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visual-studio-2017syntax-highlighting

How do I find and use new syntax highlighting themes in Visual Studio 2017

I have installed Visual Studio 2017. I would like to change the colours it uses to do syntax highlighting without changing the GUI colours, and I would like:

  • more than what's offered under Tools/Options/Environment/General/Color theme
  • not to have to manually change dozens of settings manually myself

Searching the web for this just gives me instructions on how to create my own UI theme, and nothing at all on using syntax themes that others have created. Searching the Online section of Extensions and Updates just gives me new syntax packs. Where can I obtain more syntax highlighting themes, and how do I install them?

Solution

  • This is how I manage this myself, hope it helps.

    Any setting available under Tool -> Options and others can be imported and exported using the "Import and Export Settings Wizard" (including syntax highlighting). The wizard is available under Tools -> Import and Export Settings.

    To save your syntax highlighting settings for a given language, open the Import and Export settings wizard and select the relevant items from the list, e.g.:

    Import Settings

    This will generate a file with the extension *.vssettings containing your syntax highlighting settings that you can import in other Visual Studio installations.

    Where can I obtain more syntax highlighting themes?

    You can try by searching for .vssettings files in github:

    https://github.com/search?q=vssettings

    Here is a cool one I found there:

    https://draculatheme.com/visual-studio/

    Personally, I just look for them using a Web search engine, I don't know of any central repository for this.

    Edit

    Here is a theme generator for VS as pointed out by the OP: https://dainty.site/vs