*ps_color.txt*  PSC For Vim version 7.0            Last change:  18 July 2006


PERSONAL COLOUR SWITCHER                                *ps_colour* *pscolor*


Author:  Pan, Shi Zhu.  <see vim online for my e-mail>

==============================================================================
CONTENTS                                                 *psc* *psc-contents*

	1. Contents.....................|psc-contents|
	2. PSC Overview.................|psc-overview|
	3. PSC Installation.............|psc-usage|
	4. PSC Options..................|psc-options|
	5. PSC under color term ........|psc-cterm|
	6. PSC FAQ and Tips ............|psc-faq|
	7. PSC Release notes............|psc-release-notes|
	8. PSC Todo List................|psc-todo|

For release notes, please see the header of ps_color.vim

==============================================================================
PSC FEATURES OVERVIEW                           *psc-features* *psc-overview*

	Features ~

	. PSC is firstly a color scheme which have both dark and light
	  background styles. 
	. It can have the same appearance in [cterm] as in [gui]. 
	. It is designed with gentle color to minimize fatigue of eye.
	. It also works with other color schemes.
	. Default foreground and background can easily be changed, it is more
	  configurable than most other color schemes
	. Works with the optional tool reloaded.vim, can change the whole
	  color scheme in Hue,Saturation,Luminance color space.

	Design Concern ~

	At the first glance this color scheme may look pretty 'dull', don't be
	afraid, this is quite normal.  Bear in mind that a text editor is not
	a photo album, if a text editor looks exciting you may not be able to
	stare at it for a long time.

	Predefined Vim Syntax highlighting can be too colorful or contrasty so
	that many programmers prefer to switch off the syntax highlighting at
	work.  That is not a good idea because you will lost the advantages of
	syntax high-lighting.  It is often the case that we have to work for
	300+ minutes, then I decide to do-it-myself. 

	Many user-defined color schemes in vim.sf.net tend to achieve low
	contrast by having a strong color-cast, i.e. looks blueish or
	yellowish or reddish.  This does look comfortable at first, however,
	any type of color-cast will cause the eyes less sensitive for
	particular color after a long-time work session, and that's no good to
	health. 

	Efforts had been made to ensure no color-cast for this scheme, all
	elementary colors like RGB and CYMK are evenly used.  Like TeX,
	'consistency' is the principle this color scheme based on.  Default
	values which hurt consistency are amended according to the vim script
	syntax/hitest.vim

	There are 3 parameters to describe a color: Hue, Saturation and
	Brightness.  In this color scheme, the saturation is low and the
	brightness are designed to be very close to each other in order not to
	fatigue our eyes after a whole day's programming work.
	
	Portability ~

	Different monitor settings led to different look.  In this color
	scheme, it is assumed that the monitor adjust at 6500k color
	temperature with a good gamma curve.  If you have a 9300k monitor or
	if the gamma curve is not optimal, the appearance may be less
	comfortable, use adobe gamma loader or similar tools to adjust
	your monitor if your monitor do not have the option to change color
	temperature and/or gamma curve. 
	
	Needless to say, VI is an editor originally designed to do edit tasks
	in a text terminal, and VIM is an improved version of VI.  Its a shame
	that a color scheme cannot have a satisfactory appearance in cterm.
	The cterm compatibility should be considered high priority when
	designing ViM color scheme.

	I had made much attempt to make support for 8-color terminals,
	however, 8 colors is not enough to represent a color scheme.  Finally
	I end up making the cterm support for 16-color terminal.  Have to say
	sorry if the color scheme sucks in your 8-color terminal, I had tried
	my best. More details about cterm please see |psc-cterm|.

							*psc-about-background*
	About the Background ~

	We have talked about off-white backgrounds, any background which is
	not black, grey or white should be changed constantly in order not to
	make the eyes less sensitive to particular color.  i.e. you can use
	blue background on Monday, red background on Tuesday, green background
	on Wednesday, but if you use blue background everyday, that's no good
	to your health.

	Now we talk about the brightness of the background. Why dark
	background is preferred over others? There are many reasons, such as,
	the monitor emits lower radiation for black background. You may have
	lots of similar reasons... 
	
	But I'll talk about something you may not know:
>
	It is easier to distinguish foreground colors on a dark background
	than on a light background. 

	At the same time, it is easier to distinguish background colors on
	a light background than on a dark background. 

	We will mainly change foreground colors for syntax highlighting.
<
	Hence, we can reduce the contrast and saturation of the color in
	a dark-background scheme, while retain the readability. Schemes with
	white background usually comes with higher contrast and saturation.
	This is probably the most important reason that the color scheme is
	designed to be dark-background instead of light one.

	Now we came to know, that change the foreground color is enough to
	emphasis text in a dark background, while for a white background, we
	need to change the font shape (bold or italic, etc.), or change the
	background color to effectively emphasis the text.  This is probably
	the reason Vim default scheme has bold properties for highlighting
	groups, because the default scheme is a light background one.

	No one knows what color scheme is best for you, except yourself. Try!

==============================================================================
PSC INSTALLATION                                                  *psc-usage*

	Step 1, Enable the color scheme ~

	To use PSC is simple, just put ps_color.vim into your
	[runtimepath]/colors and append the line >

		colorscheme ps_color
<
	to your |.vimrc|.  The [runtimepath] can be any directory listed in
	|vimfiles|, normally your $HOME/.vim in Unix or $HOME/vimfiles in
	Windows.

	Step 2, Install the help document ~
        
	The help document will be automatically installed when the colorscheme
	be sourced the first time.  If it is not, type :colo ps_color now.
        
	After successfully installed the help document, you can use >

		:help psc-options
<
	to go to the following section.

==============================================================================
PSC OPTIONS                                                     *psc-options*

	You can let these options in your ~/.vimrc, most options works for
	both GUI and cterm, only some of them do not work for both.

	Options set using the 'let' command must present [BEFORE] the color
	scheme been sourced. 

								*psc_style*
	Style ~
>
	let psc_style='cool'
	let psc_style='warm'
	let psc_style='default'
	let psc_style='defdark'
<
	This selects between styles of colors, 
	The 'cool' is the default, dark background. 
	The 'warm' is the alternative, light background scheme.

	See |psc-about-background| for more knowledge about the background,
	and the differences of two style.

	The 'default' and 'defdark' refers to Vim system default color scheme.
	Which are provided only for reference.

	Let psc_style to any string other than the above 4 will switch to the
	specified color scheme. For example, let psc_style='desert' and then
	activate the ps_color, the color scheme will be chosen according to
	desert.vim color scheme.

							    *psc_cterm_style*
	Color Term Style ~
>
	let psc_cterm_style='cool'
<
	This is exactly the same to psc_style, except that it only affects the
	console version of vim in a color terminal, the 'warm' is not
	available for cterm.  
	By default, it will be set to the same value as 'psc_style'. You can
	change it if you want different style in cterm from gui.


							       *psc_fontface*
	Font face ~
>
	let psc_fontface='plain'
	let psc_fontface='mixed'
<
	The Vim default behavior is the 'mixed', however, the mixed font style
	in a dark colorscheme is not optimal. This color uses 'plain' for
	'cool' style, i.e. No texts are bolded font. For 'warm', the default
	is still 'mixed', If you want the mixed style in which the highlighted
	statements are bolded font, choose this. If you want all texts be
	bolded, choose 'plain' and specify a bolded guifont or terminal font.

	In GUI, this option also works for other color schemes. You can
	disable the bold font and use your favorite color scheme. See
	|psc-faq-ffothers| for detail.

							  *psc_inversed_todo*
	Inversed Todo ~
>
	let psc_inversed_todo=1
<
	When set to 1, the TODO group will be dark background with light font,
	Otherwise, the TODO group have light background with dark foreground.
	Default is 0.

						  *psc_use_default_for_cterm*
	Use default for cterm (obsoleted)~

	This option is Obsoleted, retained only for backward compatibility,
        see |psc_cterm_style| for alternative.

					  *psc_statement_different_from_type*
	Statement different from type ~
>
	let psc_statement_different_from_type=1
<
	The Statement-group and Type-group are easy to distinguish, different
	color for them are not necessary, I use similar color for S-group
	& T-group in order not to make the screen too 'colorful', also this
	saves a color name for cterm.  But if you do want the Statement & Type
	to be different color, try 'let statement_different_from_type=1' in
	your .vimrc file, which is available only for GUI.  Since the color
	names in cterm is limited to 16 we cannot have too many different
	colors in cterm.
	Default is 0, i.e. they have very similar color.

						*psc-change-background*
	Changing the Background color ~

        You may prefer a black background over the dark one, and it is
        possible to customize it, this may make life more interesting.  To do
        this is quite straight forward for GUI, just define the Normal
        highlight in your .gvimrc, [AFTER] the color scheme has been sourced.

	For example: 
>
	highlight Normal guibg=#000000
<
	The #103040 will give a taste similar to oceandeep, #152535 for
	hhazure, #303030 for desert, #404040 for zenburn...  Replace #103040
	with any color you like. You can do the same to guifg foreground if
	you are careful enough, remember this is only possible for GUI.

	You can do this to the NonText group also, for example.
>
	highlight NonText guibg=#202020
<
	will give you a taste similar to most color schemes on vim.sf.net, in
	which the NonText has a different background than Normal text.
	However, this is only useful in GUI, in cterm, there are only
	8 background colors, so it is wise not to have a different color.

        If you want more variations, please try the optional utility
        reloaded.vim, this optional utility provides an amazing level of
        customization.

	Quick switching between warm and cold styles ~

	Here is an example to define hot key of different style switching,
	note that I had only given this example without actually define it.
	You can choose to define it in .vimrc or anyway you prefer. 
>
	nnoremap <Leader>pc :let psc_style='cool'<CR>:colo ps_color<CR>
	nnoremap <Leader>pw :let psc_style='warm'<CR>:colo ps_color<CR>
<
	Alternatively, you can use the capitalized :Colo command, like 
	:Colo cool or :Colo warm

==============================================================================
PSC WITH CTERM                                                    *psc-cterm*

	Colour Term ~

	The cterm color is designed mainly in these terminals: 
>
	1. Cygwin bash shell in NT command prompt box
	2. XTERM and RXVT
	3. Other color terminals which have at least 16 colors
<
	*psc-cterm-nt*
	In Windows NT Prompt console you can change the exact value of each
	color, so you can have the same color with your GUI version of Vim,
	for 'cool' color style you just change the color according to the
	|psc-cterm-color-table|, for how to redefine the color of Windows NT
	prompt console please see Windows Help. 

	NT Cygwin bash shell console supports 16 foreground colors by add bold
	attribute to 8 color, the cterm=bold specifies which should be bright
	color, so totally the 16 color foreground is available, but color
	name DarkXXX and LightXXX are the same.
	
        The pre-configured Cygwin.lnk is available for download on my web page
        for Vim, but the site seems down, and the my site would not be on
        recently, you may need to change colors in the Properties menu...

	Cygwin is highly recommended for Vim user if you are using Windows NT
	based systems (e.g. NT 4.0, Win2k, WinXP, Win2003, etc). But Cygwin is
	not that versatile under Windows 95/98/ME. I'm not sure whether this
	works for DOS DJGPP or Windows 95 console version of Vim because
	I don't have the system, in case you encountered problem please
	contact me, if you like.

	*psc-cterm-xterm*
	XTERM is a much more feature-rich terminal than Windows Console so the
	support is much better, add the following recommend line into your
	.Xdefaults and you can achieve the same color as in GUI version.
 
	Add the following into your .Xdefaults:
	This works for XTERM and RXVT.
>
	XTerm*color0:           #000000
	XTerm*color1:           #800000
	XTerm*color2:           #008000
	XTerm*color3:           #d0d090
	XTerm*color4:           #000080
	XTerm*color5:           #800080
	XTerm*color6:           #a6caf0
	XTerm*color7:           #d0d0d0
	XTerm*color8:           #b0b0b0
	XTerm*color9:           #f08060
	XTerm*color10:          #60f080
	XTerm*color11:          #e0c060
	XTerm*color12:          #80c0e0
	XTerm*color13:          #f0c0f0
	XTerm*color14:          #c0d8f8
	XTerm*color15:          #e0e0e0
	XTerm*cursorColor:      #00f000

	! The following are recommended but optional
	XTerm*reverseVideo:     False
	XTerm*background:       #000000
	XTerm*foreground:       #d0d0d0
	XTerm*boldMode:         False
<
	There is an assumption that your RXVT or XTERM supports 16 colors,
	most RXVTs and XTERMs support this, if yours do not, get a source of
	RXVT and recompile it.

	Sometimes the color mode are not recognized well, or you do not want
	bright foreground be bolded. If this is the case, add the following in
	your .vimrc (before the color scheme been sourced)
>
	if &term=='xterm'     " Change 'xterm' to your term name if necessary
	    set t_Co=16
	endif
<
	If the t_Co=16 have problem, set t_Co=8 and :colo ps_color again.
	vice versa.
	
	My rxvt works well with t_Co=16: >
	Rxvt v2.7.10 - released: 26 MARCH 2003
	Options:
	XPM,transparent,utmp,menubar,frills,linespace,multichar_languages,
	scrollbars=rxvt+NeXT+xterm,.Xdefaults
<	But I've know that my rxvt v2.6.4 in another machine has problem with
	t_Co=16, if that is the case, set t_Co=8 instead.

	*psc-cterm-others*
	For other terminals, you can manually set the color according to the
	following table

	Hints for Manually set the color (for 'cool' style only):
	*psc-cterm-color-table*
	Color name	Hex value	Decimal value ~
	 0 Black	= #000000	0,0,0
	 4 DarkBlue	= #000080	0,0,128
	 2 DarkGreen	= #008000	0,128,0
	 6 DarkCyan	= #a6caf0	166,202,240
	 1 DarkRed	= #800000	128,0,0
	 5 DarkMagenta	= #800080	128,0,128
	 3 DarkYellow	= #d0d090	208,208,144
	 7 Grey		= #d0d0d0	208,208,208
	 8 DarkGrey	= #b0b0b0	176,176,176
	12 Blue		= #80c0e0	128,192,224
	10 Green	= #60f080	96,240,128
	14 Cyan		= #c0d8f8	192,216,248
	 9 Red		= #f08060	240,128,96
	13 LMag.	= #f0c0f0	240,192,240
	11 Yellow	= #e0c060	224,192,96
	15 White	= #e0e0e0	224,224,224

	*psc-cterm-incompatible*
	If your color terminal does only have 8 colors and cannot achieve 16
	colors with cterm=bold, you may want to switch to other color schemes
	to gain more readability. Anyway, you can specify in your .vimrc to
	use different color scheme under different consoles and GUI. 
	For example: 
>
	let psc_cterm_style = 'foobarcolor'
	let psc_style = 'cool'
	colo ps_color
<
	The 'foobarcolor' means the color scheme you want to choose, such as
	'desert', I recommend to try vim default schemes 'default' and
	'defdark' before experience others.

==============================================================================
PSC FAQ AND TIPS                                         *psc-faq* *psc-tips*
>
	Q: What is meant by `PS' ? 
<
	A: PS means: PostScript, PhotoShop, PerSonal, ... or anything you can
	   imagine and anything you want it do be.
>
	Q: How to obtain the same appreance as gui in color term?
<
	A: This need some work around, see |psc-cterm| for details.
	   Generally speaking, you should ensure your color term has support
	   for 16 foreground colors, and each color is customizable.

							  *psc-faq-ffothers*  >
	Q: How to use psc_fontface with other colorschemes?
<
	A: Make sure you had sourced :colo ps_color in your .vimrc, then you
	   can use the Capitalized :Colo instead of :colo
	   e.g. you want to use 'murphy', just type :Colo murphy after you
	   sourced the ps_color, the 'defdark', 'cool', 'warm' can also be
	   used here.
>
	Q: I updated from v2.0 to v2.3 or above, why the cterm color scheme
	   for Comment is different?
<
	A: The color map of DarkYellow and Yellow have been exchanged,
	   You need to reconfigure your terminal to meet the change,
	   see |psc-cterm-color-table| for guide, or if you are using xterm
	   compatible terminal, just update the .XDefaults according to
	   |psc-cterm-xterm|.
>
	Q: What do you mean by 'Vanilla Windows'?
<
	A: People often argue that Windows is not a REAL operating system.
	   Well, I agree this, but only for vanilla windows. i.e. with no
	   plug-ins installed.  Vanilla windows is a very limited platform,
	   since it is not POSIX compliant.

	   There are currently many working around to make Windows POSIX
	   Compliant, do you still mind which OS to use when it is POSIX
	   Compliant?  I don't. If you installed Cygwin kernel in your
	   NT-based Windows, the Windows will be more or less POSIX compliant
	   and you can use it in the same way as you use any Unix, BSD,
	   Solaris, Linux, XWindow, etc... What is more, Cygwin is not the
	   only kernel which makes Windows POSIX Compliant, make a google
	   search and you will find many alternatives.
>
	Q: How to change the Normal background color? Why don't you use
	   different background for NonText group?
<
	A: This is for compatibility, since we have to use only 8 colors as
	   background in a color terminal.  For GUI you can change this, see
	   |psc-change-background| for details.
>
	Q: I updated from 2.81- to 2.82+, why the default background changed?
<
	A: This is for Bram's guideline, that dark schemes with black
	   background has too much contrast.

           However, you can change it back. see |psc-change-background| for
           details.

==============================================================================
PSC RELEASE NOTES                                         *psc-release-notes*

	2.90 Release Note: ~

        Upon the release of Vim 7, many new highlight groups have been added.

        A style has been tuned a little to increase contrast.


	2.83 Release Note: ~

        This is an identical version, but my e-mail address changed. 


	2.82 Release Note: ~

	Fixed bug with the reversed group for the Vim default, or other
	schemes.

        Fixed bug with the Diff mode fg mistaken as fg.

        Shrink the script a lot to improve load performance, moved the release
        notes into document.

        Change the default gui background color to #202020 (Dark Grey)


	2.81 Release Note: ~

	Provided a separate utility reloaded.vim to fine tune the GUI color
	scheme based on Hue, Saturation and Brightness(Luminance).  

	Added some groups to meet the need of reloaded.vim, no essential
	change.

	2.8 Release Note: ~

	Bugfix : when psc_style=='mixed', the visual got reversed wrong.

	'mixed' is now the default for 'warm' style.

	changed the function name to lower case.

	removed pre-2.0 compatibility, (the non-psc version of s-d-f-t).

	Added variable psc_cterm_style, see |psc_cterm_style|

	Added group Underline

	Tuned the function call.

	2.7 Release Note: ~

	Now it is possible to change the Background, 
	see :h psc-change-background for details.

	Linked the Tag group to Identifier.

	NonText as Notice is not good for 'warm', changed to Constant.

	Added links for the most popular plugins: taglist, calendar

	Tuned the 'Statement' color when different from Type (gui only).

	Re-adjusted cterm scheme according to syntax/hitest.vim

	The 'defdark' style for cterm is not functioning, fixed.

	Many 'cosmetic' changes, makes no difference for functionality.

	Use of DrChip's help extractor to auto-install help document.

	Added command define, :Colo

	2.6 Release Note: ~

	As stated in the v2.3, the only 'todo' thing seems to be the 'warm'
	style, now in this version I had been working on it. 

	There also are some minor fixes for the document, to be more friendly
	for new readers.

	The 'StatusLine' of 'cold' style is modified by mistake in the v2.3,
	this time the bug is fixed.

	The 'Directory' in GUI 'cold' style is different from 'cterm' one,
	now fixed.

	2.3 Release Note: ~

	This is an incompatible update, main changes are in 'cterm'.
	A new group 'SignColumn' had been added, new links added for engspchk
	v52, hundreds of typos fixed in the document, thanks to the engspchk.

	The support for 8-color cterm is slightly better now, but the mappings
	of the DarkYellow and Yellow are exchanged, you need to update the
	.Xdefaults or your terminal configuration before apply this update if
	you are using v2.0.  Guide for redefinition the color value is
	available in the document, make sure you had updated the ps_color.txt,
	then see |psc-cterm-color-table|

	2.0 Release Note: ~

	There've been great enhancement since this version, so I'd choose to
	bump the version number to 2. This version comes with Vim online help,
	if you had installed ps_color.txt, you can see for details in
	|pscolor|

	n/a Release: ~

	Initial upload, can be called as v1.8


==============================================================================
PSC TODO LIST                                                      *psc-todo*

	. Fix the remain bugs.
	. Follow the new Vim versions for new added highlighting group
	. This cannot work in Vim Tiny mode, and will never work!

==============================================================================

vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:fo+=t:norl:noet:
