DEV Community

Cover image for Supercharge your Coding Motivation: A Complete Guide to modify VS Code looks ! 🚀🔥
Lakshit Somani
Lakshit Somani

Posted on

Supercharge your Coding Motivation: A Complete Guide to modify VS Code looks ! 🚀🔥

Image description

[Note: Trust me this blog has new things you have never even heard of)

Does your editor also looks like above? Bored up of your regular VS Code themes? Using those same fonts since starting? Want to level up your VS Code environment to make it look THE BEST ??

Save this post cause today I am gonna show you exactly that!
I will be showing you how to transform your regular old boring vscode to a completely new looking editor!

Step 1: Pre Requisites
The first and foremost thing you need is VS Code 😂. Okay I know that you had that :) Anyways we are going to download some things.

Step 2: Nerd Fonts and Inter Font

Nerd fonts are fonts which support ligatures and have hundreds of different glyph icons which are not present in your OS fonts.

Go to this website and download some monospaced nerd fonts. For the sake of this tutorial, I am gonna advise you to download Fira Code, Jetbrains Mono, Victor Mono for this tutorial. Also install the above downloaded fonts.

Download and install the nerd fonts on your respective OS.

Now go to your VS Code. Open settings by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + ,.

In the Editor: Font Family section, change font name to JetbrainsMono Nerd Font. See below image for reference.

Image description

So now our editor looks a little bit nice, ain't it?

Now you also need to download and install 'Inter' font.
Go here: https://rsms.me/inter/
And download it, install it. We will use it later.

Image description

Step3: Install Themes

Now we are gonna be installing some themes. Go to VS Code and search for this theme: Best Themes Redefined

Image description

Hit that install button and BOOM 💥 .

SO MANY DIFFERENT THEMES !! ALL UNDER ONE! SELECT THE ONE WHICH SUITS BEST TO YOU.

Step 4: (ONLY FOR WINDOWS, NOT NEEDED ON MACOS) Install Mactype

Mactype is an application used to improve font rendering on Windows. Install Mactype from here: https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/releases/download/v1.2023.5.31/mactype-20230531.zip

And install it. Now open Mactray, select run as windows service. Click Next. On next screen, select default profile. Click finish. You are good to go!

Step 5: Customizing VS Code UI

Dowload Custom CSS and JS Loader.

Image description

Now you need to create a css file at a location of your choice in your os. Since I am using Windows here for this tutorial, I am creating it at C:/Users/Username/.local/customcss.css. Now remember this location.

Open VS Code, press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P, type open user settings json.

Image description

Add following line to it:

"vscode_custom_css.imports": [

 "file:///C:/Users/username/.local/customcssforvscode.css"
],
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Image description

Path name will differ for different OS and users.

Now open the css file you created and add following lines to it. .windows class is only for windows. Use .linux OR .mac for your OS respectively.

.windows {
    font-family: "Inter";
    -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0.2px; /* not needed on macos */
}

.mtki {
    font-family: VictorMono Nerd Font;
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

What does it do?
Giving stroke width improves font display on Windows and Linux. We are also changing font family of the UI to Inter.

Modifying properties in mtki class control the italic font behaviours in VS Code. We changed italic font family to our desired font.

You can modify these as much as you want.

And save it.

Now press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P, type enable custom css and js, and press enter. Restart VS Code as instructed

Voila!! A complete different and new looking VS Code.

You will notice all italic fonts are now looking very very good.

Image description

This is how it will look after doing above customisations.

Step 6: Customising Title Bar

Press Ctrl/Cmd + ,, type window.title. You will get a input box like below.

Image description

Now type whatever you think is right for you. I just type file name and my name. You can do as you like.

Also change title bar style to custom.

Image description

///////////////////////////////////

Everything is complete. Now you have a completely new looking VS Code.

///////////////////////////////////

More customisations include messing with settings in View Menu. You can enable different modes such as zen mode etc to get a more focused editor environment.

///////////////////////////////////

Hope you liked my blog. LIKE AND SHARE IT!

Top comments (16)

Collapse
 
jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

...and this supercharges productivity how?

Collapse
 
lakshitsomani profile image
Lakshit Somani • Edited

A good looking editor automatically attracts minds to do more coding. I have asked many programmers in my career journey and this is what i found, that's how it supercharges your productivity

Collapse
 
cavo789 profile image
Christophe Avonture

Same feeling, this has very few to do with productivity. OK you'll like your coding environnement but except that...

Collapse
 
memark profile image
Magnus Markling

I think it maybe supercharges the clicking on the article in listings.

Collapse
 
meer profile image
Meer

Downloading Victor Mono

rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/

Installing fonts in window.

  • Extract the zip file.

  • Find The files with .ttf

  • If you want to install all fonts in a folder.

  • Press CTRL + A

  • Right-click and click install

For Installing mactype.

mactype.net/

I felt overwhelmed to install mactype from a zip file.

In the end, very Nice/Great Article. Appreciated!

Collapse
 
lakshitsomani profile image
Lakshit Somani

As I suggested, victor mono nerd font is more preferred as compared to Original Victor Mono. Also mactype is a github project, so its completely safe

Collapse
 
jakeespinosa profile image
Jake Espinosa

While I don't think this supercharges productivity, I do see the value in making your text editor visually appealing and pleasant to be in. Nice article!

Collapse
 
lakshitsomani profile image
Lakshit Somani

I feel like different persons may have different opinions. But imho this does not diminish the usefulness of a good looking editor. A code editor is a tool which a software engineer spends major amount of his/her time and that thing SHOULD LOOK NICE imo.

Collapse
 
respect17 profile image
Kudzai Murimi

l feel like people have different opinions, right?
Thanks for sharing Somani

Collapse
 
keys87 profile image
Keys87

Nice, I don't feel I need these things but good article! And also I like and use the light theme

Collapse
 
evanmarshalldev profile image
Evan Marshall

Cannot get it working for Mac...

Collapse
 
khiman profile image
Khiman Louer

What the hell is this font

Collapse
 
arenishr profile image
Abdul Renish R

attachment mactype is having virus suspicious, others are ok..

Collapse
 
lakshitsomani profile image
Lakshit Somani

No, these are false suspicions. Mactype is a github project for god's sake.

Collapse
 
insanepasina profile image
insanepasina • Edited

It has the potential to turbocharge the engagement. with the article in various listings.

Collapse
 
lakshitsomani profile image
Lakshit Somani

When I put all my passion and hard work into writing a blog, I really hope more people will join in and connect with it.