Use OS X Terminal's colors for Vim, but specify which types get which color

Question

I really like the OS X terminal colorscheme I currently have and would like to keep it for vim. However, I am very particular about my colors (class definitions must be purple, numbers must be green, etc). Is there a way to access terminal's current colorscheme, but reassign which colors go with which types?

I tried to find the same colorscheme for Vim as I use for my OS X, but for some reason, it never turns out quite right, even if the two files came from the same repository. The Vim always looks a bit darker.

Answer 1

You will have to write your own colorscheme using only color names for ctermfg and ctermbg:

" bar.vim -- Vim color scheme.
" Author:      foo ([email protected])
" Webpage:     http://www.example.com
" Description: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

hi clear

if exists("syntax_on")
  syntax reset
endif

let colors_name = "bar"

hi Normal ctermbg=white ctermfg=darkgray cterm=NONE
set background=dark
hi NonText ctermbg=white ctermfg=darkgray cterm=NONE
...

See :help cterm-colors for the accepted color names and :help highlight-groups for the available highlight groups.

Answer 2

Sometime ago I created a minimal colorscheme, which uses the same foreground and background colors as the terminal (so you'll only have to add some highlight rules for class definitions, numbers, etc. as you said).

You can start from putting the following code into ~/.vim/colors/xxiane-colorscheme-stackexchange.vim:

set background=light
hi clear
if (exists('syntax_on'))
    syntax reset
endif

let g:colors_name = 'xxiane-colorscheme-stackexchange'

hi Normal NONE
hi! link Constant Normal
hi! link Identifier Normal
hi! link PreProc Normal
hi! link Special Normal
hi! link Statement Normal
hi! link String Normal
hi! link Type Normal
hi Comment ctermfg=243 guifg=#737373
hi ColorColumn ctermbg=254 guibg=#e4e4e4
hi CursorLine ctermfg=NONE guifg=NONE ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE cterm=NONE term=NONE
hi CursorLineNr ctermfg=7 ctermbg=4 cterm=bold term=bold
hi Folded ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE
hi LineNr ctermfg=7
hi Error ctermfg=1 ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE
hi MatchParen ctermfg=4 ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE
hi Pmenu ctermfg=16 guifg=Black ctermbg=254 guibg=#e4e4e4
hi PmenuSel ctermfg=231 guifg=#ffffff ctermbg=4
hi Search ctermfg=13 ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE
hi TabLineFill ctermbg=15 cterm=NONE term=NONE
hi TabLineSel cterm=bold term=bold
hi Title ctermfg=NONE guifg=NONE ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE cterm=bold term=bold
hi Todo ctermfg=NONE guifg=NONE ctermbg=NONE guibg=NONE cterm=bold term=bold
hi Visual ctermfg=16 guifg=Black ctermbg=11
hi SpecialKey ctermfg=8 cterm=NONE term=NONE

and modify it to your liking. Here are a couple of hints to make it easier:

• Type :hi to see the list of all the active highlight groups with corresponding colors and styles (contents of the list depend on the file type of the current buffer).
• You can use a framework I created for my minimal colorscheme: https://github.com/0mp/vim-robpike/blob/master/build