Darksome
A refined, high-contrast dark theme engineered for deep focus, long coding sessions, and visual elegance.
Overview
Darksome is an intentional, distraction-free VS Code dark theme built for developers who care deeply about visual hierarchy and typographic clarity.
Version 2.0 introduces a ground-up redesign of both the workbench surface and the syntax colorization system. By pairing rich obsidian backgrounds (#0a0e14) with a disciplined palette of electric blue, ocean teal, soft violet, and muted slate, Darksome achieves optimal contrast without the harsh glare of stark white or the muddy fatigue of washed-out grays.
Whether you're debugging deep async stacks late into the night or architecting complex systems across multiple editor panes, Darksome keeps your code effortless to scan and comfortable to navigate.
What Makes Darksome v2 Different?
- Deep Obsidian & Slate Foundation: An ultra-dark editor surface (
#0a0e14) bordered by muted slate (#333e4f) and deep panel layers (#10151d, #0c1117) that anchor your eyes where the code lives.
- Calibrated Semantic Hierarchy:
- Functions & Methods in crisp periwinkle and soft indigo (
#707dd5, #6f7ed7, #25a3d5).
- Keywords & Types in refined lavender and dusty rose (
#b181d7, #a75274), with italicized import/export primitives.
- Strings & Object Keys in soothing ocean teal (
#1c989b, #77d5a3).
- Numbers & Units in luminous cyan (
#2aabb8, #55aaf5).
- Comments & JSDoc in unobtrusive slate (
#303c53) with emerald italic documentation highlights (#1c8c6d).
- 360° Workbench Polish: 390+ meticulously tuned UI tokens spanning the Activity Bar, Editor Tabs, Status Bar, Breadcrumbs, Sticky Scroll, Notification Center, Inlay Hints, and Command Center.
- Custom Terminal ANSI Palette: Clean, high-legibility terminal colors matched to the theme's core identity.
- Accessibility & Contrast First: Carefully balanced luminance levels ensure long-term comfort while exceeding readability requirements.
Gallery & Language Showcase
HTML & CSS
Clean distinction between tags, classes, IDs, properties, values, and vendor prefixes.
JavaScript & JSON
Crisp syntax highlighting for modern ES6+, arrow functions, object properties, and structured JSON data.
React (JSX/TSX) & Vue
Distinct tag styling for native HTML elements and custom component declarations.
Python & Rust
Elegant readability for Python type hints, decorators, docstrings, Rust lifetimes, and match expressions.
Java & C++
Balanced styling for typed languages, object-oriented hierarchies, constructors, and member accesses.
Markdown & SQL
Hierarchical headings, bold and italic accents, styled code fences, table blocks, and DML keywords.
Integrated Terminal
Custom ANSI palette designed to make CLI tools, git prompts, and logs easy to read at a glance.
Color Palette
| Swatch |
Hex Code |
Purpose |
 |
#0a0e14 |
Editor Canvas Background |
 |
#10151d |
Activity Bar, Title Bar, Widget Background |
 |
#0c1117 |
Sidebar, Terminal, Menu Background |
 |
#333e4f |
Borders, Dividers, Selection Outlines |
 |
#1c989b |
Primary Accent, Strings, Object Keys |
 |
#1d81a8 |
Cursor, Tab Active Border, Active Indicators |
 |
#2aabb8 |
Numbers, Numeric Constants, Active Tabs |
 |
#707dd5 |
Functions, Methods, HTML Attributes |
 |
#b181d7 |
Keywords, Storage Modifiers, Control Flow |
 |
#a75274 |
Types, Classes, Import/Export Statements |
 |
#303c53 |
Inline Comments, Line Numbers |
 |
#1c8c6d |
Documentation Comments & JSDoc |
Installation
Via VS Code Extension Marketplace
Open Visual Studio Code.
Press Ctrl + P (or Cmd + P on macOS) to open the Quick Open dialog.
Paste the following command and press Enter:
ext install rochekollie.darksome
Press Ctrl + K Ctrl + T (or Cmd + K Cmd + T on macOS) to open the theme selector, and choose Darksome.
Manual / GUI Installation
- Open the Extensions sidebar (
Ctrl + Shift + X or Cmd + Shift + X).
- Search for Darksome.
- Click Install.
- Select Darksome when prompted to switch your color theme.
Recommended Editor Settings
To experience Darksome at its best, consider pairing it with a font that supports programming ligatures and enabling sticky scroll:
{
"workbench.colorTheme": "Darksome",
"editor.fontFamily": "'JetBrains Mono', 'Fira Code', 'Cascadia Code', monospace",
"editor.fontLigatures": true,
"editor.fontWeight": "500",
"editor.cursorSmoothCaretAnimation": "on",
"editor.smoothScrolling": true,
"editor.stickyScroll.enabled": true,
"workbench.tree.enableStickyScroll": true
}
Release Notes
Detailed notes for every release are available in the CHANGELOG.md.
- Version 2.0.0: Complete overhaul of the theme palette, new high-contrast syntax highlighting, refined UI borders, 390+ workbench tokens, and updated branding.
- Version 1.0.1: Fixed documentation and license links.
- Version 1.0.0: Initial official release.
Contributing & Support
Found an issue, missing syntax scope, or have a suggestion? We welcome community feedback:
License
Darksome is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.
Crafted with care by Roche Kollie.
