How to change background and text colors in Sublime Text 3

Question

My questions are:

• How do I change the overall colors (background and font)?
• How do I change the colors based on the file type that is open?

Do I need to learn how to create a whole theme?

I read this answer -- Sublime 2 -changing background color based on file type? -- for Sublime 2, but I'm using Sublime 3 (currently in beta), and there is no "Color Scheme - Default" in the Package folder.

Answer 1

Overview

Semi-global text style settings are done by editing the color scheme you're using. (Adaptive theme for the UI and Mariana color scheme for the text gives a good starting point for dark mode.)

History

Near the end of Sublime 3, there was a transition from a format used by another Mac text editor to color schemes. There was no editor in Sublime 3 to modify color schemes, as there was for other settings.

Solution

By trying Sublime 4, you can edit a color scheme as you would other settings, with the full source on the left to find settings variable names and try things out.

Using the editor of Sublime 4, you can affect font styles (e.g. italic), and set the text colors, for word and symbol types for all languages. Your modifications on the right can then be applied to Sublime 3 build 3211, as per the documentation.

Most users will have updated to Sublime 4, since updates are forced, and then there's obviously no need to transfer the customizations to Sublime 3.

Specific languages

When customizing the color scheme, you can specify exceptions in the rules section for specific languages, again as per the documentation. (I've not found documentation for the exact variable names and format to write the exceptions correctly for any existing or new languages. I would welcome suggestions and edits to provide links.)

Answer 2

For your own theme package find and edit it.

Path: Preferences -> Browse Packages -> Theme - default

<dict>
    <key>settings</key>
    <dict>
        <key>background</key>
        <string>#edf2f6</string>
    </dict>
</dict>

Answer 3

To view Theme files for ST3, install PackageResourceViewer via PackageControl.

Then, you can use the Ctrl + Shift + P >> PackageResourceViewer: Open Resource to view theme files.

To edit a specific background color, you need to create a new file in your user packages folder Packages/User/SublimeLinter with the same name as the theme currently applied to your sublime text file.

However, if your theme is a 3rd party theme package installed via package control, you can edit the hex value in that file directly, under background. For example:

---

<dict>
  <dict>
    <key>background</key>
    <string>#073642</string>
  </dict>
</dict>

Otherwise, if you are trying to modify a native sublime theme, add the following to the new file you create (named the same as the native theme, such as Monokai.sublime-color-scheme) with your color choice

---

{
  "globals":
  {
      "background": "rgb(5,5,5)"
  }
}

Then, you can open the file you wish the syntax / color to be applied to and then go to Syntax-Specific settings (under Preferences) and add the path of the file to the syntax specific settings file like so:

---

{
    "color_scheme": "Packages/User/SublimeLinter/Monokai.sublime-color-scheme"
}

Note that if you have installed a theme via package control, it probably has the .tmTheme file extension.

If you are wanting to edit the background color of the sidebar to be darker, go to Preferences > Theme > Adaptive.sublime-theme

This my answer based on my personal experience and info gleaned from the accepted answer on this page, if you'd like more information.

Answer 4

I had the same issue. Sublime3 no longer shows all of the installed packages when you choose Show Packages from the Preferences Menu.

To customise a colour scheme do the following (UNIX):

• Locate your SublimeText packages directory under the directory which SublimeText is installed in (in my setup this was /opt/sublime/Packages)
• Open "Color Scheme - Default.sublime-package"
• Choose the colour scheme which is closest to your requirements and copy it
• From Sublime Text choose Preferences - Browse Packages - User
• Paste the colour scheme you copied earlier here and rename it. It should now show up on your "Preferences - Color Scheme" menu under "User"
• Follow the instructions at the link you previously mentioned to make the changes you require (Sublime 2 -changing background color based on file type?)

--- EDIT ---

For Mac OS X the themes are stored in zipped files so although the preferences file shows them as being in Packages/Color Scheme - Default/ they don't appear in that directory unless you extract them.

• They can be extracted using the Package Resource Viewer (See this answer for how to install and use the Package Resource Viewer).
• Search for Color Scheme in the Package Extractor (should give options for Color Scheme Default and Color Scheme legacy)
• Extract the one you want. It will now be available at users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/Color Scheme - Default (or Legacy)
• Make a copy of the scheme you want to modify, edit as needed and save it
• Add or change the line in user preferences which points to the color scheme

for example

"color_scheme": "Packages/Color Scheme - Legacy/myTheme.tmTheme"

Answer 5

Steps I followed for an overall dark theme including file browser:

1. Goto Preferences->Theme...
2. Choose Adaptive.sublime-theme

Answer 6

1. Go to the preferences
2. Click on color scheme
3. Choose your color scheme
4. I chose plastic, for my case.

Answer 7

For How do I change the overall colors (background and font)?

For MAC : goto Sublime text -> Preferences -> color scheme

Answer 8

This question -- Why do Sublime Text 3 Themes not affect the sidebar? -- helped me out.

The steps I followed:

1. Preferences
2. Browse Packages...
3. Go into the User folder (equivalent to going to %AppData%\Sublime Text 3\Packages\User)
4. Make a new text file in this folder called Default.sublime-theme
5. Add JSON styles here -- for a template, check out https://gist.github.com/MrDrews/5434948