Best Sublime Text 3 Themes of 2015 and 2016

Draft updated on Invalid Date

By Michael J. Calkins

Best Sublime Text 3 Themes of 2015 and 2016

This tutorial is out of date and no longer maintained.

Introduction

Sublime Text is an incredibly powerful editor. Not only does it have a great amount of features, it can also look good. We’ve gone through and looked at the best themes of 2014; let’s have a look at the newest Sublime Text 3 themes.

Note: Update (November 05, 2016): Add this new theme at the bottom of the article. https://github.com/dempfi/ayu

Installing Themes

To install themes, just use package control. So the process would be:

CTRL+SHIFT+P or CMD+SHIFT+P
Look for Package Control: Install Package
Search for the theme and hit enter
Set the theme in Preferences -> Settings – User by editing the json property called theme

{
  "theme": "Lanzhou.sublime-theme"
}

The font used in the screenshots is called Operator Mono.

Boxy

Features four high quality themes and complimentary color schemes.
Large variety of options to tune every visual aspect of your editor.

See Boxy on Package Control

Boxy Yesterday

{
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Boxy Theme/schemes/Boxy Yesterday.tmTheme",
  "theme": "Boxy Yesterday.sublime-theme",
}

Boxy Tomorrow

{
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Boxy Theme/schemes/Boxy Tomorrow.tmTheme",
  "theme": "Boxy Tomorrow.sublime-theme",
}

Boxy Ocean

{
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Boxy Theme/schemes/Boxy Ocean.tmTheme",
  "theme": "Boxy Ocean.sublime-theme",
}

Boxy Monokai

{
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Boxy Theme/schemes/Boxy Monokai.tmTheme",
  "theme": "Boxy Monokai.sublime-theme",
}

Material Theme

Very well documented and lots of options to customize.
Author has created plugins for additional customization.
- White panels and inputs
- Appbar

See Material Theme on Package Control

Material Theme - Default

{
  "theme": "Material-Theme.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Material Theme/schemes/Material-Theme.tmTheme"
}

Material Theme - Darker

{
  "theme": "Material-Theme-Darker.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Material Theme/schemes/Material-Theme-Darker.tmTheme"
}

Material Theme - Lighter

{
  "theme": "Material-Theme-Lighter.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Material Theme/schemes/Material-Theme-Lighter.tmTheme"
}

Agila

Well spaced folders in the file tree for readability.
Agila Oceanic has a similar feel to the popular Spacegray theme.

See Agila on Package Control

Agila - Default

{
  "theme": "Agila.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Agila Theme/Agila Oceanic Next.tmTheme"
}

Agila - Classic

{
  "theme": "Agila Classic.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Agila Theme/Agila Classic Oceanic Next.tmTheme"
}

Agila - Light

{
  "theme": "Agila Light.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Agila Theme/Agila Light Solarized.tmTheme"
}

Lanzhou

Good contrast between sidebar and editor if you use a flat-dark color scheme like Base16 Ocean Dark.

See Lanszhou on Package Control

Lanzhou

{
  "theme": "Lanzhou.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Theme - Lanzhou/base16-ocean.dark.tmTheme"
}

Sunrise

See Sunrise on Package Control

Sunrise

{
  "theme": "Sunrise.sublime-theme"
}

Sunrise

Kronuz

Based on Soda Dark and Afterglow.

See Kronuz on Package Control

Kronuz

{
  "theme": "Theme - Kronuz.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Theme - Kronuz/Kronuz.tmTheme"
}

Kronuz

Autumn

Features a cool perspective on the file tree.
Looks really good with Monokai.

See Autumn on Package Control

Autumn

{
  "theme": "Autumn.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/Theme - Autumn/Autumn.tmTheme"
}

Autumn

Ayu

Simple and well thought out theme
Dark and light for working all day comfortably

Ayu - Light

{
  "theme": "ayu-light.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/ayu/ayu-light.tmTheme",
}

Ayu Light

Ayu - Mirage

{
  "theme": "ayu-mirage.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/ayu/ayu-mirage.tmTheme",
}

Ayu Mirage

Ayu - Dark

{
  "theme": "ayu-dark.sublime-theme",
  "color_scheme": "Packages/ayu/ayu-dark.tmTheme",
}

Ayu Dark

Tips For Choosing A Theme

Everyone’s eyes see color differently, find a theme that creates a good contrast between the background and the text for you.
When your eyes get tired or it’s a late night while your working consider a program like Flux.
Try out Colorsublime, it lets you change your current color scheme instantly from within Sublime Text.

Colorsublime

Conclusion

By far my favorite theme and color scheme is Boxy Monokai, but Agila came in a close second. However I found these theme’s color schemes to have varied syntax highlighting for files I work in like ES6, ReactJS/JSX, or HTML.

Know of any new themes or color schemes that you really liked?

Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.

Learn more about our products