🎨 Palette

Beautiful, Versatile, Systematic

About

Palette is a Neovim theme system to make creating and customising themes easy.

Highlight groups are logically arranged to strike a harmonious balance between clarity and aesthetic appeal.

Caching ensures themes are performant.

Build easily distributable themes using the provided build script.

Generate application color schemes, such as for LS_COLORS and iterm2 for matching terminal feel.

Theory

The theme is broken up into three sets of colors: main, accent, and state.

Main Colors

The main colors are used for the background, cursorline color, and to color the code and comments.

Accent Colors

Accent colors can be used to bring special attention to highlight groups, in this case constants and integers are highlighted with colors not in the main palette:

State Colors

There are five different state colors which represent:

• error
• warn
• hint
• ok
• info

These are used by Diagnostics, git, etc. Anywhere where a state is represented:

Built-In Colors

There are two built-in main palettes: dark and light.

There are three built-in accent palettes: pastel, dark and bright.

There are three built-in state palettes: pastel, dark and bright.

Custom Palettes

Custom palettes can be defined like this:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("palette").setup({
      palettes = {
        main = "custom_main_palette",
        accent = "custom_accent_palette",
        state = "custom_state_palette",
      },

      custom_palettes = {
        main = {
          custom_main_palette = {
            color0 = "#191d33",
            color1 = "#1A1E39",
            color2 = "#383f5e",
            color3 = "#4e5470",
            color4 = "#7b7f94",
            color5 = "#a7a9b7",
            color6 = "#bdbfc9",
            color7 = "#d3d4db",
            color8 = "#e9e9ed",
          },
        },
        accent = {
          custom_accent_palette = {
            accent0 = "#D97C8F",
            accent1 = "#D9AE7E",
            accent2 = "#D9D87E",
            accent3 = "#A5D9A7",
            accent4 = "#8BB9C8",
            accent5 = "#C9A1D3",
            accent6 = "#B8A1D9",
          },
        },
        state = {
          custom_state_palette = {
            error = "#D97C8F",
            warning = "#D9AE7E",
            hint = "#D9D87E",
            ok = "#A5D9A7",
            info = "#8BB9C8",
          },
        },
      },
    })

    vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])
  end,
},

Highlight Groups

The highlight groups are spit into multiple files, _defaults.lua contains the default highlight groups, and then there is a file for each set of additional highlight groups, e.g: python.lua.

The highlight groups use the following colors:

• 9 main colors, named: color0-color8
• 7 accent colors, named: accent0-accent7
• 5 state colors, named: error, warning, hint, ok, info

Additional colors can be added to any palette, with any name, and then used in custom highlight overrides.

Derived Palettes

Palettes (including the defaults) can be used to generate new color schemes.

This works by the user specifying a base color and the base palette which is then used to establish the tone difference to generate a new palette.

Note: The resulting colors will match the length of the source color table.

See an example of a derived theme in the next section.

Caching

Palette implements automatic caching.

The cache is stored in the palette (or theme name, if a distributable) directory under your users cache directory, typically: ~/.cache/nvim/palette/

Gallery

Built-in dark main palette:

Built-in light main palette:

A custom derived theme inspired by Life Aquatic's Team Zissou colors:

🛠️ Install

{
  'roobert/palette.nvim',
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    vim.cmd("colorscheme palette")
  end
}

⚙️ Configuration Examples

Overriding Default Palettes

Example overriding the default palettes:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("palette").setup({
      palettes = {
        -- dark or light
        main = "light",

        -- pastel, bright or dark
        accent = "dark",
        state = "dark",
      },

      italics = true,
      transparent_background = false,
    })
  end,
},

Custom Main Palette

An example of using a custom main palette:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("palette").setup({
      palettes = {
        main = "dust_dusk",
      },

      italics = true,
      transparent_background = false,

      custom_palettes = {
        main = {
          -- dusk theme taken from roobert/dust.nvim
          dust_dusk = {
            color0 = "#121527",
            color1 = "#1A1E39",
            color2 = "#232A4D",
            color3 = "#3E4D89",
            color4 = "#687BBA",
            color5 = "#A4B1D6",
            color6 = "#bdbfc9",
            color7 = "#DFE5F1",
            color8 = "#e9e9ed",
          }
        },
        accent = {},
        state = {},
      }
    })

    vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])
  end,
},

Derived Theme

An example of using a derived theme based on the built-in dark palette, with a couple of color overrides merged into the generated palette table:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("palette").setup({
      palettes = {
        main = "team_zissou",
        accent = "pastel",
        state = "pastel",
      },

      custom_palettes = {
        main = {
          -- a blue theme, based off the built-in dark palette
          team_zissou = vim.tbl_extend(
            "force",
            require("palette.generator").generate_colors(
              require("palette.colors").main["dark"],
              "#04213b"
            ),
            {
              -- override background and cursor-line
              color0 = "#191d33",
              color1 = "#1A1E39",
              -- override most prominent colors (strings, etc.)
              color7 = "#e9e9ed",
              color8 = "#d3d4db",
            }
          ),
        },
      }
    })

    vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])
  end,
},

Lighten / Darken

It's possible to use lighten() and darken() to lighten and darken colors. In this example a default color is being overridden:

{
    "roobert/palette.nvim",
    lazy = false,
    priority = 1000,
    config = function()
        -- Reference the dark palette
        local dark_palette = require("palette.colors").main["dark"]

        -- Lighten the cursor-line
        dark_palette.color1 = require("palette.utils").lighten(dark_palette["color1"])

        require("palette").setup({
          palettes = {
            -- Reference the custom theme
            main = "custom_lighter_cursorline",
          },
          custom_palettes = {
            main = {
              -- Create a custom theme
              custom_lighter_cursorline = dark_palette,
            }
          },
        })

        vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])
    end,
}

Overriding Highlight Groups - Built-In Method

An example of overriding specific highlight groups using the built-in method:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    -- alias so we can easily reference theme colors
    a = require("palette.theme").accent

    require("palette").setup({
      -- custom highlight groups can override any highlight groups
      custom_highlight_group = "group_name",
      custom_highlight_groups = {
        group_name = {
          -- add one table per override:
          {
            -- highlight group, or nil
            "Normal",
            -- foreground, or nil
            a.accent0,
            -- background, or nil
            "#00ff00",
            -- style(s) to apply, or nil
            { "italic", "underline", "bold" },
          },
        }
      }
    })

    vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])
  end,
},

Overriding Highlight Groups - Normal Method

Alternatively highlight groups can be overridden in the normal way:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("palette").setup({})

    vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])

    -- example of specific highlight group override..
    vim.cmd([[highlight Normal guifg="#ff0000"]])

    -- example of specific highlight group override using palette color
    a = require("palette.theme").accent
    vim.cmd([[highlight Normal guifg=a.accent0]])
  end,
},

Caching

To adjust caching or set a custom cache path:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("palette").setup({
      caching = true,
      -- typically: ~/.cache/nvim/palette/
      cache_dir = vim.fn.stdpath("cache") .. "/palette",
    })

    vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])
  end,
},

Support for LS_COLORS

Vivid is a generator for the LS_COLORS environment variable that controls the colorized output of ls, tree, fd, bfs, dust and many other tools.

Use the vivid.lua script to generate a vivid config file:

brew install vivid
mkdir -p ~/.config/vivid/themes

# optionally:
# * customize vivid/filetypes.yml
# * change which palettes are used
./bin/vivid.lua palette dark pastel bright palette_dark

cp -v vivid/themes/* ~/.config/vivid/themes/

# brew install coreutils
# add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
if which gdircolors > /dev/null 2>&1; then
  eval $(gdircolors)
fi
LS_COLORS="$(vivid generate palette_dark)"

Support for iterm2

Generate theme for iterm2:

./bin/iterm2.lua palette dark pastel > terminal/palette.itermcolors

Import the theme through Settings -> Profiles -> Colors -> Import and then select from the preset list.

Custom Themes for Distribution

It's always possible to share your theme by sharing a code block like this:

{
  "roobert/palette.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    require("palette").setup({
      palettes = {
        -- built in colorscheme: grey
        main = "dust_dusk",
        -- built in accents: pastel, bright, dark
        accent = "pastel",
        state = "pastel",
      },

      italics = true,
      transparent_background = false,

      custom_palettes = {
        main = {
          dust_dusk = {
            color0 = "#121527",
            color1 = "#1A1E39",
            color2 = "#232A4D",
            color3 = "#3E4D89",
            color4 = "#687BBA",
            color5 = "#A4B1D6",
            color6 = "#bdbfc9",
            color7 = "#DFE5F1",
            color8 = "#e9e9ed",
          },
        },
      },
      accent = {},
      state = {},
    })

    vim.cmd([[colorscheme palette]])
  end,
},

However, if you'd like to be able to give people a code block like this:

{
  "username/colorscheme_name.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    vim.cmd([[colorscheme colorscheme_name]])
  end,
},

A build script is provided and can be used like this:

1. Fork this repository or click "Use this template" button and name your fork/copy <your-theme-name>.nvim
2. Clone the repository
3. Output your custom theme color palettes:

:lua print(vim.inspect(require("palette.theme")))

4. Write the palette and accents to lua/palette/colors.lua
5. Run the build script:

./bin/build.sh <new theme name> <main palette name> <accent palette name> <state palette name>
# e.g:
./bin/build.sh dust dusk pastel pastel

6. Optionally add support for LS_COLORS and iterm2.
7. Update the README.md with screenshots, etc.
8. Release your theme to the world!