Desert (Vim Port)

A faithful port of Vim’s classic “desert.vim” colorscheme — now available for Visual Studio Code.

This theme recreates the warm, balanced contrast and soft readability that made Vim’s Desert a community favorite since the early 2000s.

🎨 About the Theme

The original desert.vim by Hans Fugal was one of the most popular dark color schemes in Vim history — known for its gentle contrast, readable comments, and earth-toned palette that worked well across terminals and GUI Vim.

This VS Code port preserves that distinctive look and feel, matching Vim’s highlight groups as closely as possible within VS Code’s syntax system.

✳️ Highlights

Group	Color (hex)	Description
Normal	`#ffffff` on `#333333`	Subtle dark base
Comment	`#6dceeb`	Soft cyan
String	`#ffa0a0`	Warm pinkish tone
Keyword	`#f0e68c`	Pale gold
Function	`#89fb98`	Vibrant green
Type	`#bdb76b`	Muted khaki
Visual	`#f0e68c` on `#6b8e24`	Olive visual selection

🧩 Installation

1️⃣ From the VS Code Marketplace

Search directly in VS Code:

Desert (Vim Port) by r11s

or visit the Marketplace page: 🔗 https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=r11s.desert-vscode-theme

Once installed, open the Command Palette → Preferences: Color Theme and select:

Desert (Vim Port)

2️⃣ Manual Installation (Local VSIX)

If you built or downloaded a .vsix file manually:

Open Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P on macOS)
Run “Extensions: Install from VSIX...”
Select desert-vscode-theme-<version>.vsix
Restart VS Code ✅

⚙️ Recommended Settings

To retain Vim’s clean, focused aesthetic:

{
  "editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true,
  "editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": false,
  "editor.guides.bracketPairs": false,
  "editor.renderWhitespace": "none",
  "editor.cursorBlinking": "solid"
}

These options remove unnecessary color distractions and keep the interface faithful to the Vim look.

⚖️ License

Released under the Vim License.

This theme is based on “desert.vim”, originally created and maintained by Hans Fugal and the Vim Project. All modifications and adaptations are provided under the same terms as Vim itself.

🛠 Maintainers

Ported by: Rainer S. (r11s)
Original desert.vim author: Hans Fugal
Vim Project: https://www.vim.org