Configure Nvim with Lua: Set colorscheme (4)

3 min read, Published on Sep 22, 2022

Vim/Nvim

Lua

Another of the facilities that Neovim offers is that it has several types of colors, which can be chosen, and can be install plugins with other colorschemes. You can read about color schemes in the documentation:

  nvim

  :help colorscheme

To change between the different colorscheme that exist we can execute this command:

  :colorscheme <name>

We change to the name you want and you will see how the style changes.

  :colorscheme darkblue

  :colorscheme industry

In this way, we are changing the colors, but when we close neovim and reopen it we will not have the one we chose previously selected. But Neovim provides the possibility for that configuration to persist. Therefore, we will follow these steps:

We move to the nvim folder:

  cd .config/nvim

Then, we will open the options file (where we have the basic configurations).

  nvim lua/configs/options/init.lua

We add this code and save it:

  local options = {
    -- ...others configs...
    termguicolors = true -- Enables 24-bit RGB color
  }

Later, we create the colorscheme file.

  nvim lua/configs/colorscheme.lua

We add this code and save it:

  local colorscheme = "gruvbox"
  local ok, _ = pcall(vim.cmd, "colorscheme " .. colorscheme)
  vim.o.background = "dark" -- or "light" for light mode
  if not ok then
    vim.notify("colorscheme " .. colorscheme .. " not found!")
    return
  end

The colorscheme variable defines the name that we are going to assign.
Then with the command vim.cmd the colorscheme is changed.
In case the colorscheme does not exist, we show a message on the neovim command line.

To use these settings, we need to call the colorscheme file in the main file (init.lua)

  nvim init.lua

Add this:

  require('configs.colorscheme')

In this case, since the colorscheme gruvbox does not exist, the message will appear. You can try others that come by default such as: darkblue, blue, desert, default, etc. I like gruvbox.nvim and it is the one we are going to configure.

Then, we add the plugin gruvbox.nvim to the plugins.lua file (where we are going to put the plugins to install).

  nvim lua/configs/plugins.lua

We add this and save it:

  -- ...others configs...
  return packer.startup(function(use)
    -- ...others plugins...

    -- My colorscheme`
    use 'ellisonleao/gruvbox.nvim'

    -- ...others configs...
  end)

Install the packages:

  :PackerInstall

Close and open again, and you will see the results…

There are other popular colorschemes, such as:

We have the directory of folders like this:

nvim
├─ init.lua
└─ lua
    └─ configs
        └─ options
        |   └─ init.lua
        └─ keymaps.lua
        └─ plugins.lua
        └─ impatient.lua
        └─ colorscheme.lua

Conclusion

In this way we saw how the different colorschemes that neovim brings by default can be changed and we also saw how to configure another through a plugin. Now you can test other colorschemes. I hope it will be helpful for those who want to experiment.

Configure Nvim with Lua: Set colorscheme (4)

Conclusion

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