viiv 0.3.6

A python library to create vscode themes.

ViiV

Might be the most comfortable VsCode theme.

Features

• Perfect and automatically tuned color contrast ratio complying the WCGA Accessibility Creteria.
• Automatically generate countless beautiful themes.
• One configuration supports both Dark and Light themes.
• Easy configuration for customization.

Preview

Dark Theme

Light Theme

Configuration

All configurations are managed in config.json file.

To customize the token color, add one more color configuration item in token:

{
    "color": {
        "hex": "#9a449a"
    },
    "groups": [
        ".*support.type.*"
    ]
}

To customize the decoration color, add hex in color of decoration:

"decoration": [
    {
        "color": {
            "hex": "#00b300",
            "alpha_range": [
                "0xfe",
                "0xff"
            ],
            "basic_range": [
                13,
                14
            ],
            "light_range": [
                59,
                60
            ]
        },
        "groups": [
            "default"
        ]
    }
]

To use specific color as the editor background:

set the option workbench_editor_background_color in options

"workbench_editor_background_color": "#231f32"

contrast ratio

Best values based on lots of testing results:

"token_color_min_contrast_ratio": 7,
"token_color_max_contrast_ratio": 10,
"workbench_color_min_contrast_ratio": 10,
"workbench_color_max_contrast_ratio": 20,

"min_contrast_ratio": 10,
"max_contrast_ratio": 18,

Some properties are naming as foreground or background but in fact they behaves inverse

To reverse back, use the below options to configure them.

"workbench_foreground_properties": [
    "(?!.*(badge).*).*foreground$",
    ".*badge.*background$",
    ".*gutter.{2,}background$",
    ".*strongborder$",
    ".*IndentGuide.*active.*background[0-9]*$"
],
"workbench_background_properties": [
    "(?!.*(badge|gutter|(IndentGuide.*active)).*).*background[0-9]*$",
    ".*badge.*foreground$",
    ".*(?!strong).*border$",
    "editorGutter.background"
]

NOTE: After setting 'background' color as 'foreground' properties, do remember to tuning down its ALPHA value to make it not too light. The same for those 'foreground' color setted as 'background', do remember to tuning up its ALPHA value make it not too dark.

Matching rule:

When matching a color property with color property group, the following rules are applied:

• EXACT = 1
• ENDSWITH = 2
• STARTSWITH = 3
• FUZZY = 4

Therefore, to customize the specific color property, use property full value as group value in config.json file.

    {
        "colors": {
            "editor.foreground": "#a4ac7f"
        }
    }

Areas

The color properties are divided into several areas: default, background, foreground, border, token

The 'default' area has highest priority and it can override other areas configurations when the 'group' value is the same as the color property value - the specific color property could be customized.

The areas background, foreground, and border are mainly used for general purpose to define general color code for color properties falling in those areas.

In each area, we can define color code for color properties 'groups'. Each group could be the full name of the color property, prefix or suffix of the color property, regular expression which is used to match all the relevant color properties.

Default

The default purpose for 'default' area is to change the ALPHA value of the color for different status like active, inactive, highlight as such.

It might need to reset BASIC, LIGHT, ALPHA ranges for some color perperties. For example, if "editor" is set in 'background' area, then all color properties color of "editor.*Background" will follow the colors defined in 'background' area for 'editor'. So, when it need to set color for "editor.wordHighlightBackground", the basic color will still the same with the editor basic color which is dark color. If we want to use other color, then we need to be allowed to change the basic color.

"default" area in config.json has highest priority and can override any previous configuration.

Note: If any property need customization, it's better to do it in 'default' area, especially when it contains 'status' keywords like 'active', 'focus' as such.

Static color

To use static color for property, use the below format:

    {
        "groups": [
            ".*foreground.*"
        ],
        "color": {
            "hex": "#b7b7ff",
            "alpha_range": [
                "0xdf",
                "0xe1"
            ]
        }
    }

Dynamic color

To use dynamic color, use the below format:

    {
        "groups": [
            ".*editorSuggestWidget.*"
        ],
        "color": {
            "basic_range": [
                1,
                11
            ],
            "light_range": [
                10,
                35
            ],
            "alpha_range": [
                "0x95",
                "0xa5"
            ]
        }
    }

Decoration Colors

A new area 'decoration' is added. It has one 'default' group. 'decoration' group name could be used in any other groups for workbench to make those groups are 'decoration' groups. The 'decoration' groups can ignore the 'basic_range' and use the default 'decoration' group's color 'basic_range' configuration. The same applies to 'hex'. The 'basic_range' of default decoration color group is automatically updated by using one random int from start to end of the basic range and the value by plusing 1 to the random int. For example, if the 'basic_range' of the default decoration group is configured as [8-14], then random int could be any value from 8 to 14 (included boundaries). If the random int is 9, then the basic range will be updated as [9,10]. Therefore, the max value of 'basic_range' is the sum value of colors total of workbench and token. By default, it's 14. If the max value is bigger than 14, error will occur since the basic range will be valid. For example, it could be [15, 16] which are not supported by the generated color palette. The result is that the decoration color will be RED which is default value for VsCode when the color value is not valid.

Options

• The option workbench_base_color_rate is used to generate the darker workbench color (workbench_base_color) if the workbench_editor_color is given and the workbench_base_color is NOT given.
• The option force_to_use_workbench_editor_background_color - true to use the pre-defined editor background forcely even the better color is auto-generated according to WCGA standard. - false to use the auto-generated editor background color according to the contrast ratio.
• By default, it's not recommended to set is_auto_adjust_contrast_radio_enabled as false and set force_to_use_workbench_editor_background_color as true because the auto-tuned color is based on the standard from WCGA which is based on science. The auto-tuned color should be the most comfortable color for human eyes.

Developers User Guide

Workbench Background Tuning

• Basic range

Generate theme with darker workbench background colors by using smaller values pairs for the properties workbench_colors_min and workbench_colors_max.

    "workbench_colors_min": 5,
    "workbench_colors_max": 10,

On the contrary, settiing bigger values pairs for the properties workbench_colors_min and workbench_colors_max to generate lighter workbench background colors.

    "workbench_colors_min": 30,
    "workbench_colors_max": 60,

Note:

• The max value of workbench_colors_max should be less than 60. Bigger (lighter) value is not proper for the background color.

• Saturation and Lightness

Use workbench_colors_saturation and workbench_colors_lightness to control saturation and lightness of the workbench colors.

The properties

Pre-Built Theme Configuration

The configuration template for pre-built theme:

• Use workbench_editor_background_color to set the editor background color

    {
        "name": "THEME NAME",
        "theme_mode": "DARK|LIGHT",
        "workbench_editor_background_color": "#RRGGBB",
        "workbench_base_background_color_rate": [0-1](float number)
    }

• Use workbench_editor_background_name to set the editor background color

    {
        "name": "[THEME NAME]",
        "theme_mode": "[DARK|LIGHT]",
        "workbench_editor_background_name": "[RED, GREEN, BLUE, YELLOW, CYAN, VIOLET, BLACK]",
        "workbench_base_background_color_rate": [0-1](float number)
    }

Pre-Built theme configuration doesn't need to set contrast_ratio which should be globally generic. Instead, use workbench_colors_saturation and workbench_colors_lightness to control the saturation and lightness.

Set fixed color for tokens

To set fixed color for a group of tokens, use the below configuration in token area:

    {
        "color": {
            "hex": "#9a449afe"
        },
        "groups": [
            ".*support.type.*"
        ]
    }

This example sets all tokens matching .*support.type.* as #9a449afe.

Usage

Commands

To generate a random new theme, run the command under the directory of the project:

    python viiv.py -r

Normally, the randomly generated theme is better than manullay configured theme.

To re-generate the built-in theme, run the command under the directory of the project:

    python viiv.py -g -t "[THEME NAME]$"

To get all built-in themes' names, run the command under the directory of the project:

python .\viiv.py -T