Gypsum for Neovim

A light and dark color scheme for Neovim with minimal highlighting based on the Alabaster theme by Nikita Prokopov.

Philosophy

Most color schemes highlight everything they can, ending up looking like a fireworks show. Instead, Alabaster - and by extension Gypsum - uses minimal highlighting with just four main classes:

1. Strings - Green
2. Constants - Magenta/Purple (numbers, symbols, keywords, boolean values)
3. Comments - Red/Yellow (with emphasis, not dimmed)
4. Definitions - Blue (global definitions, functions)

Alabaster/Gypsum does not highlight standard language keywords (if, else, function, etc). They are usually the least important and most obvious part of any program.

Why a new port?

While alabaster.nvim is an excellent port of the original Alabaster theme, it lacks the mono and bg variants. I wrote Gypsum with the bg variant in mind and later extended it to include the other variants as well. It also includes the dark-bg customization, which was not present in the original Alabaster theme, and the ability to customize the palette.

Features

• Single unified colorscheme with variants controlled through setup options
• Light/dark mode controlled by vim.o.background
• Monochrome variant (mono option) - uses background colors for highlighting
• Background-based variant (bg option) - uses colored backgrounds instead of colored text
• Tree-sitter support
• Configurable italics for comments and strings
• Per-color customization
• Transparent background option
• Built-in Lualine theme

Requirements

• Neovim. I'm using 0.11.4, but I think 0.9+ should work.
• Tree-sitter (for best results)
• LSP (for diagnostics and semantic highlighting)

Installation

Using lazy.nvim

{
  "samflores/gypsum.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    vim.o.background = "dark" -- or "light"
    require("gypsum").setup({
      mono = false,
      bg = false,
    })
    vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])
  end,
}

Using pack.nvim

vim.pack.add({
  { src = 'https://github.com/samflores/gypsum.nvim' }
})

vim.o.background = "dark" -- or "light"
require("gypsum").setup({
  mono = false,
  bg = false,
})
vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])

On first startup, Neovim will automatically clone the repository. To update the plugin later, use:

vim.pack.update({ 'gypsum.nvim' })

Manual Installation

Clone the repository to any location and add it to your runtimepath:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/samflores/gypsum.nvim ~/path/to/gypsum.nvim

Then in your init.lua:

-- Add to runtimepath
vim.opt.runtimepath:append("~/path/to/gypsum.nvim")

-- Configure and load
vim.o.background = "dark" -- or "light"
require("gypsum").setup({
  mono = false,
  bg = false,
})
vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])

Configuration

Default configuration:

require("gypsum").setup({
  mono = false,
  bg = false,
  transparent = false,
  italic_comments = true,
  italic_strings = true,
  colors = {},
})

Options

• mono: Use monochrome variant with background colors for highlighting (true or false)
• bg: Use background-based variant with colored backgrounds instead of colored text (true or false)
• transparent: Remove background color (true or false)
• italic_comments: Use italic font for comments (true or false)
• italic_strings: Use italic font for strings (true or false)
• colors: Table to override default colors (see Color Customization)

Note: Light/dark mode is controlled by vim.o.background setting, not by a configuration option.

Usage

Basic usage

The colorscheme automatically detects Neovim's background setting:

vim.o.background = "light" -- or "dark"
require("gypsum").setup()
vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])

Using variants

Configure the mono and bg options to use different variants:

-- Monochrome variant
vim.o.background = "dark"
require("gypsum").setup({ mono = true })
vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])

-- Background-based variant
vim.o.background = "light"
require("gypsum").setup({ bg = true })
vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])

Available combinations

• background=light, mono=false, bg=false → Standard light theme
• background=light, mono=true, bg=false → Light monochrome theme
• background=light, mono=false, bg=true → Light background-based theme
• background=dark, mono=false, bg=false → Standard dark theme
• background=dark, mono=true, bg=false → Dark monochrome theme
• background=dark, mono=false, bg=true → Dark background-based theme

Toggle between light and dark

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>tl", function()
  vim.o.background = "light"
  vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])
end, { desc = "Gypsum Light" })

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>td", function()
  vim.o.background = "dark"
  vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])
end, { desc = "Gypsum Dark" })

Color Customization

You can customize any color in the theme by passing a colors table to the setup function:

require("gypsum").setup({
  colors = {
    comment = "#FF0000",
    string = "#00FF00",
    bg = "#000000",
  }
})

Available color keys

All colors from the palette can be overridden:

• bg, fg - Background and foreground
• comment, string, constant, definition, punctuation - Main syntax colors
• selection, inactive_selection, line_highlight - UI colors
• active, orange, grey - Accent colors
• error, warning, info, hint - Diagnostic colors
• diff_add, diff_delete, diff_change, diff_text - Git diff colors

Example with lazy.nvim

{
  "samflores/gypsum.nvim",
  lazy = false,
  priority = 1000,
  config = function()
    vim.o.background = "dark"
    require("gypsum").setup({
      colors = {
        comment = "#DFDF8E",
        string = "#95CB82",
      }
    })
    vim.cmd([[colorscheme gypsum]])
  end,
}

Color Palette

Light Variant

• Background: #F7F7F7
• Foreground: #000000
• Comments: #AA3731 (red)
• Strings: #448C27 (green)
• Constants: #7A3E9D (magenta)
• Definitions: #325CC0 (blue)
• Punctuation: #777777 (grey)
• Selection: #BFDBFE
• Active/Cursor: #007ACC

Dark Variant

• Background: #0E1415
• Foreground: #CECECE
• Comments: #DFDF8E (yellow)
• Strings: #95CB82 (green)
• Constants: #CC8BC9 (purple)
• Definitions: #71ADE7 (blue)
• Punctuation: #708B8D (grey-blue)
• Selection: #293334
• Active/Cursor: #CD974B (orange)

Plugin Support

Gypsum includes highlight groups for:

• Tree-sitter
• LSP
• Telescope
• nvim-tree
• GitSigns
• nvim-cmp
• Diagnostics
• Lualine (built-in themes)

Lualine

Gypsum includes a built-in Lualine theme that automatically adapts to your colorscheme configuration:

require('lualine').setup {
  options = {
    theme = 'gypsum'
  }
}

The Lualine theme will match your vim.o.background, mono, and bg settings.

Credits

• Original Alabaster theme by Nikita Prokopov
• Original Neovim port by Chinmay Dalal

License

MIT License