Syntalume Tune and Calibration

Every Syntalume theme is generated from a perceptual (OKLab) color engine — and Tune puts a slice of that engine in your hands.

Tune#

Run:

Syntalume: Open Syntalume Tune

The core controls reshape the active Syntalume theme, live:

  • Warmth — shift the whole palette toward amber or toward blue.
  • Contrast — push text and surfaces apart (or soften them).
  • Saturation — from vivid to nearly monochrome.
  • Accent — replace the theme accent with any hex color.

Open Advanced syntax and workbench style for Tune 2 controls:

  • Comments — use the theme default, regular text, or italics.
  • Keywords — use the theme default, regular, bold, italic, or bold italic.
  • Functions — use the theme default, regular text, or italics.
  • Variable contrast — choose calm, standard, or strong emphasis. Calm keeps a 3:1 readability floor; strong raises emphasis without changing the palette's hue.
  • Workbench surface — layered keeps the shipped depth, unified gives the workbench one continuous canvas, and minimal flattens only the editor chrome.
  • Border strength — remove structural separators, keep the shipped subtle borders, or make them clear.
  • Bracket style — keep the shipped rainbow, dim the same hues, or use a monochrome foreground.
  • Workbench density — keep comfortable tabs or preview and apply compact editor tabs. Reset restores the value that was present before Tune took ownership, while later manual edits are preserved.

Syntax choices cover both TextMate grammars and semantic highlighting, so the result stays consistent in languages whose extensions provide richer token information. Every control previews in the active editor after a short delay; click Apply when you are satisfied.

If General Reset runs while Tune is open, Syntalume first drains queued preview work, restores the transient preview, and closes the panel. It then resets the committed Tune ownership, so closing an old panel cannot resurrect stale values.

Tune also includes a live in-panel sample for TypeScript, Python, Java, Kotlin, Rust, YAML, Terraform, Markdown, and diffs. Syntax typography, variable emphasis, bracket treatment, surface depth, border strength, accent, and tab density update in that sample immediately. Palette changes continue to use the real, theme-scoped active-editor preview, so the sample never pretends to be a full grammar or renderer.

Two guarantees no manual color tweaking gives you:

  1. Changes apply only to Syntalume themes (they are written as theme-scoped customizations), so other themes are never touched.
  2. The same WCAG contrast floors that gate every Syntalume release are re-enforced after every adjustment — you cannot tune yourself into unreadable text.

"Reset to shipped" restores every unchanged workbench color, TextMate rule, semantic-token selector, density value, and Tune setting to its prior value or absence. If you manually edit one Tune-owned entry after Apply, that newer entry wins; every other unchanged Tune entry still resets, and unrelated later entries in the same theme block remain.

Shared profile mapping#

The local auralis.tune.adjustments setting stays flat for compatibility. When a team profile is imported or exported, Tune maps the advanced choices to the editor-neutral style object:

  • commentStyle ↔ style.comments
  • keywordStyle ↔ style.keywords (boldItalic is written as bold-italic)
  • functionStyle ↔ style.functions
  • variableContrast, workbenchSurface, borderStrength, bracketStyle, and density keep the same names inside style

Theme-default choices are omitted from the shared profile, so it stays small and future theme improvements continue to flow through.

Calibration wizard#

Run:

Syntalume: Calibrate Comfort & Contrast

Three quick choices — contrast strength, color intensity, temperature — each previewing live as you pick. Cancelling restores exactly what you started with. The result is saved as Tune adjustments you can refine later.

Repair Theme Contrast#

Works on ANY installed theme, not only Syntalume. Run:

Syntalume: Repair Theme Contrast

Syntalume reads the active theme's own file, measures the audited UI pairs and every syntax color against WCAG floors, and repairs what fails by adjusting lightness only — hues are never touched, so the theme keeps its character. Deliberately muted roles (struck-through text, faded log noise) are respected. Repairs apply as theme-scoped customizations: other themes are untouched, and running the command again restores every unchanged repaired color and syntax rule. A later manual edit to one repaired entry wins without stranding the other repair-owned entries, and unrelated later entries remain. General Reset removes repairs for every theme with the same guarantees.