Several months ago I started my hunt for a decent low contrast theme for Visual Studio and I came across a very extensive article on the subject by Scott Hanselman. I tried several themes but the one that caught my attention was Oren Ellenbogen’s Dark Scheme which is based on the Zenburn theme.
One thing that I do not like about the original themes, being a Silverlight and a WPF developer, is the fact that the XML colors were not configured. In addition to that, the output window uses a horrifying green-colored font that can make your eyes pop. Apart from those two problems I consider the two themes to be the best low contrast themes available.
I have made some adjustments to the original themes and I came up with my version which I use every day. Now the output window uses more subtle font color and the XML markup look a lot better. Here is the Zenburn Remixed:
I have attached a zip file that contains a Visual Studio 2008 setting file that you can use to apply the Zenburn Remixed theme. To do that just open Visual Studio, go to Tools –> Import and Export settings, and follow the wizard.
Many thanks to the guys that compiled the original themes.
Link to this page
Hi,
I’m using your theme, and it is great. However, when using a smaller font, the bold effect on the keywords is quite subtle.
Maybe it would be a great idea to change the color of them.
What do you think? Any idea?