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The Sublime Text package directory, revisited.

BlackboardForever Color Scheme

Sublime Text color scheme porting a blackboard.vim as rendered in a 256-color terminal (CSApprox)

By danwolff

  • Created October 24, 2026, last updated October 24, 2026.
OctSepAugJulJunMayAprMarFebJan Dec2025 NovOct 2026-W44 | installs: 2 | removals: 1 | upgrades: 0 2026-W44 | installs: 2 | removals: 1 | upgrades: 0 2026-W44 | installs: 2 | removals: 1 | upgrades: 0 024 WeeklyInstalls 024 WeeklyUpgrades 2026-W43 1.0.2 / 1.0.1 / ... 1.0.2 / 1.0.1 / 1.0.0
Installations: 2 in total
Installations minus removals
Upgrades

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Versions

1.0.2 (ST4000+) ·
2026-10-24 05:06

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  • (ST4000+) 1.0.1 ·
    2026-10-24 05:03
  • 1.0.0 ·
    2026-10-24 04:48

BlackboardForever

BlackboardForever with Python
Python		 BlackboardForever with JavaScript
JavaScript		 BlackboardForever with HTML
HTML
BlackboardForever with JSON
JSON		 BlackboardForever with CSS
CSS		 BlackboardForever with Markdown
Markdown
BlackboardForever with Bash
Bash		 BlackboardForever with YAML
YAML		 BlackboardForever with Diff
Diff

A Sublime Text color scheme that matches a Vim blackboard.vim color file. Several different Vim schemes share that name. This is the one with Entity/Support groups and a #0d1021 background, not Ben Wyrosdick's vim.org script 2280. Its structure (rule set and scopes) comes from Sublime Text's built-in Monokai scheme.

This is a different scheme from the older Theme - Vim Blackboard package (2013). That package says up front that its colors were "changed to resemble the default Vim colors used on dark terminals in various Linux distros from the late 90s and early 00s", and it also ships a UI theme. This package is only a color scheme, and it is a direct port of a blackboard.vim as it renders in a 256-color terminal. The idea is similar, but the colors are quite different.

The name is a nod to how long this look has been around: from TextMate's Blackboard, to Vim, to terminal Vim through CSApprox, and now to Sublime Text. The goal is to keep it alive and easy to install.

Palette

blackboard.vim is written with GUI colors. In terminal Vim, the CSApprox plugin maps them to the 256-color palette, so what you actually see differs from the hex values in the file (the background becomes black, for example). This scheme matches the terminal rendering. Colors marked "measured" were sampled from a screenshot of terminal Vim. The rest are the nearest xterm-256 color to the GUI value.

Vim group GUI value Used here Source Used in Sublime for
Normal bg #0d1021 #000000 measured background, gutter
Normal fg #ffffff #ffffff measured text, punctuation, JSON quotes
Comment, LineNr #aeaeae #afafaf measured comments (italic), line numbers
Constant #d7fa41 #cffe52 measured numbers, booleans, language constants
String #64ce3e #26d857 measured strings, inserted diff lines
Statement / Label #f8de33 #ffd456 measured keywords, operators, mapping keys, tags
Delimiter #ffab00 measured JSON braces and brackets
CursorLine #626262 measured current line highlight
CursorLineNr #fffd00 measured current line number
Entity #fa6513 #ff5f00 xterm function/class names, function calls
Support #8fa6cd #87afd7 xterm library functions/types, storage types
Title #f6f3e8 #ffffd7 xterm markup headings (bold)
NonText / SpecialKey #808080 #808080 xterm invisibles
VertSplit #444444 #444444 xterm indent guides

Colors added in the same vein (the Vim file does not define them):

Install

Package Control

  1. Command Palette → Package Control: Install Package → BlackboardForever.
    • Press Cmd+Shift+P on Mac (Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux) to open the Command Palette.
    • Type insta and press Enter on Package Control: Install Package.
    • Type blackboardfor, pick BlackboardForever with ↑/↓, and press Enter to install it.
  2. Preferences → Select Color Scheme… → choose BlackboardForever.
    • Open the Command Palette again (Cmd+Shift+P on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux), type color sch, and press Enter on UI: Select Color Scheme.
    • Type blackboardfor. Moving with ↑/↓ previews each scheme live. Press Enter to apply it.

Manual

  1. In Sublime Text: Preferences → Browse Packages…
  2. Copy BlackboardForever.sublime-color-scheme into the User folder.
  3. Preferences → Select Color Scheme… → choose BlackboardForever.

Or set it in Preferences.sublime-settings:

"color_scheme": "BlackboardForever.sublime-color-scheme"

License

The Unlicense (public domain). See LICENSE.

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