Get started with rstudiothemes

The rstudiothemes package provides tools to convert Visual Studio Code/Positron and TextMate themes into RStudio’s .rstheme format and install them in your RStudio IDE. It also includes a set of ready-to-use themes.

library(rstudiothemes)

Installing built-in themes

To install all built-in RStudio themes that come with this package:

install_rstudiothemes()

#> ✔ Installed 30 themes
#> ℹ Use `rstudiothemes::list_rstudiothemes()` to list installed themes
#> ℹ Use `rstudiothemes::try_rstudiothemes()` to try all installed themes

This will add many popular themes (e.g., Tokyo Night, Nord, Winter is Coming, Dracula, etc.) to your RStudio themes directory.

To see themes available now:

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

Trying themes

You can quickly preview themes directly from R:

try_rstudiothemes()

Pass a subset of styles (e.g., "dark" or "light") if needed.

Applying a theme

After installing themes, apply one using the RStudio API:

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

Figure 1: Screenshot of theme Winter is Coming Dark Blue

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

Converting your own themes

You can convert a Visual Studio Code/Positron or TextMate theme file into an RStudio theme:

convert_to_rstudio_theme(
  "<path/to/vscode-theme.json>",
  apply = TRUE,
  force = TRUE
)

This function will convert and install the theme immediately, optionally applying it (with apply = TRUE).

Workflow example: From VS Code theme to RStudio

1. Choose a theme .json from VS Code.
2. Convert and install it with convert_to_rstudio_theme().
3. Apply it with rstudioapi::applyTheme() or via RStudio UI.

This workflow lets you easily bring your preferred editor theme into RStudio.

Tips and tricks

• List installed themes: list_rstudiothemes(list_installed = TRUE)
• Try specific categories: filter themes by Light/Dark style
• Use the Add-Theme UI: RStudio’s Global Options > Appearance > Add to manually add .rstheme files you’ve created or converted.