a vim and terminal theme based on hue 204 (blue, blue...)
Note: this repository is archived; my active blue-tinted vim theme is snow.
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seabird is a theme based on hue 204 .
seabird variants |
light theme |
dark theme |
high-saturation |
seagull | petrel |
low-saturation |
grey gull | storm petrel |
SEAGULL |
PETREL | |
GREY
|
STORM
|
Download the desired colourscheme files and place in directory ~/.vim/colors/
(Linux/Mac) or %userprofile%\vimfiles\colors\
(Windows).
For easy management of Vim colour schemes (and other plugins), try a plugin manager. With vim-plug, for instance, just add Plug 'haystackandroid/seabird'
to the list of plugins in vimrc
, then run PlugUpdate
.
To activate the seagull theme, add colorscheme seagull
to the vimrc
file. Choose from among seagull
, greygull
, petrel
, and stormpetrel
.
For Neovim, add set termguicolors
to enable truecolour support.
To assign themes to specific intervals of the day, try the night-and-day plugin.
In order for seabird to work properly in terminal Vim, set the terminal's colours to match those of the active Vim theme.
As of now, this repository provides the following terminal configuration files:
Xresources
files for xterm and urxvt (Linux).colorscheme
files for Konsole and QTerminal (Linux)gsettings
'command blocks' for pantheon-terminal (elementary OS).terminal
files for terminal.app (OSX).itermcolors
files for iTerm2 (OSX)For GNOME Terminal, run the install script for the desired seabird theme to create a "profile" for it. Then select the profile with the right-click menu, or set the profile as default via Edit > Preferences > Profiles.
Configuration files for other terminals may be added if requested.
how seabird took flight
step 1: choosing a principal hue
Hue 204 was chosen because:
- a sky blue colour was desired
- at 100% saturation and value, hue 204 features 3:1 contrast ratio (the ISO standard) with a white background
step 2: choosing base colours
The base colours, which are shared by the light and dark versions of seabird, were selected using the hue/saturation/value model of colour definition.
First, all base colours were assigned hue 204.
Second, saturation levels were assigned. The lightest colour, seagrey8, was assigned 0. For the remaining colours, an excerpt of the Fibonacci sequence was applied.
base colour role hue ° saturation % seagrey1 regular background (petrel) 204 55 seagrey2 highlighted background (petrel) 204 34 seagrey3 subdued text (petrel) 204 21 seagrey4 regular text (seagull) 204 13 seagrey5 regular text (petrel) 204 8 seagrey6 subdued text (seagull) 204 5 seagrey7 highlighted background (seagull) 204 3 seagrey8 regular background (seagull) 204 0 Third, value levels were assigned. seagrey8 was set to 100% value. The rest were assigned values based on contrast ratios with other base colours.
this colour was assigned... ...this value... ...to meet this contrast ratio... ...with this colour seagrey1 10 18½:1 seagrey8 seagrey2 17 1⅕:1 seagrey1 seagrey3 48 3:1 seagrey2 seagrey4 49 4½:1 seagrey8 seagrey5 51 4½:1 seagrey1 seagrey6 53 3:1 seagrey7 seagrey7 93 1⅕:1 seagrey8 seagrey8 100 - -
- the 18½:1 ratio ensures a 10% value background for the dark theme: a "soft black" good for long-term readability
- the 1⅕:1 ratio provides background highlights that stand out clearly from the regular background
- the 3:1 ratio ensures that subdued text on highlighted background is ISO "standard" readable
- the 4½:1 ratio ensures that regular text on regular background is W3C "AA accessible" readable
The resulting colours:
seabird base colour hex hue ° saturation % value % seagrey1 0b141a
204 55 10 seagrey2 1d252b
204 34 17 seagrey3 61707a
204 21 48 seagrey4 6d767d
204 13 49 seagrey5 787e82
204 8 51 seagrey6 808487
204 5 53 seagrey7 e6eaed
204 3 93 seagrey8 ffffff
204 0 100 step 3: choosing accent colours
Accent colour hues were selected from around the (30°-divided) colour wheel: hue 204 plus seven companions.
colour hue ° contrast level red 354 high orange 24 medium yellow 54 low green 114 low teal 174 low blue 204 medium purple 264 high pink 324 high All hues were initially set to 100% saturation and value. Then:
- the low-contrast colours were reduced in value (yellow by ¼, green and teal by ⅓)
- the high-contrast colours were reduced in saturation (red by ¼, purple and pink by ⅓)
- the mid-contrast colours (orange and blue) were left alone
The goal contrast ratio was 3:1 (the ISO standard), prompting a few small hue adjustments.
seagull accent colour hex hue ° saturation % value % red ff4053
354 75 100 orange ff6200
23 100 100 yellow bf8c00
44 100 75 green 11ab00
114 100 67 teal 00a5ab
182 100 67 blue 0099ff
204 100 100 purple 9854ff
264 67 100 pink ff549b
335 67 100 For grey gull, each seagull accent colour was reduced in saturation by 38.2% (by applying the golden ratio), then reduced in value to a contrast ratio of 3:1.
grey gull accent colour hex hue ° saturation % value % red db7681
354 46 86 orange d1814f
23 62 82 yellow ad9142
44 62 68 green 4aa840
114 62 66 teal 3fa2a6
182 62 65 blue 4e9bcf
204 62 81 purple a783de
264 41 87 pink cf7a9d
335 41 81 For petrel, each grey gull accent colour was reduced in value to a contrast ratio of 4½:1 (the W3C AA minimum).
petrel accent colour hex hue ° saturation % value % red ba656d
354 46 73 orange b06d43
23 62 69 yellow 947b38
44 62 58 green 3f8f36
114 62 56 teal 35898c
182 62 55 blue 4384b0
204 62 69 purple 8e6fbd
264 41 74 pink b06886
335 41 69 For storm petrel, each petrel accent colour was reduced in saturation by 38.2% (by applying the golden ratio), then reduced in value to a contrast ratio of 4½:1.
storm petrel accent colour hex hue ° saturation % value % red 9e7276
354 28 62 orange 9c7760
23 38 61 yellow 8a7c55
44 38 54 green 5b8a55
114 38 54 teal 548587
182 38 53 blue 5f8299
204 38 60 purple 86779e
264 25 62 pink 997383
335 25 60 notes
The seabird colour scheme files are generated by modifying those of the flattened colour scheme by Romain Lafourcade, which is in turn derived from the Solarized colour scheme by Ethan Schnoonover.
Colour adjustment was performed with the GnuIMP colour selection tool. Contrast ratios were calculated with these formulas.
Actual contrast ratios may be slightly higher than those listed, due to discrete jumps in digital colour values.
Photo credits:
- seagull by Dan Hurt, petrel by Duncan (angrysunbird); both licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.
- 'fair weather sea' by Ali West, 'grey skies sea' by Mary (puzzlement); both licensed CC BY 2.0, both colour-adjusted