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summary: "My very own VIM color scheme. Featuring 256, 16 and 8 color support, high readability and... pretty colors!"
permalink: herald-vim-color-scheme
filters_pre: 
- redcloth
title: Herald (Vim Color Scheme)
comments: 
- :date: 
  :author: Wm Tanksley
  :url: ""
  :id: 2712
  :body: |
    Very nice.
    
    I also appreciate a color scheme that degrades elegantly to low-color modes, so that I can use the essentially same scheme even when I'm remotely logged in. Degrading to 256 is good, but can you degrade to 16? I use baycomb for exactly this reason; it's honestly not as nice as your scheme (for example, it doesn't highlight the cursor row and column), but it does have a lot of features, and it smoothly degrades to lower numbers of colors.
    
    -Wm

- :date: 
  :author: Mario
  :url: ""
  :id: 2713
  :body: I still find Desert to be the best universal color theme for VIM. It works for any language and it distinguishes between more text elements than any other theme I have tried.
- :date: 
  :author: Fabio Cevasco
  :url: http://www.h3rald.com
  :id: 2714
  :body: |-
    @Wm Tanksley:
    I will make it degrade to 16 colors, even if it won't look great, obviously... I'll try my best.
    
    @Mario:
    Thanks for pointing out desert: I personally don't like it much, but I can check it out to see what elements it highlights and how.
- :date: 
  :author: Oz
  :url: ""
  :id: 2715
  :body: Brilliant scheme - you are enabling my laziness by doing such a good job I can now cross off of my todo list the task of customizing my own further. Thanks.
- :date: 
  :author: Johannes
  :url: http://johanneshoff.com
  :id: 2716
  :body: |-
    Nice color scheme. I tried using moria as well, and you've fixed the biggest downside (to me, at least), which is to intrusive comments.
    
    Your vimrc file also gave me a lot of inspiration, by the way :)
- :date: 
  :author: "Beno\xC3\xAEt"
  :url: ""
  :id: 2717
  :body: Looks good, but the visual mode lacks contrast (for me).
- :date: 
  :author: "Caio Rom\xC3\xA3o"
  :url: http://blog.caioromao.com
  :id: 2718
  :body: Hey, that's the first theme I see which doesn't seem to suck when using `cursorline` and `cursorcolumn`. Thanks!
- :date: 
  :author: Fabio Cevasco
  :url: http://www.h3rald.com
  :id: 2719
  :body: |-
    Version 0.2.0 released!
    
    See "the new project page":/herald-vim-color-scheme for more information.
- :date: 
  :author: iain
  :url: http://iain.nl/
  :id: 2720
  :body: It does look incredibly colorful. I don't know if I'll like it, but I will give it a spin. I am using ir_black at the moment.
date: 2009-06-17 06:11:00 +02:00
tags: 
- programming
- vim
type: article
toc: true
popular: true
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I use "Vim":http://www.vim.org a lot. It's my editor of choice when I code (mainly in Ruby), and also when I write my blog post and articles (mainly in Textile).
One thing I always liked about Vim was it powerful syntax highlighting: there's probably a syntax highlighting file for every programming language ever created, even the new ones ("Nimrod":http://force7.de/nimrod/index.html? Sure, "here":http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2632!).

Furthermore, Vim allows you to create color schemes, and that's surprisingly easy to do. Everything you need to do is in the "docs":http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/syntax.html, but that may put you off, so you can just start by editing an existing one -- that's what I did.h3. InfiniteRed Black

I've been using the "ir_black":http://blog.infinitered.com/entries/show/8 color scheme for near enough a year. It's an excellent color scheme, recommended especially for writing Ruby code:

!=/images/herald.vim/ir_black_vim_example.png! 

I honestly thought this was the best Vim color scheme until I discovered Moria...

h3. Moria

Recently I switched to "moria":http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1464, mainly because I find it easier on the eyes. It's a matter of taste, of course:

!=/images/herald.vim/moria_vim_example.png! 

The trick is in the background: it's not completely black. Still, I didn't quite like the colors, so I decided to write my own...

h3. Herald

Meet <strong> "herald.vim":/files/herald.vim </strong> (this is a direct link to the raw file, but you may also want to check my "stash":http://github.com/h3rald/stash/tree/master on GitHub or the "script page":http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2684 on Vim.org):

!=/images/herald.vim/herald_vim_example.png! 

To sum up, here's the _features_ offered by this new color scheme:
* It's easier to differentiate syntax elements; in particular reserved words like @if@ or @end@, constants (symbols) and identifiers (instance variables).
* Operators are highlighted and easier to notice.
* Dark gray background and black column/row selectors.
* Added highlight for titles (useful for Textile)
* Comments do not stand out, unlike in most color schemes
* Support for 256 color terminal (special thanks to "Wolfgang Frisch":http://www.frexx.de/xterm-256-notes/ for providing all the info and tools required)

So what do you think? Is it tool colorful perhaps? How would *you* improve it?