# Solarized 8: True Colors

Solarized 8 Flat Dark      |  Solarized 8 Flat Light
:-------------------------:|:-------------------------:
![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_dark_flat.png)  |  ![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_light_flat.png)

This is yet another Solarized theme for Vim. It places itself half way between
the original [Solarized](https://github.com/altercation/vim-colors-solarized)
and the [Flattened](https://github.com/romainl/flattened) variant. It
removes only *some* of the bullshit. The color palette is exactly the same as
in Solarized, although some highlight groups are defined slightly
differently (for instance, I have tried to avoid red on blue).

The main reason for the existence of this project is that the original Solarized
theme does not define `guifg` and `guibg` in terminal Vim, making it unsuitable
for versions of Vim supporting true-color (i.e., 24-bit color) terminals.
Instead, this color scheme works **out of the box everywhere**. For the best
experience, you need:

- Vim ≥7.4.1799, or NeoVim, with `termguicolors` set, **and**
- a terminal supporting millions of colors (but see below for workarounds).

Solarized 8 also works in any GUI version of Vim: no configuration is
necessary.<sup>*</sup> See below for installation instructions.

<sup>*</sup> [VimR](https://github.com/qvacua/vimr) users must set
`termguicolors` before loading the color scheme.


## But, my terminal has only 256 colors!

For terminals not supporting true colors, Solarized 8 will fall back to use an
approximate palette based on xterm's 256 colors, which looks more or less like
this:

Dark 256 color palette     |  Light 256 color palette
:-------------------------:|:-------------------------:
![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_dark_256.png)  |  ![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_light_256.png)

(Yeah, it looks like a different color scheme: Solarized palette is far away
from xterm colors!)

If you do not like this approximation, to get exact colors with such terminals
you have two possibilities:

1. Modify some of your terminal colors in the range 16–255 to match Solarized
   palette. For this purpose, you may run (*not* source!)
   `scripts/solarized8.sh`; no setting is needed in Vim. For instance, if you
   are using Bash, put this in `.bashrc`:

   ```sh
   sh /path/to/scripts/solarized.sh
   ```

   **Note:** this method is supported only by some, but not all, terminals. For
   instance, in Apple's Terminal.app, running `solarized.sh` has no effect.

2. Set your terminal's 16 ANSI colors (the colors in the range 0–15) to the
   Solarized palette (how to do that depends on the terminal) *and* `set
   t_Co=16` in Vim (or `let g:solarized_use16=1`) to instruct Vim to use your
   terminal's colors. Be aware that, if you force the use of your terminal
   colors in Vim with any of these settings, but your terminal is not
   configured to use the Solarized palette, your colors will be completely off!

**Note:** whatever method you choose, keep in mind that if your terminal does
not support millions of colors, you must *not* set `termguicolors` (i.e., make
sure that `set termguicolors?` outputs `notermguicolors`).


## What if I happen to work on vt100 or similar?

In the past, Solarized 8 used to complain when your terminal did not support
enough colors. But the current version will gracefully degrade to a (beautiful!)
black&white color scheme:

Solarized 8 B&W variant    | Solarized 8 B&W variant
:-------------------------:|:-------------------------:
![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_bw.png)  |  ![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8_bw_solarized.png)


## Installation

If your Vim supports packages (`echo has('packages')` prints `1`), I strongly
recommend that you use them. Just clone this repo inside `pack/*/opt`, e.g.:

    git clone https://github.com/lifepillar/vim-solarized8.git \
        ~/.vim/pack/themes/opt/solarized8

Otherwise, use you favourite installation method.

There are actually four optimized<sup>*</sup> color schemes you may load:

- `solarized8_high`: high-contrast variant (screenshow below, first column);
- `solarized8`: the default Solarized theme (screenshot below, second column);
- `solarized8_low`: low-contrast variant (screenshow below, third column);
- `solarized8_flat`: “flat” variant (screenshow below, fourth column).

![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8-variants.png)

The “flat” variant does not exist in the original Solarized. It differs from
`solarized8` mainly in how the status line, split bars and tab bar look like:

![](https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/solarized8-normal-vs-flat.png)

To use a Solarized 8 color scheme, set the background (`dark` or `light`) then
load the variant you want, e.g.:

```vim
set background=dark
colorscheme solarized8
```

If you opt to use some Vim plugin manager instead, the following should be
added to your `vimrc`, rather than the above, for the color scheme to be loaded
correctly:

```vim
set background=dark
autocmd vimenter * ++nested colorscheme solarized8
```

To switch the background from dark to light or vice versa, just set `background`
accordingly.

If you use Vim packages, there is no need to `packadd solarized8`. Keep your
`runtimepath` clean!

<sup>*</sup> Below is the result of a benchmark I have made using Vim 8.1.1450
 and iTerm 2 v3.2.6 on a MacBook Pro Early 2015 with macOS 10.14.5. To make the
 comparison meaningful, `g:solarized_extra_hi_groups` was set to `1`: Solarized
 8 should load a bit faster if you do not enable additional syntax items. Note
 that Solarized 8 is optimized for what are believed to be the most common use
 cases, i.e., GUI, true-color terminals and 256-color terminals.

<p align="center">
<img width="500" src="https://raw.github.com/lifepillar/Resources/master/solarized8/load_time.png">
</p>


## Options

The following options are inherited from Solarized:

- `g:solarized_visibility`: one of `"normal"` (default), `"low"`, `"high"`;
- `g:solarized_diffmode`: one of `"normal"` (default), `"low"`, `"high"`;
- `g:solarized_termtrans`: make terminal background transparent if set to `1`
  (default: `0`).

The following options were not available in the original Solarized:

- `g:solarized_statusline`: one of `"normal"` (default), `"low"` or `"flat"`;
- `g:solarized_italics`: set to `0` to suppress italics (default is `1`).
- `g:solarized_old_cursor_style`: set to `1` if you want to use the original
  Solarized's cursor style (default: `0`). By default, the cursor is orange/red
  in light themes, and blue in dark themes (but please note that your terminal
  may override the cursor's color).
- `g:solarized_use16`: set to `1` to force using your 16 ANSI terminal colors.
- `g:solarized_extra_hi_groups`: set to `1` to enable Solarized
  filetype-specific syntax highlighting groups (default is `0`). Please be
  aware that if your Vim is not recent enough you may encounter [an
  issue](https://github.com/vim/vim/issues/4405) with syntax items defined in
  color schemes.

All these options may be used with any Solarized 8 variant.


## Troubleshooting

**Hey, I do not get the right colors when running Vim inside tmux or in my
favourite true-color enabled terminal!**

Try putting this in your `.vimrc`:

```viml
let &t_8f = "\<Esc>[38;2;%lu;%lu;%lum"
let &t_8b = "\<Esc>[48;2;%lu;%lu;%lum"
```

See `:h xterm-true-color` for the details.


## Hacking

Do you want to hack the theme? Install
[Colortemplate](https://github.com/lifepillar/vim-colortemplate), edit the
`templates/*.colortemplate` files, then rebuild the color schemes.

If you extend or improve Solarized 8, please consider submitting a pull request!

