Best Sublime Text 3 Themes of 2015 and 2016

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.

Installing Themes

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

1. CTRL+SHIFT+P or CMD+SHIFT+P
2. Look for Package Control: Install Package
3. Search for the theme and hit enter
4. 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

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

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

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

{
  "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

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

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

{
  "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

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

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

{
  "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

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

Sunrise

See Sunrise on Package Control

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

Kronuz

• Based on Soda Dark and Afterglow.

See Kronuz on Package Control

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

Autumn

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

See Autumn on Package Control

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

Ayu

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

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

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

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

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.

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?