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Zenburn Transparent

v1.0.0

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

Updated 4 months ago
1.7k downloads 4 stars Repository ↗
Install in Zed
zedext main
// Load settings, retrying a few times
fn load_config(path: &str) -> Result<Config, Error> {
    let retries = 3;
    let text = fs::read_to_string(path)?;
    let name = "settings.json";
    Ok(Config { text, retries, name })
}

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.

ZedExt An unofficial community project. Not affiliated with Zed Industries.

Data from Zed’s extension registry and GitHub · updated

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