Pequod
Pequod is now part of Ensigns, a set of ten
colour families (source). Version 0.3.0
is the last release of this extension.
A pigment-inspired colour palette for reading and code, rooted in
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Warm paper on one end, deep ink on
the other, and eight accent hues named after the crew of the whaler.
Designed for long reading and long-form code, not glance-ability.
Themes included
- Pequod — dark (deep-ink Log 950 surface, cream Log 100 text)
- Pequod Light — light (warm-paper Log 50 surface, deep-navy Log 800 text)
Activate with Preferences: Color Theme and pick Pequod or
Pequod Light.
The crew
Each accent is a character with a syntax role:
| Crew |
Role |
Light |
Dark |
| Ahab — the wound, the fire |
keywords, errors |
#931432 |
#E3877C |
| Starbuck — moderate reason |
functions, links |
#006A98 |
#A6DFFF |
| Queequeg — tattoos, loyalty |
types, classes |
#253E82 |
#838CCF |
| Pip — sun-addled |
numbers, literals |
#6A4A00 |
#DEC577 |
| Ishmael — the narrator |
comments, punctuation |
#6A6164 |
#BFBBB6 |
| Stubb — pipe smoke |
constants, warnings |
#AA430B |
#FFD9BB |
| Tashtego — moss, low pine |
strings, success |
#06724b |
#82C4A2 |
| Daggoo — mahogany |
variables, properties |
#552823 |
#a7766f |
Accessibility
- Body-text contrast on the light theme: 12.7 : 1 (Log 800 on Log 50).
On dark: 14.0 : 1 (Log 100 on Log 950).
- All eight dark-mode accents clear WCAG-AA (4.5 : 1) on Log 950, from
4.7 to 13.7 : 1.
- All eight light-mode accents clear WCAG-AA (4.5 : 1) on Log 100, from
4.6 to 9.5 : 1. In 0.2.0, five accents (four light, one dark) fell
short.
- Colour-vision-deficiency results are documented in the
main repository. Four pairs
fall below ΔE 10 under one simulation: Pip and Stubb, Ahab and
Daggoo (light variants, protanopia), Ahab and Pip (light variants,
tritanopia) and Ishmael and Tashtego (dark variants, deuteranopia).
Pair these with shape, weight, or position where colour-blind-safe
distinction matters.
Beyond VS Code
Pequod also ships as:
- Zed theme family (dark + light) — single JSON file,
drop into
~/.config/zed/themes/.
- iTerm2 preset (dark).
- R package (
pequod) with palette helpers and ggplot2
scales — install via install.packages("pequod") or from
GitHub.
- Printable A4 specimen PDF, generated from the canonical
tokens with Typst.
pequod.json — the canonical machine-readable token file
(CC-BY-4.0). Use it to generate themes for any other tool.
All of these live at github.com/tiagojct/pequod.
The narrative, the design rationale, and the full accessibility
analysis are at ensigns.tiagojacinto.eu/pequod/.
Licence
MIT. The underlying palette tokens are also published under
CC-BY-4.0; see the upstream repository.
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