Pastel Palette

A soft, cute aesthetic in muted, low-contrast tones.

Previews

Pastel Pink

Pastel Blue

Pastel White

Install

Search for Pastel Palette in the Extensions view, install, and apply the theme.

Settings

These optional settings add visual cues so blocks and nesting are easier to follow.

Open the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P), run Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON), then add the lines you want.

✎ bracketPairColorization, guides.indentation and guides.highlightActiveIndentation are on by default in recent VS Code.

Customization

Optional tweaks if the defaults feel too light.

Make the code easier to read

If the colors feel too faint, you can adjust tokens (keywords, strings, functions and types) to your liking.

The sample below keeps the pink palette, just a shade or two stronger.

{
  // Deepen syntax colors. Keeps the pink, just stronger.
  "editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
    "[Theme Name]": {
      "keywords": "#E0609A",   // if / const / function
      "functions": "#E078A8",  // function & method names
      "strings": "#C85A88",    // string literals
      "types": "#D06070",      // class & type names
      "numbers": "#DD9264",    // numeric literals (keeps the warm tone)
      "comments": "#C8A0B0"    // optional: lift comments a little
    }
  },
  // Deepen UI accents
  "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
    "[Theme Name]": {
      "editor.selectionBackground": "#F0B8D055",   // selected text
      "editor.lineHighlightBackground": "#F8D9E833" // current line
      // Pastel Blue equivalents: selection "#B8D9F055", current line "#D9EBF833"
      // Pastel White equivalents: selection "#CDD8EC55", current line "#E5EAF533"
    }
  }
}

✎ tokenColorCustomizations recolors the code text; workbench.colorCustomizations recolors the editor UI. The "[Theme Name]" wrapper scopes both to one theme, so your other themes stay untouched. Replace [Theme Name] with the exact label from the Color Theme picker (e.g. [Pastel Pink], [Pastel Blue] or [Pastel White]).

✎ These short keys cover the common cases. types may not apply in every language; for finer control, use textMateRules with explicit scopes.

Tune display and type style

{
  // Font smoothing (macOS only): "antialiased" | "subpixel-antialiased" | "none"
  "workbench.fontAliasing": "antialiased",
  // Make text a touch heavier so faint colors read better
  "editor.fontWeight": "500",
  // Zoom the whole UI (0 = default, 1 = a bit larger)
  "window.zoomLevel": 0,
  // Style tokens by semantic role, e.g. underline mutable variables (Rust, etc.)
  "editor.semanticTokenColorCustomizations": {
    "[Theme Name]": {
      "rules": {
        "*.mutable": { "fontStyle": "underline" }
      }
    }
  }
}

Basic size and cursor tweaks

{
  "editor.fontSize": 14,              // editor text size
  "editor.lineHeight": 1.6,           // line spacing (0 = auto)
  "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 13, // terminal text size
  "editor.cursorBlinking": "smooth",  // blink, smooth, phase, expand, solid
  "editor.cursorStyle": "line"        // line, block, underline
}

✎ Browse every setting with its description: run Preferences: Open Default Settings (JSON) from the Command Palette.

Known limitations

These behaviors come from VS Code itself.

• Some tokens need a language extension.
  • Variable, parameter and member references in C#, Java, Python and similar languages are colored by each language extension's semantic highlighting. Without the extension they stay in the default text color.
  • Keep "editor.semanticHighlighting.enabled": true (see Settings above).
• New syntax the built-in grammars don't parse yet (as of mid-2026). These appear uncolored, or with mixed colors inside misparsed blocks:
  • CSS Nesting (&, declarations directly inside @media) and @property bodies
  • Newer selectors such as :has(), ::part() and ::view-transition-*
  • Markdown extended syntax: ==highlight==, task list [ ], :emoji: (checked [x] may appear colored because the grammar reads it as a reference link)
• Punctuation with no grammar scope. Some sigils cannot be colored because the grammar does not scope them separately (PHP #[Attr], the ! in Rust #![...]).
• Colors may shift slightly after VS Code updates. Coloring relies on VS Code's bundled grammars and rendering.

✎ To check any token, run Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes from the Command Palette. If it reports No theme selector, the grammar provides nothing for a theme to color.

Bundled grammar tweak

A bundled TOML grammar injection dims string quotes to match other languages, even when you switch to another theme (disable this extension if you prefer the default look there).

License

MIT