Solarized Theming & Styling Guide

A developer-friendly guide to using the Solarized color palette consistently across terminals, editors, websites, and apps.
Includes HEX codes, usage examples, and tool-specific setup instructions.

Color Palette

Color Name	HEX	RGB	Role
base03	`#002b36`	rgb(0, 43, 54)	Background
base02	`#073642`	rgb(7, 54, 66)	Darker bg
base01	`#586e75`	rgb(88, 110, 117)	Content text
base00	`#657b83`	rgb(101, 123, 131)	Content text
base0	`#839496`	rgb(131, 148, 150)	Content text
base1	`#93a1a1`	rgb(147, 161, 161)	Light accents
base2	`#eee8d5`	rgb(238, 232, 213)	Light bg
base3	`#fdf6e3`	rgb(253, 246, 227)	Lightest bg
yellow	`#b58900`	rgb(181, 137, 0)	Highlight
orange	`#cb4b16`	rgb(203, 75, 22)	Warning
red	`#dc322f`	rgb(220, 50, 47)	Error
magenta	`#d33682`	rgb(211, 54, 130)	Meta, headings
violet	`#6c71c4`	rgb(108, 113, 196)	Links
blue	`#268bd2`	rgb(38, 139, 210)	Info, links
cyan	`#2aa198`	rgb(42, 161, 152)	Success, code
green	`#859900`	rgb(133, 153, 0)	Success, OK

Choosing Between Light & Dark

Style	Background	Text Colors	Ideal For
Dark	`#002b36`	base0/base1	Nighttime coding
Light	`#fdf6e3`	base00/base01	Daylight, reading docs

Terminal Setup

macOS Terminal or iTerm2:

Download .itermcolors from: https://github.com/altercation/solarized
Preferences → Profiles → Colors → "Load Presets..."

Windows Terminal:

In settings.json:

"schemes": [
  {
    "name": "Solarized Dark",
    "background": "#002b36",
    "foreground": "#839496",
    "black": "#073642",
    "blue": "#268bd2",
    "cyan": "#2aa198",
    "green": "#859900",
    "purple": "#6c71c4",
    "red": "#dc322f",
    "white": "#eee8d5",
    "yellow": "#b58900"
  }
]

VS Code Solarized Theme

Search in Extensions: Solarized Dark or Solarized Light (Recommended: Solarized by Braver)

Vim / Neovim

Install a Solarized theme plugin:

Plug 'altercation/vim-colors-solarized'

Add to .vimrc or init.vim:

set background=dark   
colorscheme solarized

For Neovim in Lua:

vim.o.background = "light"
vim.cmd("colorscheme solarized")

Make sure terminal supports true color:

set termguicolors

JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm)

Install theme from JetBrains Plugin Marketplace: Search: Solarized Theme
Or import from .icls file: Solarized Theme

Sublime Text

Install Solarized Color Scheme from Package Control
Set in Preferences > Settings:

"color_scheme": "Packages/Color Scheme - Default/Solarized (Light).tmTheme",
"theme": "Adaptive.sublime-theme"

Chrome DevTools (Solarized)

Install this for devtools.

Firefox

Use Solarized Dark Firefox Theme
Or apply custom CSS with userChrome.css

Obsidian

Go to Settings → Appearance → Themes
Search & install: Solarized Dark or Solarized Light
For custom CSS:

body {
  background-color: #fdf6e3;
  color: #586e75;
}

Zathura PDF Reader (Linux)

Edit ~/.config/zathura/zathurarc:

set default-bg     "#fdf6e3"
set default-fg     "#586e75"
set highlight-color "#b58900"

tmux

Add to ~/.tmux.conf:

set-option -g status-bg colour235
set-option -g status-fg colour136
set-option -g message-bg colour235
set-option -g message-fg colour166

Or install plugin: tmux-themepack and use solarized-dark preset.

Alacritty (GPU terminal)

In ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml:

colors:
  primary:
    background: '#002b36'
    foreground: '#839496'
  normal:
    black:   '#073642'
    red:     '#dc322f'
    green:   '#859900'
    yellow:  '#b58900'
    blue:    '#268bd2'
    magenta: '#d33682'
    cyan:    '#2aa198'
    white:   '#eee8d5'

GNOME Terminal

# Requires dconf-cli
git clone https://github.com/Anthony25/gnome-terminal-colors-solarized
cd gnome-terminal-colors-solarized
./install.sh

Code Snippet Examples

CSS

body {
  background-color: #fdf6e3;
  color: #657b83;
}
a { color: #268bd2; }
pre, code {
  background: #eee8d5;
  color: #2aa198;
}

Python (matplotlib)

plt.rcParams.update({
    "axes.facecolor": "#fdf6e3",
    "axes.labelcolor": "#586e75",
    "xtick.color": "#586e75",
    "ytick.color": "#586e75",
    "text.color": "#657b83"
})

Manim (Python Animation)

from manim import *

config.background_color = "#fdf6e3"

class SolarizedDemo(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        title = Text("Solarized Style", color="#586e75")
        box = Square(color="#2aa198")
        self.play(Write(title), Create(box))

mosioc/solarized-theme-guide.md

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