarity
- Constants — Numbers, characters, keywords, and Boolean values
- Comments — Unlike most themes that dim comments, Aquarelle highlights them. If code was complex enough to deserve an explanation, that explanation should be prominent
- Global definitions — Important structural elements of your code (functions, classes, variables at module scope)
- Punctuation — Subtle highlighting to aid code structure without distraction
- Invalid syntax — Errors are clearly marked to help catch mistakes quickly
What Doesn't Get Highlighted
- Standard language keywords — if, else, function, etc. are already obvious
- Font variations — No jarring switches between normal, bold, and italic text
- Operators and most syntax — While punctuation gets subtle highlighting for structure, operators and brackets remain uncolored to keep focus on content
By limiting highlighting to just what matters, your brain can quickly learn where to look for specific types of information, making your code easier to scan and understand.
Recommended Settings
For the most distraction-free experience, consider these VS Code settings:
{
"breadcrumbs.enabled": false,
"editor.cursorSmoothCaretAnimation": true,
"editor.minimap.enabled": false,
"editor.renderLineHighlight": "gutter",
"editor.smoothScrolling": true,
"editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": false,
"explorer.decorations.colors": false,
"window.autoDetectColorScheme": true,
"workbench.activityBar.visible": false,
"workbench.editor.showIcons": false,
"workbench.editor.tabSizing": "shrink",
"workbench.preferredDarkColorTheme": "aquarelle-color-theme-dark",
"workbench.preferredLightColorTheme": "aquarelle-color-theme-light",
"workbench.statusBar.visible": false,
"workbench.tree.indent": 10,
}
For an even more minimal experience:
{
"editor.occurrencesHighlight": false,
"editor.suggestOnTriggerCharacters": false,
"editor.parameterHints": false,
"editor.quickSuggestions": false,
"editor.renderIndentGuides": false,
"workbench.preferredDarkColorTheme": "aquarelle-color-theme-dark-mono",
"workbench.preferredLightColorTheme": "aquarelle-color-theme-light-mono",
}
- Alabaster - The original minimal syntax highlighting philosophy
- Flexoki - The inky color palette used by Aquarelle
Contributing
If you found something that could be improved or have ideas for enhancements:
If you like this theme, please star the repository!
