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Solarized Dark VS Molokai

Compare Solarized Dark VS Molokai and see what are their differences

Solarized Dark logo Solarized Dark

Precision colors for machines and people

Molokai logo Molokai

Molokai is a Vim port of the monokai theme for TextMate originally created by Wimer Hazenberg.
  • Solarized Dark Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-12-21
  • Molokai Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-26

Solarized Dark features and specs

  • Eye Strain Reduction
    The Solarized Dark theme uses a carefully selected palette of colors that reduces eye strain, particularly in low-light environments. It achieves a balance between contrast and readability without the harshness of pure black backgrounds.
  • Consistent Contrast
    The theme's design focuses on a consistent contrast level between text and background, which improves readability and makes it easier to distinguish between code elements.
  • Aesthetically Pleasing
    The harmonious color scheme is not only practical but also visually appealing, making it a popular choice among developers who prefer a darker aesthetic.
  • Color Blindness Friendly
    Solarized Dark is designed with colorblind users in mind, offering a palette that is accessible and usable for those with color vision deficiencies.

Possible disadvantages of Solarized Dark

  • Limited Color Palette
    The restrained color palette may not be suitable for users who require a wide range of colors to distinguish between more complex code or data visualization elements.
  • Adaptation Period
    Some users might find the transition to Solarized Dark difficult at first, especially if they are accustomed to more traditional dark themes; it may take time to adjust to its unique color balance.
  • Inconsistent Support Across Interfaces
    Not all applications and interfaces fully support or implement the Solarized color scheme correctly, which can lead to inconsistencies in appearance.
  • Preference Subjectivity
    As with any theme, the appeal of Solarized Dark is subjective, and it may not meet everyone's personal taste or preferences in terms of aesthetic design.

Molokai features and specs

  • Vibrant Color Scheme
    Molokai offers a visually appealing and vibrant color scheme that enhances readability and code syntax highlighting, making it easier for developers to differentiate between code elements.
  • Wide Language Support
    The color scheme is designed to support a wide variety of programming languages, providing consistent syntax highlighting across different development environments.
  • Cross-platform Compatibility
    Molokai is compatible with multiple text editors and IDEs, such as Vim and VSCode, allowing developers to use it across different platforms without losing their preferred visual settings.
  • Community Approved
    The color scheme is popular among the community and has been tested thoroughly, ensuring that it meets the needs of developers who require a reliable and efficient coding environment.

Possible disadvantages of Molokai

  • High Contrast
    Some users may find the high contrast of Molokai's color palette to be harsh on the eyes after long periods of time, especially when working in low-light conditions.
  • Limited Customization
    While Molokai offers a fixed color scheme, users looking for more customization options might find it limiting in terms of modifying colors to suit personal preferences.
  • May Not Suit All Preferences
    The bold and vibrant color choices may not align with everyone's aesthetic preferences, particularly for those who favor a more muted or minimalist design approach.

Solarized Dark videos

TX65 x GMK Solarized Dark

More videos:

  • Review - Arch Linux + i3wm + Numix Solarized Dark (Demo)

Molokai videos

Molokai Book Reivew

More videos:

  • Review - Hotel Molokai, Hawaii Review
  • Review - Papohaku Beach three mile beach review accommodations molokai park hawaii hotels house maui

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Solarized Dark and Molokai)
Design
61 61%
39% 39
Text Editors
62 62%
38% 38
Productivity
61 61%
39% 39
Developer Tools
63 63%
37% 37

User comments

Share your experience with using Solarized Dark and Molokai. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Solarized Dark seems to be a lot more popular than Molokai. While we know about 27 links to Solarized Dark, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Molokai. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Solarized Dark mentions (27)

  • Eza: A modern, maintained replacement for ls
    Solarized is easy on the eyes and the colours are chosen for readability. https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/ The list on the site lacks some entries. Konsole has it built in and I bet Gnome Terminal too. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Accessible syntax highlighting colour schemes for developers
    We didn’t start from scratch. We used Solarized as the basis of the project. It didn’t meet AA criteria, but it did give us a good platform to build from. From there, we essentially adapted our brand colours to meet Base16 needs. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Gruvbox PSP Theme [W.I.P]
    Gruvbox its a retro groove Color scheme heavily inspired by badwolf, jellybeans and solarized. With this I want to give the community a customization theme a little different from what they are used to such as neon and those quirky themes that do not go with the retro theme of the PSP. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Mocked up a weekly schedule using Obsidian Canvas, what colors should I make it so that it looks pretty?
    I mean I'd use the Calendar plugin for this, but so far as colors go I really like the Solarized theme and it's color pallet - https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Most readable, low eye-strain colorscheme?
    Sorry to hear about the concussion Have you tried solarised themes https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/ Not sure if this theme will cater to your specific needs, I hope so. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

Molokai mentions (2)

  • Dracula Theme for Hacker News
    Monokai was the name of the blog where the colorscheme was originally posted to: https://web.archive.org/web/20161107090516/http://www.monokai.nl/blog/2006/07/ At some point, the original author decided Monokai was a good name for both the website and the colorscheme: https://monokai.pro/ A different author ported the theme to Vim, and named this version Molokai to avoid confusion with the original author: - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • How does vim customization work
    First, the tutorial is simply giving you bad advices. You should not be placing custom color schemes in ~/.vim/colors. You should instead be installing it like a plugin instead. Color schemes are just a type of plugins that only have a color folder (e.g. If you look at https://github.com/tomasr/molokai it only has a "color" folder and licenses etc). Source: over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Solarized Dark and Molokai, you can also consider the following products

Dracula - A dark theme for Atom, Alfred, Brackets, Emacs, iTerm, Mintty, Notepad++, Slack, Sequel Pro, Sublime Text, Telegram, Textmate, Terminal.app, Ulysses, Vim, Visual Studio Code, Wox, Xcode, and Zsh

One Dark - Atom One dark UI theme

Gruvbox - Retro groove color scheme for Vim. Contribute to morhetz/gruvbox development by creating an account on GitHub.

Material Theme for Notepad++ - Material Theme, the most epic theme for Notepad++. Contribute to Codextor/npp-material-theme development by creating an account on GitHub.

Nord - An arctic, north-bluish color palette. Contribute to arcticicestudio/nord development by creating an account on GitHub.

Apathy - The last syntax theme you'll ever download.