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Zenburn Transparent

v1.0.0 · by Demetrios Rockas · added 3 November 2026

Low-contrast Zenburn for Zed with a transparent/blurred UI; syntax colors matched to the VSCode Zenburn theme

Themes
Install in Forge SuperView the source

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 Zenburn Transparent. The extension's id is zenburn-transparent-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.

Zenburn Transparent

A Zed theme: the classic low-contrast Zenburn palette with a transparent / blurred UI.

Editor, panels, tabs, and terminal are translucent so the window blurs your wallpaper behind a soft Zenburn-grey glass; menus and popovers stay solid for legibility.

Install

Once published: open the Zed extension store (zed: extensions), search Zenburn Transparent, install.

Manual / local:

cp themes/zenburn-transparent.json ~/.config/zed/themes/

then pick Zenburn Transparent in the theme selector (cmd-k cmd-t), or pin it:

// settings.json
"theme": "Zenburn Transparent"

⚠️ Transparency is platform-dependent

The blur/transparency is driven by the theme key "background.appearance": "blurred". This relies on Zed's window-transparency support, which is most reliable on macOS and may not render on some Linux/Windows setups or older Zed builds — this is a Zed limitation, not a theme bug. See zed-industries/zed#38995.

If the window stays opaque, the colors still work; you just lose the see-through effect.

Tuning the tint

The window tint is #3f3f3f99 (Zenburn bg at ~60% alpha). To make it darker/lighter, change the alpha on these keys together so they stay in sync:

  • background
  • status_bar.background
  • title_bar.background
  • title_bar.inactive_background

Menus / popovers / pickers are solid #383838 (surface.background, elevated_surface.background). The editor, panels, and tab bar are fully transparent (#00000000) and inherit the window tint. Neutral borders are #00000000 so a translucent border doesn't composite into a darker seam over the translucent surface.

Syntax colors

Mapped to the VSCode Zenburn theme's effective (token-inspector) values — e.g. const / function (storage.type) = #dfdfbf, function names = #dedede, strings = #cc9393, numbers = #8cd0d3, comments = #7f9f7f. See PALETTE.md.

Two things VSCode does that Zed's tree-sitter grammar can't (it emits coarser captures, not a theme limitation): coloring {} vs () differently, and from differently from import. Those render with a single color each in Zed.

Credits

Syntax palette matched to VSCode Zenburn by Ryan Olson (MIT) — itself derived from Jani Nurminen's original Vim Zenburn and Bozhidar Batsov's zenburn-emacs. Transparent UI structuring for Zed by Demetrios Rockas.

License

MIT — matching the upstream VSCode Zenburn theme the palette is taken from.