For a while now I have been using a few dark color schemes for Visual Studio, mostly to just try out whether I would like it or not. Many others like Brad Wilson have also shared their adaptations and thoughts on the use of dark color themes for Visual Studio. Guru Stop and Blowmage have some additional thoughts on dark themes that include John Lam’s Vibrant Link. I started out with some of Tomas Restrepo’s color schemes and made various alterations to fit my personal preference and style. Because a dark background allows for a better distribution of color, and choices for color, it was worth it to see if I could be pursuaded to join the dark side.
The result is that I am finding it very annoying and painful on the eyes. But not so much the color schemes using a dark background themselves, but rather the practical implications when using it while doing actual work. The dark background allows for better highlighting of code, no doubt about that, but in a practical situation I often have other applications running on the screens which include things like help files, CHM’s and PDF’s with developer documentation and API docs, Outlook, OneNote, Visio, and many other development tools, etc. and almost all of these applications will use a light or white background as a basis.
The eyestrain starts to set in after working for a few hours whereby you read through a CHM, move back to your code on the dark background, and repeatedly move back and forth between the various windows. The extremely frequent and rapid movement and changes between dark and light ends up feeling very bad on the eyes and as a result I feel tired after only a few hours of doing this.
It’s back to my custom color scheme that uses a near white (250,250,250) background instead. It was fun while it lasted, though!
Stefan, can you share your VS color settings ? 🙂
Sure. They’re nothing special or outrageous, though.
Stefan’s VS2008 color and font settings. (1340 bytes).
Well, i don’t need something special or outrageous also. I’m just looking for simple, non-standard and not-dark color theme.
Thank you, a bit of customizing and I’ll got my own 🙂
hey stefan,hiermee wil ik je meedelen dat ik je echt bewonder.en dat wat jij doet en tot nu toe al bereikt hebt echt wel amazing knap is.waarom ik dit nu in het nederlands naar je toe stuur is,om het feit dat jij van nederland komt en ik uit belgie.Turnhout om precies te zijn nabij Antwerpen.dus eigenlijk zijn we dan buren ha-ha,in ieder geval nog veel succes.ik heb nu gezien,nadat ik je webpage vandaag gezien heb,ik nog veel kan bijleren,ik ben er wel hard in geinterreseerd in de computerwereld,maar dan in multimedia,greets from belgium.Yves ik hoop dat je me eens terugmailt,zodat als ik met iets zit,waaraan ik niet goed uit wijs geraak.je me kan helpen
Hey Stefan – That’s a definitely sweet setup you have! Can I ask what you use for the backlighting in your studio? That’s an awesome effect. I’m tyring to see what type desk lighting you have behind the monitors setup in your pictures and there is only one photo where you can actually see the light itself. What brand are they?
Greetings,
I would agree about dark backgrounds and alt_tabbing to other documents. I decided to modify my environment a bit to help eliminate the harsh “whiteness”.
I made two significant but simply adjustments that i found wonderful.
1.) I grabbed the #1 font (Inconsolata) w/ 11pt size from http://hivelogic.com/articles/view/top-10-programming-fonts
2.) I changed the background to a “Bisque” colour
R:255
G:245
B:220
Overall i found the font easier on the eyes as its more “fluid” and the “Bisque” takes away the harsh edge that white has. The colour is also friendly for alt-tabbing because it is not a dramatic contrast.
In my opinion the best dark theme for Visual Studio is Oren Ellenbogen’s Theme (http://www.lnbogen.com/VisualStudioNet2005Colors.aspx).
I have made some modification to the original theme to provide better coloring for XML files. You can have a look at my version here: http://blog.nankov.com/2009/09/02/visual-studio-low-contrast-theme-zenburn-remixed/
An alternate dark theme, for anyone interested: http://tom.net.nz/2010/07/visual-studio-2010-theme/
Loosely based on the Railscast TextMate theme. Enjoy!