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rstudiothemes

Convert Visual Studio Code/Positron and TextMate themes into RStudio custom 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 theme creation documentation).

Features

  • Convert Visual Studio Code/Positron and TextMate themes into RStudio .rstheme format.
  • Bidirectional conversion between Visual Studio Code/Positron and TextMate themes.
  • Includes ports of popular Visual Studio Code/Positron themes ready to use in RStudio.
  • Organize and manage custom themes in a reproducible way.
  • Integrates with R tooling for easier installation and testing.

Built-in themes

This package includes ports of several popular Visual Studio Code/Positron themes, ready to use in RStudio. Simply use the install_rstudiothemes() function 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")

Screenshot of theme Winter is Coming Dark Blue

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"

We also distribute all bundled themes in a single .zip file at https://dieghernan.github.io/rstudiothemes/dist/rstudiothemes.zip. Unzip and install using the RStudio IDE interface.

Installation

Install rstudiothemes from CRAN:

install.packages("rstudiothemes")

Try our Shiny App

We also provide a Shiny App with many of the features of rstudiothemes that lets you convert themes online. Try it out:

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’s how:

  1. Use a Visual Studio Code/Positron theme file, a 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 conversion between Visual Studio Code/Positron and TextMate themes

The package also includes the conversion functions convert_vs_to_tm_theme() and convert_tm_to_vs_theme(), allowing you to convert themes in both directions if needed.

Creating themes from scratch

rstudiothemes does not provide a built-in theme editor, but you can create your own themes from scratch using the following 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 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 {RStudio} Themes from {Visual Studio Code}, {Positron} and
{TextMate} Themes},
  doi = {10.32614/CRAN.package.rstudiothemes},
  author = {Diego Hernangómez},
  year = {2026},
  version = {1.1.0},
  url = {https://dieghernan.github.io/rstudiothemes/},
  abstract = {Create and install RStudio themes derived from Visual Studio Code, Positron and TextMate themes. Provides functions to convert between TextMate and Visual Studio Code or Positron themes, as well as ports of several Visual Studio Code themes.},
}