Crystal Hammer

Themes

⏱️Overview

On this page I gather all the themes I created and use for:
Operating Systems, File managers, IDEs, Text Editors, Diff Tool, Blender and Web Browsers.
Following a short info and how to use them.
Possibly with my comments and general links e.g. with Wiki comparison.

My favorite colors are black (as background), violet, skyblue, cyan.
These colors are dominant in my themes and can all be seen on my logo (on Home).

Repository with all files is located here.

🛠️Operating Systems

🐧GNU/Linux👍

My favourite distro is Debian with KDE (earlier was Kubuntu).
KDE is my favourite desktop environment for its look and customizations.

I usually pick in System Settings:

  • Appearance
    • Workspace theme
      • Look and Feel & Desktop theme: Aritim-Dark
      • Cursor theme (mouse): Oxygen Indigo Ghost
    • Colours – Scheme: Obsidian Coast or
      BRS_Blue+viol – my colors, to use click: Install from file
    • Icons – Oxygen
    • Application Style
      • Widget style: QtCurve or Oxygen
      • Window decorations: Breeze or Oxygen
      • Gnome application style:
        • GTK: Material-Black-Blueberry-4.0
        • GTK2: qDrk
        • GTK3: Breeze-Dark
  • Workspace – Desktop behaviour – Desktop effects: All off

🪟Windows 10❌

To use: save the file and then double click it. That should apply the theme.

  • Black Violet – theme file here. Preview image.
    Very dark, black background and dark gray-violet text.

Sadly it has a very annoying white flash bug when some apps start or show. MS screwed up big time.
But that’s just one of those reasons why it’s the worst and ugliest OS I had to use, and instead started using Linux.

Windows 7❌

To use: save the file and then double click it. That should apply the theme.

  • Black Violet – theme file here
    Very dark, black background and dark gray-violet text.
  • Gray Violet – theme file here
    Medium gray-violet background and black text. Closer to default white but with color
    and darker to save eyes.

📂Dual pane file managers

Wiki with file managers comparison here.

Coloring schemes for several file extensions and some common directory names.
The list contains about 96 colors for like 500 patterns, gathered through years.

Crystal Color Center

This is the program I wrote recently for the purpose of managing this list and easily exporting it to both commanders mentioned below.
Basic info with screenshot, program download and sources are on github page here. More detail about the program on my project’s page here.

Double Commander👍

Download doublecmd.xml file here. Preview image.
It has only the <Colors> section (to not override any own preferences). You
can use it directly or replace the section in your file with this.

Total Commander❌

Download color.ini file here. Preview image.
It has only colors. Put in TC’s directory to use (replace file).

📊IDEs

Wiki with Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) comparison here.

Visual Studio❌

Exported vssettings files with text editor’s fonts and colors category.
To use, save file, then go to: Tools – Import and Export Settings…, select Import,
pick Yes to save backup before, lastly click Browse and find the downloaded file.

  • 2019
    File here.
  • 2012
    File here.
  • 2010
    File here.
    Also using ProgressiveScroll extension (a lot slower and uglier though, but open source like MetalScroll).
    Colors for it are already included. My fork of ProgressiveScroll with some tweaks is here.
  • 2008
    File here. Preview image.
    This version was my favourite since it was the fastest.
    And also because of MetalScroll extension. That’s the right side code minimap/preview.
    I did my own fork of it with better markers and more settings, located here.

VS Code and VSCodium

Preview image.
Both IDE and syntax colors.
Marketplace link (VS Code). Repository here.

Good comparison between VS Code and VSCodium here and here.

More info and my favorite extensions in my C++ guide.

VS Code❌

Not recommended, the MS version with telemetry and such.
Available on Ubuntu, not e.g. on Debian since it’s not fully FOSS.

  • To use my theme, enter Extensions (boxes icon on left or Ctrl-Shift-X) and type or paste: Black Violet Blue
    Click [Install] on the top one by Crystal Hammer (cryham).
    Then press [Set Color Theme] and pick it again.

VSCodium👍

Recommended, pure FOSS version, without telemetry and MS stuff. Available on many OSes.
To install, get a release archive and unpack. E.g. for desktop Linux name starting with VSCodium-linux-x64-

  • Manual install needed for now, to use my theme you’d need to:
    get the zip from Releases and extract it in /home/username/.vscode-oss/extensions

Qt Creator

Preview image. Showing both:

  • IDE theme, creatortheme file here.
    Add file inside qtcreator/themes dir, then after run, pick in:
    Tools – Options – Environment – Theme: BlackViolet.
  • Text Editor theme, xml file here.
    Add it in qtcreator/styles dir, then pick in:
    Tools – Options – Text Editor – Color Scheme..: Black Violet Blue

Eclipse CDT

Preview image.

File here.
Save this epf file locally. Then in Eclipse menu File – Import, pick General – Preferences,
press Next, Browse to your saved file and Finish.

Lazarus

Preview image.

File here.
Copy this xml file into your local path lazarus/userschemes, info here.
Then start Lazarus and in menu Tools – Options under Editor – Display – Colors,
use the dropdown Color Schemes to pick Violet-blue.

🗒️Text Editors

Wiki with text editors comparison here.

Notepad++

Supports most common to me languages (about half).
Preview image.
Save xml file from here. Put inside Notepad++/themes dir, then pick in:
Settings – Style Configurator – Select Theme: Black Violet Blue.

Kate editor

Theme has best set up C,C++ languages, rest was copied.
Preview image.
Save kateschema file from here.

⚖️Diff tools

Wiki with diff tools comparison here.

Meld is the diff tool I use rarely on Debian, it doesn’t even have a theme or syntax coloring.
I mostly rely on the diff tool in VSCodium since I use it constantly and it’s integrated.

WinMerge2

An updated, newer version of WinMerge, a Windows diff/merge tool.

WinMerge (old)

Old version of Windows program for comparing 2 files, with syntax coloring.
Using native system theme, not forcing its own with white colors.

Doesn’t have a settings file, holds everything in registry.
Preview image.
Save reg file from here and double click to apply.

🧊3D Modelling

Wiki with 3D graphics software comparison here.

Blender👍

My dark theme for the greatest 3D modeling program out there.

Open Blender, go to menu: File – User Preferences, click tab Themes,
then press button [Install Theme..], find the downloaded xml file and press OK.

🌎Web Browsers

Global dark theme

For use with Stylus, in Firefox or Chrome.
I based it on Midnight Surfing and used my colors: preview image.

Download css file here and pick in Stylus (or copy and paste in new style).

Firefox add-ons / extensions

My favorite browser extensions list on separate page.