Prefer minimal or muted highlighting
Many commenters argue for only a few colors—often just comments or a restrained palette—so the code’s structure remains the focus.
- applfanboysbgon: “I only highlight comments to distinguish code from not‑code, I think everything else is a pretty distraction.”
- sph: “Always seeking good, minimal, muted colour themes for my editors.”
Highlighting helps readability and skimming
Others find that color (especially for comments and keywords) speeds up comprehension and lets the eye jump to relevant parts.
- lexicality: “The colours help you skim‑read.”
- noxss: “colors matter because they help me read faster the keywords … without color it is more difficult to send the eye to the correct position.”
Overly colorful, non‑semantic themes are distracting
A prevalent critique targets “rainbow vomit” schemes that add noise rather than meaning, urging purposeful or semantic highlighting instead.
- sph: “I have no idea how people are supposed to be productive with non‑semantic rainbow vomit themes that are so popular in modern editors.”
- applfanboysbgon: “syntax highlighting was a mistake that has cost humanity untold millions of productivity hours.”