" cool help screens " :he group-name " :he highlight-groups " :he cterm-colors " your pick: set background=dark " or light hi clear if exists("syntax_on") syntax reset endif let g:colors_name="fi" hi Normal ctermfg=110 "hi Normal " OR highlight clear Normal " set background& " highlight clear " if &background == "light" " highlight Error ... " ... " else " highlight Error ... " ... " endif " A good way to see what your colorscheme does is to follow this procedure: " :w " :so % " " Then to see what the current setting is use the highlight command. " For example, " :hi Cursor " gives " Cursor xxx guifg=bg guibg=fg " Uncomment and complete the commands you want to change from the default. hi Cursor ctermbg=255 ctermfg=16 cterm=none hi CursorLine ctermbg=0 cterm=none hi CursorLineNr ctermbg=66 ctermfg=0 cterm=none hi CursorIM ctermbg=60 ctermfg=255 cterm=none hi Directory ctermfg=110 cterm=none hi DiffAdd ctermfg=43 cterm=none hi DiffChange ctermfg=128 cterm=none hi DiffDelete ctermfg=209 cterm=none hi DiffText ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi ErrorMsg ctermfg=197 cterm=none hi VertSplit ctermfg=61 cterm=none hi Folded ctermbg=17 ctermfg=75 cterm=none hi FoldColumn ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi IncSearch ctermbg=60 ctermfg=231 cterm=none hi LineNr ctermbg=0 ctermfg=67 cterm=none hi ModeMsg ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi MoreMsg ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi NonText ctermbg=0 ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi Question ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi Search ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi SpecialKey ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi StatusLine ctermbg=67 ctermfg=0 cterm=none hi StatusLineNC ctermfg=0 cterm=none hi Title ctermfg=222 cterm=none hi Visual cterm=inverse hi VisualNOS ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi WarningMsg ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi WildMenu ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi Menu ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi Scrollbar ctermbg=16 ctermfg=241 cterm=none hi Tooltip ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi CursorColumn ctermbg=233 cterm=none " syntax highlighting groups hi PreProc ctermfg=185 cterm=none hi Special ctermfg=135 cterm=none " hi Operator ctermfg=215 cterm=none "$ hi Identifier ctermfg=168 cterm=none "prom hi Constant ctermfg=67 cterm=none hi String ctermfg=61 cterm=none hi Comment ctermfg=25 term=none hi Underlined ctermfg=110 cterm=underline hi Error ctermbg=0 ctermfg=196 cterm=underline hi Todo ctermbg=0 ctermfg=220 cterm=none hi Ignore ctermfg=252 cterm=none hi MatchParen ctermbg=13 ctermfg=0 cterm=bold hi Exception ctermbg=0 ctermfg=196 cterm=none " -> HTML-specific hi htmlBold ctermfg=252 cterm=bold hi htmlBoldItalic ctermfg=252 cterm=bold,italic hi htmlBoldUnderline ctermfg=252 cterm=bold,underline hi htmlBoldUnderlineItalic ctermfg=252 cterm=bold,underline,italic hi htmlItalic ctermfg=252 cterm=italic hi htmlUnderline ctermfg=252 cterm=underline hi htmlUnderlineItalic ctermfg=252 cterm=underline,italic hi htmlEndTag ctermfg=135 cterm=none hi htmlTag ctermfg=135 cterm=none hi htmlTagName ctermfg=141 cterm=none hi htmlStatement ctermfg=252 cterm=none