Candela
Warm, low-fatigue theme (dark + light) with OKLCH-uniform accents, verified WCAG AAA body / AA+ accents, and colorblind-aware role mapping.
How to install
With Forge Super installed, the button above opens the app on this extension, where you press Install. Nothing is installed until you do.
You can also open the Extensions panel in the app and search for Candela. The extension's id is candela-theme.
Don't have Forge Super yet? Download it here.
README
From the extension's repository, written by its authors and not by Mentenaz. See the source.
Candela
A warm, low-fatigue theme for Zed — dark + light, built on real color math instead of eyeballing.
- Perceptual coherence — accents derived in OKLCH at a fixed lightness (L=0.80) and chroma (C=0.115), 8 hues equally spaced around the wheel. No single color vibrates or dominates.
- Verified contrast — body text hits WCAG AAA (≥7:1); every accent clears AA+ (≥4.5:1). Measured, not guessed.
- Colorblind-aware — meaning never rides on red/green alone; red is reserved for errors (with background + border).
- Warm foundation — warm background reduces eye strain; cool accents on frequent roles (functions, types, variables), warm accents on values (numbers, strings). Calm structure, warm attention.
- Color = identifier, gray = operator — identifiers are colored, operators and punctuation are neutral gray, so your eye follows the content.
Screenshots
See the showcase page.
Install
From the Zed extension store
Open the command palette → zed: extensions → search Candela → install. Then theme selector: toggle (Ctrl+K Ctrl+T) and pick Candela Dark or Candela Light.
Manual (local)
Copy themes/candela.json into your Zed themes directory:
- Windows:
%APPDATA%\Zed\themes\ - macOS:
~/.config/zed/themes/ - Linux:
~/.config/zed/themes/
Then open the theme picker (Ctrl+K Ctrl+T).
Palette (dark)
| Role | Hex | Contrast vs bg |
|---|---|---|
| Background | #1c1915 | — |
| Text | #e8e4df | 14:1 (AAA) |
| Variable / property | #8ac1ff blue | ≥8.9:1 (AAA) |
| Function | #d5bd62 gold | ≥8.9:1 (AAA) |
| Type / tag | #4dd4db cyan | ≥8.9:1 (AAA) |
| Keyword | #c9adfd purple | ≥8.9:1 (AAA) |
| Number / constant | #f4ac6f orange | ≥8.9:1 (AAA) |
| String | #86d396 green | ≥8.9:1 (AAA) |
| Operator / punctuation | #b0aca6 gray | — |
License
MIT — see LICENSE.