Vim Default (Port + 6-Color + Dark Variants)

A faithful recreation of Vim’s built-in “default” colorscheme — available in four authentic variants and two optional gVim-inspired brown variants:

• Vim Default (Port) – a pure minimalist translation of Vim’s default.vim → defines no explicit colors, deferring entirely to the editor or terminal palette.

• Vim Default (Port) Dark – mirrors Vim’s :set background=dark behavior → identical syntax colors with inverted base (white-on-black), minimalist and faithful to gVim.

• Vim Default (6-Color) – a classic interpretation of Vim’s built-in syntax highlighting → blue for keywords and comments, green for strings, magenta for constants, red for errors — just like early gVim.

• Vim Default (6-Color) Dark – the nostalgic 6-color palette with a dark background → same color relationships, optimized for low-light use.

• Vim Default (6-Color Brown) 🟤 – a gVim-authentic variation → identical to 6-Color, but with brown keywords (#804000) inspired by gVim’s GUI default.

• Vim Default (6-Color Brown Dark) 🟤 – dark companion to the above → preserves the same brown-keyword palette on a black background.

🧩 Installation

You can install Vim Default (Port + 6-Color) in two ways:

1️⃣ From the VS Code Marketplace

Search directly inside VS Code:

Vim Default (Port + 6-Color) by r11s

or visit the Marketplace page: 🔗 https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=r11s.vim-default

Once installed, open the Command Palette → Preferences: Color Theme and choose one of:

• Vim Default (Port)
• Vim Default (Port) Dark
• Vim Default (6-Color)
• Vim Default (6-Color) Dark
• Vim Default (6-Color Brown)
• Vim Default (6-Color Brown Dark)

2️⃣ Manual Installation (Local VSIX)

If you built or downloaded the .vsix file manually:

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P on macOS).
2. Run “Extensions: Install from VSIX...”
3. Select your vim-default-<version>.vsix file.
4. Restart VS Code — done ✅

🎨 Theme Philosophy

Vim’s original default.vim doesn’t actually assign colors — it simply clears existing highlights, resets syntax, and leaves color decisions to your environment (syncolor.vim, terminal, or GUI).

This port embraces that minimalism but adapts it to the world of VS Code.

✳️ Why a 1 : 1 mapping isn’t possible

Vim and VS Code use different syntax engines:

Because those structures don’t align perfectly, an exact one-to-one mapping of every token is impossible. However, this theme reproduces the visual intent of Vim’s default palette — so that the code feels the same even when scope names differ.

🎨 The 6-Color Variant

The goal isn’t to imitate Vim pixel-for-pixel, but to recreate the same visual feeling and focus cues that longtime Vim users intuitively recognize.

🟤 The Brown Variants

These two additions reinterpret Vim’s classic gVim look with warm brown keywords and a more natural contrast on light and dark backgrounds. They preserve the simplicity of Vim’s default palette, but with improved readability and balance for modern editors.

🌒 About “Vim Default (Port) Dark”

Vim itself never shipped with a true “default dark” colorscheme. When you start Vim or gVim and run:

:set background=dark
:colorscheme default

Vim simply reuses the same highlighting logic — it only swaps the Normal colors:

• foreground → white
• background → black

All syntax groups (blue, green, magenta, cyan, red) stay identical.

“keep the colors, only invert the background.”

This dark variant preserves the authentic gVim behavior, so it feels natural to anyone accustomed to :set background=dark in classic Vim.

⚙️ Recommended Settings

To match Vim’s clean, distraction-free look:

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

These settings remove additional semantic layers and restore the simplicity that defines Vim’s visual style.

💡 Note: These settings are not applied automatically. To achieve the authentic Vim look, copy them into your VS Code settings.json (Preferences → Settings → Open JSON).

⚖️ License

Licensed under the Vim License. All trademarks and copyrights remain with their respective owners.

🛠 Maintainers

• Ported by: Rainer S. (@r11s)
• Original Vim authors: Bram Moolenaar and the Vim Project
• Inspiration: The timeless simplicity of Vim’s default.vim