Inkglow

Color themes for VS Code, Neovim, and terminal tools. 9 themes across dark/light variants with curated retro palettes.

All themes are defined once as compact, human-readable JSON files and built into VS Code themes, Neovim colorschemes, and an importable JS API from the same source.

Themes

| Theme | Type | Palette | |-------|------|---------| | Inkglow | dark | Gel-pen neons on black | | Inkglow Quill | light | Warm earthtone inks | | Inkglow Storm | light | Blue/orange contrast | | Inkglow Charm | dark | Sweetie-16 retro palette | | Inkglow Frost | light | Sweetie-16 retro palette | | Inkglow Blaze | dark | PICO-8 game palette | | Inkglow Hearth | light | PICO-8 game palette | | Inkglow Dusk | dark | NA16 retro palette | | Inkglow Gilt | light | NA16 retro palette |

Preview

Dark

Light

Install

VS Code

Install from the VS Code Marketplace, or from source:

git clone https://github.com/creationix/inkglow.git
cd inkglow
node build.mjs
code --install-extension .

Neovim

Add the repo with your plugin manager, then set the colorscheme:

-- lazy.nvim
{ "creationix/inkglow" }

-- packer
use "creationix/inkglow"

colorscheme inkglow          " flagship dark
colorscheme inkglow-dusk     " or any variant

Inkglow Charm theme in Neovim with Treesitter highlighting

CLI tools (npm)

npm install @creationix/inkglow

Import the theme data directly in Node.js tools, REPLs, or terminal applications:

import { getTheme, colorize, toAnsi256, getAnsi256Map } from "@creationix/inkglow";

// Get a theme by name
const theme = getTheme("Inkglow");

// Colorize text for terminal output using 256-color ANSI codes
process.stdout.write(colorize(theme, "keyword", "fn "));
process.stdout.write(colorize(theme, "function", "fibonacci"));
process.stdout.write(colorize(theme, "bracket", "("));
process.stdout.write(colorize(theme, "parameter", "n"));
process.stdout.write(colorize(theme, "bracket", ")"));

// Get the ANSI 256-color code for any hex color
const code = toAnsi256("#ff9944"); // → 209

// Get a full lookup table for building your own renderer
const map = getAnsi256Map(theme);
// map.keyword  → { code: 209, fontStyle: undefined }
// map.comment  → { code: 103, fontStyle: "italic" }

You can also import individual theme JSON files directly:

import inkglow from "@creationix/inkglow/inkglow.json" with { type: "json" };
import scopes from "@creationix/inkglow/scopes.json" with { type: "json" };

Project structure

├── scopes.json           # Scope registry — all targeted TextMate + semantic scopes
├── inkglow.json          # Declarative theme source files (compact, human-readable)
├── inkglow-quill.json
├── ...
├── build.mjs             # Generates themes/ (VS Code) and colors/ (Neovim)
├── preview.mjs           # TUI previewer using 256-color ANSI
├── screenshots.mjs       # SVG screenshot generator
├── index.mjs             # npm entry point for CLI tools
├── themes/               # Generated VS Code themes (gitignored)
├── colors/               # Generated Neovim colorschemes (gitignored)
└── screenshots/          # Generated SVG previews

Declarative theme format

Each theme file at the root is a compact JSON mapping of token roles to "#color style" values:

{
  "tokens": {
    "comment":          "#8877aa italic",
    "keyword":          "#ff9944",
    "keyword.control":  "#77bbff",
    "string":           "#55cc99",
    "function":         "#a6e22e",
    "variable":         "#99ccff"
  }
}

The role names map to TextMate scopes (via scopes.json), Vim syntax groups, and Treesitter captures. This makes themes easy to compare side-by-side and keeps the single source of truth for all output formats.

Development

Open this repo in VS Code, then:

• F5 — launches an Extension Development Host with the themes loaded (runs build automatically)
• Cmd+Shift+B — run the default build task

CLI

node build.mjs              # Generate VS Code themes + Neovim colorschemes
node build.mjs --check      # Validate scope coverage without writing
node build.mjs --report-256 # Show 256-color fidelity for each theme

node preview.mjs            # Preview all themes in terminal (256-color)
node preview.mjs inkglow.json  # Preview a specific theme
node preview.mjs --compact  # Side-by-side view (auto-fits terminal width)
node preview.mjs --dark     # Only dark themes
node preview.mjs --light    # Only light themes
node preview.mjs --palette  # Show color palette with 256-color mappings

node screenshots.mjs --readme  # Regenerate SVG previews + update README

Scope registry

scopes.json lists every TextMate scope and semantic token type that themes target. Use it to:

• Cross-reference when building language grammars
• Validate that themes cover all scopes consistently
• Understand which roles are available for coloring