Islands Dark is a dark color theme for VS Code and compatible editors that applies a glass-morphism design aesthetic inspired by the easemate IDE and JetBrains Islands theme.
The theme addresses the desire for a visually refined editor environment with distinctive UI styling beyond standard color schemes. It achieves this through a combination of a custom color theme paired with CSS customizations applied via the Custom UI Style extension. The approach creates floating glass-like panels with directional light simulation on borders, rounded corners throughout the interface, pill-shaped elements in the activity bar and scrollbars, and smooth transitions on interactive components. The syntax highlighting covers major languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, and Markdown, with font choices of IBM Plex Mono for the editor and FiraCode Nerd Font Mono for the terminal.
Developers seeking a polished, modern aesthetic with glass-effect UI elements should consider this theme. It works across VS Code, VSCodium, and through a Nix flake configuration for those using NixOS or Home Manager. The installation process is automated through platform-specific scripts that handle extension installation, font setup, settings configuration, and backups. The theme pairs well with the Seti Folder icon theme for color-matched icon glow effects. Unlike minimal themes that focus solely on syntax highlighting, this project emphasizes comprehensive UI customization through panel styling, hover effects, and visual refinement across all editor surfaces.
The project maintains active development with regular updates to the theme assets and installation infrastructure. Installation scripts are provided and maintained for multiple platforms and editor variants. The maintainer offers sponsorship options and accepts community contributions through the standard GitHub workflow.
