Where can I download IntelliJ IDEA Color Schemes?

Question

I am an Eclipse user mainly and I find I must have a dark color scheme.

I cannot seem to find a dark color scheme as I search Google.

Where can I download IntelliJ IDEA Color Schemes? I am evaluating mainly for HTML/JavaScript.

Thanks for posting that. Very nice blog. And while I don't know if it makes you a better programmer, I'm definitely a member of the Dark Side. :-) — Cody Gray - on strike, Dec 11 '10 at 05:37
For those who want to check the posting click [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20131003013636/http://aarongreenlee.com/share/coldfusion-builder-can-be-sexy) — wener, Oct 23 '15 at 08:32

score 509 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 30 '21 at 10:30

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Since it is hard to find good themes for IntelliJ IDEA, I've created this site: https://github.com/sdvoynikov/color-themes (note: site archived to GitHub repo) where there is a large collection of themes. There are 270 themes for now and the site is growing.

P.S.: Help me and other people — do not forget to upvote when you download themes from this site!

edited Jan 30 '21 at 10:30

Zoe

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answered Oct 08 '13 at 03:53

Yarg

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@habitats I've been making some migrations, but now site is online. – Yarg Jun 18 '14 at 06:31
I get an "Application Error" when I try going to that site. – Josh M Sep 28 '14 at 16:55
Site is up again. It was the data corruption on the server. I've changed the hosting provider. – Yarg Nov 10 '14 at 05:25
Man it is asking for $2 o.O – haccks Feb 11 '15 at 14:45
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@haccks You still can download all the themes one-by-one for free. You know, I spent my time to I make that site and convert a lot of eclipse themes. After all, I have to pay for the hosting and domain. Do you think that $2 is very high price to support the project? – Yarg Feb 12 '15 at 15:51
@Yarg; Of course not if I were not a student :). BTW, I tried to download one of the theme. It is downloaded in `.jar` format and I don't know what to do with it. – haccks Feb 12 '15 at 15:57
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@haccks You can follow instructions written on the "Help" page right there on the site. – Yarg Feb 12 '15 at 16:02
Thanks. Got it where to place it. At least I can upvote :) – haccks Feb 12 '15 at 16:04
@haccks please contact me via email on the site – Yarg Feb 12 '15 at 16:10
@Yarg; OK. Check your mailbox. – haccks Feb 12 '15 at 16:58
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Wombat theme does not color static final fields like it shows in the preview. :( – Jared Rummler Jul 08 '15 at 04:32
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Thanks for your effort. It is a shame idea people are not doing this – Slava Apr 15 '16 at 14:30
And... I'm still trying to find a working version of Darkside Contrast for phpstorm. – TCB13 Aug 15 '17 at 13:45
The dark themes I've tried from here look terrible on Python. The themes are incomplete. – gilch Jun 30 '18 at 21:01
@Yarg I've downloaded all the themes, but I wish there was a way to distinguish specifically themes that account for Java. There are many in there that does not account for Java development and only has like 3 colors across so many different things. I ended up using something called "Behave(Java Only)", which DOES account for some of the nuanced shit for Java. It was a lot of hassles. Wish you can implement tags to indicate which editor the theme is optimized for. – Ka Mok Aug 02 '18 at 16:04
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nice! would be good to include instructions on how to install it in the homepage, I think – Vic Aug 22 '18 at 18:21
Jeez, man, I've found that site through google and it's increadibly! Great job! – parsecer Feb 14 '19 at 14:33

score 83 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 22 '21 at 11:21

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If you're just looking for a dark color scheme for IntelliJ IDEA, this is the first link I get in a Google search:

Dark Pastels theme for IntelliJ IDEA

Dark Pastels theme for IntelliJ IDEA

Of course, you can tweak either of these two schemes to your satisfaction. Don't feel like you have to stick to the fonts and the colors that the original authors have chosen. We programmers don't get nearly enough chances to try our hand at interior decorating to pass up this opportunity.

Is there any reason these won't work in the version you have? As best I can tell, you can simply import any theme that you want.

edited Jun 22 '21 at 11:21

Oleg Valter is with Ukraine

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answered Dec 11 '10 at 03:05

Cody Gray - on strike

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Exactly what I was searching for. Thank you. – Aaron Greenlee Dec 11 '10 at 04:10
@Zasz: Sorry, not sure what you want me to do. It isn't my personal blog, so I have no way of tracking down the contents. I removed the link, though, since you're right that it's dead. – Cody Gray - on strike Aug 22 '11 at 11:56
BTW the http://tedwise.com/2009/02/26/dark-pastels-theme-for-intellij-idea/ link is active now. I could download the theme by following the link from it. – nom-mon-ir Dec 25 '17 at 09:55

Johan Kaving · Answer 3 · 2012-04-24T12:13:56.800

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The Solarized color theme (both light and dark versions) for IntelliJ IDEA is available here.

Solarized color theme for IntelliJ IDEA

edited Apr 24 '12 at 12:13

answered Apr 14 '11 at 18:26

Johan Kaving

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score 26 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 30 '21 at 10:30

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I like ZenBurn theme, I think it is very mild and appealing for the eye. I had here my own theme's settings JAR file, but I stopped updating it. I still think that theme is very good so I updated this post to a suitable theme with similar colors which is already available on @Yarg's web site screenshot

Link towards the theme

edited Jan 30 '21 at 10:30

Zoe

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answered Mar 22 '11 at 15:06

Milan Aleksić

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the link is now dead – nighthawk454 Sep 13 '14 at 04:36
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@nighthawk454: you are tottaly right, I stopped updating it - I rerouted the link towards Yarg's web site and updated the content of the post to avoid confusion – Milan Aleksić Sep 13 '14 at 10:39

score 17 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 11 '11 at 11:05

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Blue forrest makes for a very good dark theme, because it has appealing blues with yellows and greens mixed in. Highly recommended.

http://www.decodified.com/misc/2011/06/15/blueforest-a-dark-color-scheme-for-intellij-idea.html

answered Jul 11 '11 at 11:05

Steven

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Good tip. I like and use Solarized Dark in IDEA 10 on my Mac, but for some reason that theme looks terrible on my Linux machine. BlueForest looks fantastic! Easy on the eyes. Also-- most themes seem designed for Java/Ruby, but I work mainly in Scala these days, and this one was designed specifically for Scala. I may even switch my Mac to this theme. Thanks! – Dan Barowy Sep 02 '11 at 01:34
The link is dead – Fabich Feb 24 '21 at 09:51

lzap · Answer 6 · 2011-11-23T16:09:05.343

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Please note there are two very nice color schemes by default in IDEA 10.

The one that is included is named Railcasts. It is included with the Ruby plugin (free official plugin, install via plugin manager).

Railcasts IDEA 10 color scheme

edited Nov 23 '11 at 16:09

answered Jan 18 '11 at 11:15

lzap

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Actually (rather bizarrely), railscasts and the others aren't bundled by default: They're bundled with the Ruby plugin. A know a few people that install the plugin purely for the nice colorschemes. PyCharm now has a nice colorscheme called 'twilight': hopefully the Python plugin will soon include that too (it doesn't yet). – jeremyh Jan 18 '11 at 22:58
Ah thanks for the update! I have Rails plugin installed. – lzap Jan 20 '11 at 20:40
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For the slow like me, its installed as a color/font option - not an Appearance option :) – Chris Kimpton Feb 26 '11 at 11:14
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These themes appear to be Ruby-specific. They look atrocious in Java/Groovy/Scala. – Jim Mitchener Oct 30 '11 at 02:37

Darek Kay · Answer 7 · 2017-08-16T20:32:28.123

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I love the Monokai Theme (known from Sublime Text):

enter image description here

edited Aug 16 '17 at 20:32

answered Nov 23 '14 at 17:57

Darek Kay

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It does not look same with Sublime Text. – Koray Tugay Nov 25 '16 at 18:02

score 9 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 08 '11 at 19:26

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This is just a suggestion, but what I like to do while I'm coding sometimes is to Invert the colors of my Screen. On a Mac it's Ctrl-Cmd-Alt->8 and it inverts the colors.

Haven't personally tried these in Idea10, but it worked on Idea9. http://devnet.jetbrains.net/docs/DOC-1154

answered Jan 08 '11 at 19:26

Luis R.

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I find that inverting colors on the screen makes the edges of text have colorful artifacts, because the colors created by [sub-pixel rendering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subpixel_rendering) are inverted too. – Rory O'Kane Aug 30 '17 at 20:27

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 21 '12 at 04:12

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Here is a theme I created which was inspired by GitHub's embedded source view. I love how elegant their color scheme is, but lately I prefer a darker theme. This is theme is only for Java. Sorry. Download it here: GitHubInspiredDark.xml

Inspired by GitHub

answered Sep 21 '12 at 04:12

Michael

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score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 15 '13 at 16:26

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I made some improvements to the Darcula theme so it's a bit more usable for rubyists. You can find the repo and installation instructions Here.

answered Jan 15 '13 at 16:26

pizza247

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The Darcula theme is damn good. I was searching for way to port it to Windows 7, but didn't found any solution. – Nikola Petkanski Mar 01 '13 at 21:00
As I know, it's included by default (at least for Java). Just find in the main menu: View -> Quick Switch Theme -> Switch look & feel -> Darcula – Yauhen Aug 07 '13 at 17:39

score 3 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 28 '15 at 12:00

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Dark scheme for
idea 10 - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26657232/dark_uptown.xml
idea 11 - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26657232/dark_uptown_11.xml
Here you can find out how it looks.

edited Jun 28 '15 at 12:00

Mixcels

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answered Aug 06 '12 at 07:13

Igor Azarny

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score 3 · Answer 12 · edited Jan 30 '21 at 10:35

I know I'm late to the party but just wanted to mention that the Jumpout II theme really is amazing.. I have a lot of themes and this one really is great for a # of reasons..

it handles glare very well (yes even pure black on matte screens can produce glare, unfortunately my new matte monitor - has a more "glary" coating than my old one).. this is a grayish-black background
it has enough colors that you can easily see read even dense code - some themes that look nice at first use too much of one color and it makes dense code harder to digest
the comments are all gray, this is even better than dark green which is my 2nd favorite choice.. it really helps the code pop out..

so basically this is a great anti-glare, anti-dense-code theme

honorable mentions (I think these all can be found on that same site, although I'm not sure I spelled all of them correctly)

Dark Flash Builder (really great but at first the use of red can be confusing, but it is really one of its strengths. I had to modify it to make my error text highlighting different - I settled on some bright red underlined text)
Gedit Original Oblivion
Leone Dark II
Visual Studio 2013
Retta (very halloweeny)

and for white / beige / blue (in that order)

Oughsumm (wow best white ever, possibly the most legible theme I've ever seen - however, white is too bright for me in my current office situation, although occasionally I do switch to this when I want to quickly review a lot of code before a commit), also it is comfortably legible at 1 point smaller than all dark themes I've used.
humane-ist
rubyblue

p.s. please note I change the font of all the themes I use to Consolas 11 or 12 depending on the monitor. Consolas I find to be the best programming font out there. It looks great, easy to read and very well suited to LCD anti-aliasing. I tried so many programming fonts but I always come back to this one quickly. And it is not too narrow.. I'm not in the narrow camp, I believe narrow font aficionados don't program with ultra wide monitors - maybe program on a macbook or something just as bad :)

p.p.s I know solarized is supposed to be some kind of ultimate, magical, life-enhancing nirvana-inducing theme but I just don't get it.. I tried but failed to find it anything but annoying

and if you download Set-UI from the color schemes site all I can say is wow, this might be my new favourite, after some editing of it to my liking (dark with strong pop out colors ) — ycomp, Sep 18 '17 at 06:36
ok, really it all depends on your lighting situation... Best if bright sunlight / bright light - if you want white, Oughsumm, if not Gedit Original Oblivion (it's a highly readable highly glare resistant grey bg theme)... best if darker room and glare is not a problem: Set-UI (vibrant colors on blackish background, yellow is a dominant color) ... also for bright work environment if you don't want white or grey, find yourself a nice blue background - it needs to be blue, not purplish or dark blue, those are prone to glare in the same way black is. Find a Borland-esque blue. — ycomp, Sep 27 '17 at 02:52

Where can I download IntelliJ IDEA Color Schemes?

12 Answers12

honorable mentions (I think these all can be found on that same site, although I'm not sure I spelled all of them correctly)

and for white / beige / blue (in that order)

Linked