Change highlight colour in Sublime Text 3?

Question

How can I change the default highlight colour in Sublime Text 3? I used to know how find a highlight key in one of the theme files in ST2 but things changed quite on ST3. Are they in the library somewhere? "Preference >> Browse Package" is almost empty.

Solution 1

You can see which theme you are using by going to

Preferences>Colour Scheme

and see which one is ticked.

Open the theme file and find the key that says:

<key>selection</key>

Go to a site that shows hex colour codes (like this one http://html-color-codes.com/) and find the code for the colour you want. Then sub your new colour code into the line below the selection key in the theme file, replacing the old hex colour code.

Save the modified theme file and it should work straight away.

EDIT
Install PackageResourceViewer plugin using package control. Open the command palette with ⌘⇧P (for windows/linux CtrlShiftP) and type prv to get the PackageResourceViewer options. Choose Open Resource >>Theme- YourTheme >> and edit your theme file

Solution 2

Tony Vincent's answer is excellent, and I would also add that if changing the selection color makes the selected text difficult to read, selectionForeground is the key to change. For example:

<key>selectionForeground</key>
<string>#000000</string>

Solution 3

With the new .sublime-color-scheme format, it's a global setting key named line_highlight e.g.

{
    "name": "My colour scheme",
    "globals":
    {
        "background":     "rgb(0, 0, 0)",
        "foreground":     "#aaaaaa",
        "caret":          "red",
        "line_highlight": "#222222"
    },
}

Comments

[erdembayar]

Where is that theme file? Above was true for Sublime 2. But I don't see theme files under "Preference >> Browse Package"

[erdembayar]

Here is little bit correction. PackageResourceViewer >> Open Resource >>Color Scheme >> Monokai (This is my case) In my case "Extract Package" show neither "Theme" nor "Color Scheme". Thanks for your help.

[Damien]

I would also add findHighlight and findHighlightForeground

[Eight-Bit Guru]

In my S3 install these keys did not exist in the theme I use, so they had to be added to the same [settings] block as the selection key.

[Joel Mellon]

Thanks for the notes on editing the theme file with PackageResourceViewer.

[LarsH]

In my case (ST 3.0 build 3143) it was PackageResourceViewer >> Open Resource >> Color Scheme - Default >> Monokai.tmTheme. Thanks, this was helpful.

[alper]

While changing the backgorund highlight color, is it also possible to change the highlighted text's color such as into black? @Tony Vincent

[Pynchia]

Where? None of the answers give a clear picture on how to access the mentioned settings

[geoidesic]

I don't know. Can't recall. I've moved on from Sublime because it was becoming difficult. VsCode does a better job all around.

[Pynchia]

Yes of course. Changing the selection colour would be nice though

[Szabolcs Páll]

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/User/Monokai.sublime-color-scheme Windows: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Sublime Text 3\Packages\User\Monokai.sublime-color-scheme forum.sublimetext.com/t/…

[Tim John]

@alper Yes. See the answer by user2616155