If you are tired of your default Brackets theme and would like to switch things up, you might be relieved to know that there is a huge selection for you to choose from! Although looks are merely a cosmetic change that doesn’t alter your Brackets experience, it’s still a good idea to take a look around and change things up every now and again! So, without further ado – let’s take a look at some of the most popular Brackets themes to help you pimp out your text editor!
Default Brackets Themes
Before exploring, though, it’s worth mentioning that Brackets comes with a total of 2 default themes users can choose between. Brackets light and Brackets dark. The names are fairly self-explanatory, having one of the themes use light colors, and the other using darker colors. These themes can be changed by going into the ‘View’ menu and selecting ‘Themes’. From there, you will be able to choose between the two default ones, but you will also be able to choose the font size and the font family from this screen. However, there is so much more beyond these two themes! Before you can start using them, you’ll need to know where to find them and how to install a theme on brackets.
Installing Brackets Themes
To install new themes, you’ll first need to go to Files and then access your extension manager. You’ll be able to see the ‘Themes’ tab from there and as soon as you access it, you’ll be able to search through the plethora of themes available for your Brackets. Once you found a theme that you like, you can click on ‘Install’ to add this theme to your library. You can then go back and switch between them from the ‘View’ menu again. Now that we got that out of the way – let’s talk themes!
Monokai Dark Soda
One of the most popular themes is the Monokai Dark Soda theme. This was originally a color scheme for Sublime Text and was forked to support Brackets by user called buymeasoda. It’s a dark theme, offering highlights for elements of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It’s very easy on the eyes and can be a good choice for those who are looking to spend late nights coding over longer periods of time.
Dune
If you’re in the mood for a sandy theme, then Dune might be the perfect choice for you! Utilizing light, beige colors, it is very easy to get relaxed and become focused on your code. It isn’t invasive or too distracting. It is very light, minimal and perfect for those who tend to enjoy the lighter colors on their user interface.
New Moon
Another on the list of best brackets themes is a dark theme that web developers find very comfortable. It is the New Moon dark theme, created by Tania Rascia. It has a moderate amount of contrast, which allows users to find their way around their code without straining their vision too much.
Midnight Pumpkin
If you’re a fan of dark themes with a playful twist, then you are surely going to enjoy the Midnight Pumpkin theme! This is a Brackets original theme, enjoyed by many users around the globe. Although Halloween has passed by this year, this theme is suitable and good all year-round! Using simple, but effective colors of black, white and orange, this theme will allow you to look at your code in a whole new way!
H*cker
Want to feel like you’re coding in the Matrix? Say no more and look for the H*cker theme! This simple but very clever use of black and green will turn your computer into a mysterious-looking hacker terminal. For those of you with DOS experience, you might get hit with a bit of nostalgia with this theme, because it almost looks like you’re coding in DOS.
Space
As long as we’re going through themes, it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t mention the Space theme! This one is very popular among programmers and while it is considered a dark theme, due to its dark gray background, it still uses white, yellow and green to keep it light and help users have a very clear overview of the code.
Hopscotch
If you want to get your kids interested to learn how to code, there’s even a theme that helps accommodate that! Remember Hopscotch? A kid-friendly platform that delivers bite-size coding lessons to kids? Well, now you can have Brackets take over the look of this beloved, information-packed platform and encourage the youth to code! Use the Hopscotch theme to add a kid-friendly, colorful twist to your user interface.
Plasma Light
This is one of the more user friendly brackets themes available today. Taking a step back from the dark themes, we finally get to review a fairly light one. While it is very popular, it’s very peculiar and not all programmers may find that it is their cup of tea. Plasma Light is a light theme, utilizing a teal background with blue, gray, purple and hot pink lettering to give the background some life and color. It is vibrant and for those of you who used to work with C or C++ old compilers – you might just feel right at home!
Raven
Getting back to dark themes, here’s another popular choice brought to you by JTruax! It is the Raven Theme! Perfectly dark, with warm complementary colors of orange and blue, this is the perfect theme for you! If you are familiar with Dreamweaver and its many themes, you may have recognized that this is very similar to Dreamweaver CC’s Raven theme! In fact, this Brackets theme is inspired by it and an obvious improvement is a much better preprocessor support.
Exploring Brackets Themes
These are just some of the brackets themes you can turn to, if you are looking to make a few changes to how your Brackets editor looks. There are hundreds and hundreds of user-submitted themes you can browse and if your design skills are sharp, you can also submit your own theme for others to use. Overall, there is a huge variety of different themes you can use and you should explore all of the available choices. You are going to be pleasantly surprised with the amount of themes you’ll be able to find.