How to make your own VS Code theme!

Kristiyan Velkov
2 min readSep 23, 2023

Creating a Visual Studio Code theme involves working with JSON files to define the colors and styles for various syntax elements. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a custom VS Code theme using code:

1. Set Up Your Development Environment:

  • Ensure you have Visual Studio Code installed on your computer.
  • Install Node.js and npm if you haven’t already, as you’ll need them for some advanced theming features.

2. Create a New Folder for Your Theme:

  • Create a new directory for your theme project, e.g., “my-vscode-theme.”

3. Create a theme file:

  • Inside your project directory, create a new JSON file for your theme. You can name it something like my-theme.json.

4. Define Your Theme Colors:

  • Open the my-theme.json file and define the colors for various syntax elements using JSON. Here's an example of how to define a color theme:
{
"name": "My Custom Theme",
"colors": {
"editor.background": "#1E1E1E",
"editor.foreground": "#CCCCCC",
"editor.selectionBackground": "#2A2A2A",
// Add more color definitions for different syntax elements
}
}

You can specify colors for various syntax elements using keys like "editor.keyword" or "editor.comment".

5. Test Your Theme:

  • Save your my-theme.json file and open it in VS…

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Kristiyan Velkov
Kristiyan Velkov

Written by Kristiyan Velkov

Front-end Advocate || Meta Certified React JS Developer || Tech lead || Speaker || Blogger React js, Next.js, Angular, Vue.js, Docker, People management