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rstudiothemes

Convert Visual Studio Code, Positron and TextMate themes into custom RStudio themes.

This package provides tools to convert Visual Studio Code, Positron and TextMate theme files (.json and .tmTheme formats) into RStudio-compatible .rstheme files. RStudio has supported custom themes in .rstheme format since RStudio 1.2. See the theme creation documentation.

Features

  • Convert Visual Studio Code, Positron and TextMate themes into RStudio .rstheme format.
  • Convert themes bidirectionally between Visual Studio Code or Positron and TextMate formats.
  • Install ports of popular Visual Studio Code and Positron themes ready to use in RStudio.
  • Organize and manage custom themes in a reproducible way.
  • Integrate with R tooling for easier installation and testing.

Built-in themes

This package includes ports of several popular Visual Studio Code and Positron themes, ready to use in RStudio. Use install_rstudiothemes() to install them into your RStudio environment:

rstudiothemes::install_rstudiothemes()

#> ✔ Installed 36 themes
#> ℹ Use `rstudiothemes::list_rstudiothemes()` to list installed themes.
#> ℹ Use `rstudiothemes::try_rstudiothemes()` to try all installed themes.

rstudioapi::applyTheme("Winter is Coming Dark Blue")

Winter is Coming Dark Blue theme

Available themes include popular choices such as Tokyo Night, Night Owl, Winter is Coming, SynthWave 84, Nord and many others:

rstudiothemes::list_rstudiothemes(list_installed = FALSE)
#>  [1] "Andromeda"                  "ayu Dark"                  
#>  [3] "ayu Light"                  "Catppuccin Latte"          
#>  [5] "Catppuccin Mocha"           "cobalt2"                   
#>  [7] "CRAN"                       "Dracula2025"               
#>  [9] "GitHub Dark"                "GitHub Light"              
#> [11] "JellyFish Theme"            "Matcha"                    
#> [13] "Matrix"                     "Night Owl"                 
#> [15] "Night Owl Light"            "Nord"                      
#> [17] "OKSolar Dark"               "OKSolar Light"             
#> [19] "OKSolar Sky"                "One Dark Pro"              
#> [21] "Overflow Dark"              "Overflow Light"            
#> [23] "Panda Syntax"               "Positron Dark"             
#> [25] "Positron Light"             "Selenized Dark"            
#> [27] "Selenized Light"            "Skeletor Syntax"           
#> [29] "SynthWave 84"               "Tokyo Night"               
#> [31] "Tokyo Night Light"          "Tokyo Night Storm"         
#> [33] "VSCode Dark"                "VSCode Light"              
#> [35] "Winter is Coming Dark Blue" "Winter is Coming Light"

All bundled themes are also distributed in a single .zip file at https://dieghernan.github.io/rstudiothemes/dist/rstudiothemes.zip. Unzip and install them using the RStudio IDE interface.

Installation

Install rstudiothemes from CRAN:

install.packages("rstudiothemes")

Try the Shiny app

The online Shiny app includes many rstudiothemes features, so you can convert themes in a browser:

https://dieghernan-themeconverter.share.connect.posit.cloud/

Migrating an existing theme

You can convert any Visual Studio Code, Positron or TextMate theme to RStudio format. Here is how:

  1. Start with a Visual Studio Code, Positron or TextMate theme file, or a URL to an online theme.
  2. Use the convert_to_rstudio_theme() function to convert and install it:
rstudiothemes::convert_to_rstudio_theme(
  "<path/to/file>",
  apply = TRUE,
  force = TRUE
)

Alternatively, in RStudio, go to Tools > Global Options > Appearance > Add and select the installed theme.

RStudio IDE Add Theme UI

Bidirectional theme conversion

The package also includes convert_vs_to_tm_theme() and convert_tm_to_vs_theme() for conversion between Visual Studio Code, Positron and TextMate formats.

Creating themes from scratch

rstudiothemes does not provide a built-in theme editor, but you can create themes from scratch with these tools:

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To contribute to this project:

  1. Open an issue to discuss your ideas or proposed changes.
  2. Fork the repository and create a feature branch.
  3. Submit a pull request with clear commit messages and descriptions.

Citation

Hernangómez D (2026). rstudiothemes: Create and Install Custom RStudio Themes from Visual Studio Code, Positron and TextMate Themes. doi:10.32614/CRAN.package.rstudiothemes. https://dieghernan.github.io/rstudiothemes/.

A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users:

@Manual{R-rstudiothemes,
  title = {{rstudiothemes}: Create and Install Custom {RStudio} Themes from Visual Studio
Code, {Positron} and {TextMate} Themes},
  doi = {10.32614/CRAN.package.rstudiothemes},
  author = {Diego Hernangómez},
  year = {2026},
  version = {1.1.1},
  url = {https://dieghernan.github.io/rstudiothemes/},
  abstract = {Create and install custom RStudio editor themes from Visual Studio Code, Positron and TextMate themes. Convert themes between TextMate and Visual Studio Code or Positron formats, and install bundled ports of popular Visual Studio Code and Positron themes.},
}