DEV Community

Joao Pedro
Joao Pedro

Posted on

Paledev Dark Theme — A Palenight-inspired theme for Visual Studio 2026

🎨 Paledev Dark Theme

I recently built a dark theme for Visual Studio 2026, inspired by the popular Palenight theme from VS Code.

The goal was simple: create a theme that feels clean, consistent, and comfortable for long coding sessions.


✨ What I focused on

  • Readability → clear distinction between code elements
  • Contrast → balanced colors without being too harsh
  • Consistency → unified look across editor and UI
  • Long sessions → reduced eye strain over time

💻 Supported languages

The theme has been tested with:

  • C#
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • JSON / XML

🧠 Challenges

Visual Studio handles colors differently compared to VS Code, especially across UI elements and editor tokens.

Getting consistent contrast across:

  • comments vs inactive code
  • selections and backgrounds
  • different language syntaxes

...required a lot of fine tuning.


🚀 Try it out

You can install it from the Visual Studio Marketplace:

👉 https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jfigueiras.paledev-theme


💬 Feedback

I'm still improving the theme, so any feedback is welcome.

What would you tweak in a dark theme for long coding sessions?

Top comments (0)