A New Dark Theme for VSCode, Inspired by JetBrains and Easemate

If you're a VSCode user who's ever envied the polished, focused dark themes of JetBrains IDEs, or admired the clean aesthetic of the easemate design system, there's a new theme you need to check out. It’s not just another dark theme—it’s a deliberate fusion of two design philosophies known for their developer-centric clarity and reduced eye strain.

Dark Islands for VSCode aims to bring the best parts of those environments into your favorite editor. It’s built for developers who want a professional, deeply contrasted theme that helps code stand out, without resorting to harsh neon colors or flat, indistinguishable grays.

What It Does

Dark Islands is a Visual Studio Code color theme that provides a cohesive, high-contrast dark interface. It directly ports and adapts the visual styling from popular JetBrains IDE dark themes and the easemate design principles into a VSCode extension. The result is a syntax highlighting scheme and workbench color palette that feels familiar, intentional, and easy on the eyes for long coding sessions.

Why It's Cool

The magic here is in the curation. Instead of creating something from scratch, the theme synthesizes two well-regarded designs. JetBrains themes are famous for their semantic highlighting—differentiating types, parameters, and variables by color in a meaningful way. Easemate contributes a sense of spatial clarity and clean visual hierarchy.

This combination means you get a theme where the structure of your code becomes more apparent. It’s easier to spot a function versus a class, or a local variable versus a parameter, at a glance. The theme also pays careful attention to the entire VSCode UI, including the sidebar, status bar, and activity bar, ensuring a consistent and immersive dark experience beyond just the editor window.

How to Try It

Getting started is straightforward.

1. Open the Extensions view in VSCode (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X).
2. Search for Dark Islands.
3. Click Install on the theme by bwya77.

Alternatively, you can install it directly from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace, or view the source and readme on its GitHub repository.

After installation, open the Command Palette (F1 or Ctrl+Shift+P), type "Color Theme," select it, and then choose "Dark Islands" from the list.

Final Thoughts

As a developer, your editor is your cockpit. A good theme isn't just about aesthetics; it's a tool that reduces cognitive load. Dark Islands succeeds by borrowing proven ideas from other excellent tools and integrating them seamlessly into VSCode. If you've been looking for a theme that feels both professional and thoughtfully designed, giving this one a spin is worth your time. It might just become your new default.

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