Blanche

A calm, minimal light theme for VS Code. Blanche keeps the editor close to monochrome, using type styles to give code structure and a little color where it helps.

For a darker companion, try Norra, Blanche's goth sister.

What it looks like

Image from VS Code Themes.

Install

Install Blanche from the Visual Studio Marketplace, or run:

code --install-extension shytikov.blanche

Then open Preferences: Color Theme and select Blanche.

Inspiration

Blanche is a fragrance from the Swedish brand Byredo. It's delicate and sophisticated, evoking a sense of calm and purity. Legend says it was designed for the company owner's partner, who actually disliked fragrances. It was a scandal — how can you date a "perfumer" when you hate perfume? The answer was something very tender and minimalistic, created to suit a person who cannot stand strong aromas. Its quiet, pared-back feel inspired a theme that lets typography carry much of the visual rhythm.

Design Philosophy

Blanche keeps the workspace quiet and gives code a clear visual hierarchy.

• Use cool, light editor surfaces and a darker terminal to distinguish the main work areas.
• Keep most syntax close to monochrome; use bold, italics, and occasional underlines to mark structure.
• Reserve brighter colors for meaningful accents such as errors, warnings, and changes.
• Treat readability as a core requirement: aim for clear text contrast and use typography alongside color to show syntax roles.
• Keep highlights and borders subtle enough to support focus without competing with the code.

Accessibility and readability

Blanche comes from my preference for quiet, readable code: cool light surfaces, mostly monochrome syntax, and a few deliberate accents. I use the WCAG AA 4.5:1 contrast ratio target as a practical benchmark. Main code text has a contrast ratio of 13.33:1 against the editor background; comments and some warning colors are more subdued, and I'm continuing to tune them while preserving the calm hierarchy I want. I underline functions and types because color alone doesn't give me enough useful distinctions. The underline also suggests a path to the definition, much like LSP navigation. If a color or style works poorly for your vision, your feedback helps me improve Blanche.

Neovim

The colors/ directory includes a native Neovim Lua theme and a Vimscript colorscheme for Vim or Neovim. Add this repository to your runtime path, then select it with :colorscheme blanche.