Choosing a variant

Choose for your environment#

Start with Gruvbox Dark Medium for a balanced dark background. Choose Hard for a stronger separation from the text or Soft for a gentler background. For a bright room, try the corresponding Light palette. Select an Islands variant when using the modern Islands layout.

Registered variants#

Select these names from Settings → Appearance & Behavior → Appearance → Theme:

Theme	Appearance
Gruvbox Dark Medium	Dark
Gruvbox Dark Hard	Dark
Gruvbox Dark Soft	Dark
Gruvbox Light Medium	Light
Gruvbox Light Hard	Light
Gruvbox Light Soft	Light
Gruvbox Dark Medium (Islands)	Dark
Gruvbox Dark Hard (Islands)	Dark
Gruvbox Dark Soft (Islands)	Dark
Gruvbox Light Medium (Islands)	Light
Gruvbox Light Hard (Islands)	Light
Gruvbox Light Soft (Islands)	Light

Compare consistently#

1. Open a representative source file with comments, strings, types, and diagnostics.
2. Apply a variant and inspect the editor, Project tree, completion popup, and diff viewer.
3. Try another variant without changing font or display brightness between comparisons.
4. Keep the one that preserves clear comments, selections, errors, and focused controls for your working environment.

If a name is missing, check your installed plugin version against the release noted below. Manual editor-scheme overrides can make two different UI themes appear identical in the code pane.