Inspired by the Arctic night sky and the slow drift of the Northern Lights, this theme blends deep navy and teal shadows with luminous blue and green accents to create a calm yet vivid coding environment. Dark, cool backgrounds keep the editor restful, while bright cyans, fresh greens, and soft lavenders add clarity and energy to key syntax elements.
A dark theme from the Codigrate Nature collection, released 2023-08-13. Tags: Arctic, Cinematic, Luminous.
A free download from codigrate.com under the MIT licence: add it to your cart, enter the e-mail address the download link goes to, and get the theme file with its install steps.
Getting started on Zed
- Download the zip with the Download button. Inside is one folder with the theme file ( themes/<name>.json ) and a small extension.toml.
- Copy the .json file from the themes folder into ~/.config/zed/themes/ ( the same path on macOS and Linux; on a Mac, Shift+Cmd+G in Finder takes you to the path ). If the folder is not there yet, create it.
- In Zed, open the theme selector with Cmd+K Cmd+T ( Ctrl+K Ctrl+T on Linux ) and pick the theme by name, and the theme is applied.
- Prefer an extension? In Zed open Extensions, click Install Dev Extension and choose the unzipped folder itself; the theme then shows in the selector the same way.
Aurora Borealis color palette
Every named color of the Aurora Borealis palette, free to download for MacOS, CorelDRAW and Figma.
Aurora Borealis on every platform
- Aurora Borealis for JetBrains (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Xcode ($2.99)
- Aurora Borealis for VS Code (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Chrome (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Open VSX (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Slack (free)
- Aurora Borealis for MacOS Terminal (free)
- Aurora Borealis for iTerm2 (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Ghostty (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Rhino (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Zed (free), this page
- Aurora Borealis for Sublime Text (free)
- Aurora Borealis for Line
From the blog
- Anatomy of a Dark Theme: Aurora Borealis: Anatomy of Aurora Borealis, a dark IDE theme: a deep blue night backdrop, a soft grey foreground, and syntax in the real colors of the Northern Lights.
- Dark Mode and Light Mode: What Your Eyes Actually Want: Neither mode is easier on your eyes by default. What dark and light mode do to your pupils, why good dark themes skip pure black, and how to pick by room light.
- How Light Makes Colors: Every color is made of light. See how red, green and blue light add up to build any color on a screen, and why screens glow instead of stain like paint.
