Paper Theme for VS Code

A family of ergonomic, easy-on-the-eyes VS Code color themes built around an ink-on-paper aesthetic. Monochromatic syntax highlighting — weight, not color, creates hierarchy — with comments as the sole accent.

Variants

Theme	Type	Background	Character
Paper Light	light	#F6F2ED	Warm parchment — the base
Paper Soft	light	#F6F2ED	Same as Light, reduced contrast (~5:1)
Paper Warm	light	#F2E8D5	Aged amber, old-book warmth
Paper Cool	light	#F0F3F6	Blue-gray daylight, airy and clean
Paper Dark	dark	#1A1714	True inversion — warm dark, cream text

Design principles

• Monochromatic syntax — all code tokens use shades of the same warm gray. Color is never used to distinguish syntax categories.
• Weight as hierarchy — keywords, type names, function definitions, and other structural elements are bold; variables, strings, and operands are normal weight.
• Comments stand apart — the one non-monochromatic element. Each variant picks a muted accent that harmonizes with its background without competing with code.
• Ergonomic contrast — foreground/background contrast targets ~8:1 (not the harsh 12:1+ of pure black on white). Paper Soft targets ~5:1 for very long sessions.
• Warm backgrounds — never pure white. The warmth reduces the blue-light harshness of bright screens.

Installation

From VSIX

Download the latest .vsix from Releases and install:

code --install-extension paper-theme-*.vsix

Or drag the file into the VS Code Extensions panel.

Manual (clone)

git clone https://github.com/bergdorf/paper-theme ~/.vscode/extensions/paper-theme

Then restart VS Code and select a Paper variant from Preferences: Color Theme.

Selecting a theme

Ctrl+Shift+P (or ⌘⇧P) → Preferences: Color Theme → search Paper

Language support

Full token coverage for:

• TypeScript / JavaScript / JSX / TSX
• Python (including docstrings)
• Rust
• Go
• HTML / CSS
• Markdown
• JSON

Semantic highlighting is enabled for TypeScript (tsserver), Python (Pylance), and Rust (rust-analyzer).