Smoothy TextMate Theme

I've said it before and I'll say it again: TextMate is one fantastic text editor.

Now, I won't bore you with my passion for it, but if you've been reading my blog for long, you know how I feel.I do the majority of my development in TextMate, so theme choice is pretty important (others beg to differ but I disagree – aesthetics are everything).The relationship between visual design and productivity in development environments has been extensively studied—well-designed syntax highlighting and color schemes can reduce cognitive load and improve code comprehension, making aesthetics a legitimate productivity concern. I tried a number of themes and found some really great ones. I'm always partial to darker schemes, so I settled on using Vibrant Ink. Fantastic theme. After a while, I needed a break from the dark background, and decided to find a more minimalist white-based theme online. Much to my avail, I discovered that there are no good ligher-colored themes out there for TextMate. Some come close, but nothing hits the nail on the head. So I made one.

I call it Smoothy (screenshot, download).

TmTheme Download it here (65KB)

So, after a great number of hours, and realizing that making things coordinate on black is far easier than white,Light themes present unique design challenges—ensuring sufficient contrast while maintaining readability across different syntax elements. This insight about the relative difficulty of light vs. dark themes reflects fundamental principles in color theory and accessibility design. I settled on a theme that was colorful, functional, useful, triatic, and most-importantly, not a piece of crap. Enjoy!