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chriskempson
base16
Learning & Reference2012–2024
chriskempson / base16

base16

A Framework for building Themes

Learning & Reference
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
24Distinct people
24Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
978GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

A Framework for building Themes

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

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Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year24 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2012-09-05 13:42:57 UTC to 2024-07-22 13:37:14 UTC.

024682012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments20122013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 1 submissions, 3 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 8 mentions; 1 submissions, 7 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20122012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20132013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC413
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC817
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
Not a theme, but a framework for building Tomorrow styled themes using a base of sixteen colours. Since August 2012, Base16 has provided a minimal set of guidelines that explain how to style syntax and how to build Base16 schemes and templates. Limitations Base16 was designed with the following limitations to ensure the project remains simple and keeps a small scope: A 16 colour palette of 8 shades and 8 accents All themes produced are the same apart from variations in colour You can't change the colour of one element without affecting another Builders are very simple and have one job Resources Theme Templates (plus pre-compiled themes) Colour Schemes Builders Third-party Tools auto-base16-theme - A command line tool to create a base16 theme from an input image's colour palette. base16-manager - A command line tool to install base16 templates and set themes globally. base16-shell-preview - A command line tool to preview and set base16-shell themes. base16-universal-manager - A command line tool to automatically get, build and set base16 themes globally for all supported applications. Themes and templates are pulled form the official repositories or from a local cache. flavours - A command line tool to manage and globally apply base16 templates by specifying a scheme name. Themix/Oomox - Graphical application for generating different colour variations of a Arc, Materia and Oomox themes (GTK2, GTK3 and others), Archdroid, Gnome-Colours and Numix icons, and terminal palette. Base16 plugin allows to open Base16 YAML files a export both Base16 and its own themes using Base16 Mustache templates. base16-spectrum-generator - A Python script for generating .png files showcasing the colours in a base16 theme. Used By Visual Studio Code - Tommorrow Night Blue theme included by default. Atom Editor - One Theme & Tomorrow theme included by default. c-Tiles16 - Colourscheming with Variables. Spacegray - A set of custom UI themes for Sublime Text 2/3. Harmonic16 - A colour generator for harmonic Base16 colour schemes. Duotone-base16 - A Duotone scheme to Base16 convertor. terminal.sexy - Terminal Colour Scheme Designer Just-Colors - Simple configuration file generator Highlight.js - JavaScript syntax highlighter
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

24 sources
z2h-a6n·Jul 22, 2024
I'm not sure if eddyg had a different idea, but I think the following sums it up: - base16 is a specification of how different UI elements map to colors [1], and also some tooling, configuration files, etc. to automate setting this up for many different applications. - For a user to be able to use base16 with a tool, either: - Allow the user to set their preferred colors for UI elements at a semantic level, preferrably in a config file, and even more preferrably in a separate file that can be included into the main config file so that it's easier to automate (i.e. I have a separate `colors.sh` that is loaded in my `.zshrc`). - Let the user set their shell colors however they want (presumably using [2]), and use the ANSI shell colors (and a few more) according to the base16 style guide [1]. Some translation between shell colors
Read the rest
and base16 colors will be necessary, e.g. base16 says that a language keyword should use the color base0E, which in [2] corresponds to ANSI shell color 13. My impression is that the base16 specification is not sufficiently general for most tools to implement it in a totally unbambiguous way, but if users can set their own colorschemes with a config file, it's not hard for a user to come up with a base16-approximating colorscheme template file, from which other users can generate a config file that sets a specific base16 colorscheme. [1]: https://github.com/chriskempson/base16/blob/main/styling.md [2]: https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-shell
In Eza: A modern, maintained replacement for ls
nagonago·Nov 1, 2022
I agree, my first impression was confusion over why they are making such a big deal out of a simple color palette. I could be wrong, but it looks like they modified a website template which was originally meant for advertising a service or product, which could explain why it feels a bit strange and overwrought. Also, I feel like [Base16](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16) is a better approach to the problem, by providing a framework rather than a single palette. Regarding Discord, considering that everybody and their grandmother has a discord these days, I suppose having one for a color theme is not so surprising. There used to be IRC channels for everything, after all. It's a shame that Discord has gained so much traction, being a proprietary walled garden. That's a topic for another day, though. edit: also just realized, if my theo
Read the rest
ry about them using a template is correct, the "Join the growing X community" page with discord/slack widgets is probably also just part of that template.
In Nord – An Arctic, north-bluish color palette
da39a3ee·Sep 10, 2020
I think both of you are talking about the same thing. Please don't assume that your views are generally held or will meet with general approval. I think what you're saying is completely wrong and wildly inappropriate. In general, there will exist many terminal applications where the designers should feel absolutely free to use 256 and full-RGB colors if they wish to, seeing as the technology has supported it for years. An example is color themes for syntax highlighting; the designers of color themes obviously _can_ restrict themselves to 16-color palettes (e.g. https://github.com/chriskempson/base16) but they are perfectly free not to. I do not understand what makes you think you have the right to demand that people impose such a vast restriction on terminal applications. The web supports 256 colors and full RGB; why shouldn't terminal ap
Read the rest
plications?
In Design, edit and share custom terminal color schemes
manaskarekar·Oct 13, 2019
Baobab: Disk usage Analyzer https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Baobab Atril: Pdf Viewer, forked from Evince from the Gnome 2 days IIRC. Base 16 Colors: https://github.com/chriskempson/base16 Unetbootin/TuxBoot: Creating bootable drives. gnome-do: Alfred/Spotlight (MacOS) like quicklauncher. Used to use this but now I've just defaulted to using Alt+F2 (remapped to Super + Space keys) to launch apps. https://do.cooperteam.net Zim : "A desktop wiki" https://zim-wiki.org
In Ask HN: What are your favorite Linux applications?

Showing the 15 most recent of 24 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.

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