Neovim N Λ N O Theme

This package adapts @rougier's excellent N Λ N O Theme for Emacs to Neovim.

N Λ N O Theme is a minimalist color scheme based on six colors only:

• Critical face is for information that requires immediate action.

It should be of high contrast when compared to other faces. It must be used scarcely.

• Popout face is used for information that needs attention.

To achieve such effect, the hue of the face has to be sufficiently different from other faces such that it attracts attention through the popout effect.

• Strong face is used for information of a structural nature.

It has to be the same color as the default color and only the weight differs by one level (e.g., light/regular or regular/bold). It is generally used for titles, keywords, directory, etc.

• Salient face is used for information that is important.

To suggest the information is of the same nature but important, the face uses a different hue with approximately the same intensity as the default face. This is typically used for links.

• Faded face is for information that is less important.

It is made by using a hue similar to the default face but with a lesser intensity than the default. It can be used for comments, secondary information and also replace italic (which is generally abused anyway).

• Subtle face is used to suggest a physical area on the screen.

It is important to not disturb too strongly the reading of information and this can be made by setting a very light background color that is barely perceptible.

This Neovim version is slightly modified compared to the Emacs version. Its light background is warmer, its dark background omits the blue tint, and its colors are tuned to meet minimum accessibility contrast requirements.

Installation

The suggested installation method is using vim.pack.add in Neovim v0.12+:

vim.pack.add({ "ronisbr/nano-theme.nvim" })
vim.o.background = "light" -- or "dark".
vim.cmd.colorscheme("nano-theme")

Configuration

You can configure the theme variant independently for light and dark backgrounds by calling the setup function:

MiniDeps.add({ source = "ronisbr/nano-theme.nvim" })
vim.o.background = "light" -- or "dark".
require("nano-theme").setup({
  light_variant = "default",
  dark_variant  = "default",
  transparent   = false,
})
vim.cmd.colorscheme("nano-theme")

Variants

Variant	Description
amber	Amber phosphor CRT monitor palette. Dark mode uses a near-black background with warm golden-amber glowing text; light mode uses a warm parchment background with deep amber ink.
blue	Cool, steel-blue tinted palette where backgrounds and accents lean toward blue tones.
default	Warm, slightly tinted palette faithful to the original N Λ N O Emacs theme.
gilded	Ink, paper, and gold palette — a sibling of ink with a softer, warmer character. Dark mode uses a blue-tinted ink background with warm paper text, a gilded gold salient, and a muted teal popout; light mode uses a warm paper background with dark ink text. Choose ink for maximum neutral contrast, gilded for the tinted, paper-like rendition of the same gold/cool-accent scheme.
gray	Fully desaturated, neutral gray palette. Salient and popout faces use achromatic tones for a monochrome feel.
green	Nature-inspired palette with green-tinted backgrounds.
ink	High-contrast variant with near-pure black/white neutral backgrounds and warm amber/blue accent hues. The crisper, fully neutral sibling of gilded.
jinx	Arcane-inspired palette. Both modes share the same role mapping: magenta-pink salient (Jinx's hair), Hextech neon-blue strong, and electric teal-cyan popout. Light mode uses a near-white background with a barely perceptible grey-pink tint; dark mode uses a near-black background with a subtle violet tint.
old_terminal	Retro phosphor monitor palette. Dark mode uses near-black background with bright green text; light mode uses a green-tinted background with dark green text.
orange	Warm, earthy palette with orange-tinted backgrounds and amber accents.
rougier	Palette closest to the original N Λ N O Emacs theme by @rougier, with minimal modifications.

Changing the Variant at Runtime

Use :NanoThemeLight or :NanoThemeDark to select a variant for that background. The theme uses Neovim's overrideable vim.ui.select, so it honors any selector UI you configure. When that selector supports and calls preview_item, the highlighted variant is previewed. Selecting an item, including with Enter where supported, applies it; cancelling restores the previous colorscheme, background, variants, and transparency setting.

The same selector is available from Lua:

-- Open an interactive selector to change the light theme variant.
require("nano-theme").select_light_variant()

-- Open an interactive selector to change the dark theme variant.
require("nano-theme").select_dark_variant()

The selector lists the canonical variants and keeps the light and dark selections independent.

Transparent Backgrounds

Set transparent = true in setup to clear background-bearing editor and integration surfaces while retaining contrast for selections, searches, diagnostics, and diffs. The setting applies only when nano-theme is loaded and persists across nano-theme reloads.

Use :NanoThemeTransparent to toggle it, or :NanoThemeTransparentEnable and :NanoThemeTransparentDisable to set it explicitly. The equivalent Lua APIs are:

require("nano-theme").toggle_transparent()
require("nano-theme").set_transparent(true)  -- enable
require("nano-theme").set_transparent(false) -- disable

When nano-theme is active, these commands and functions reapply it immediately. Otherwise, they update the state without changing the active colorscheme.

Tests

Run the dependency-free headless test suite from the repository root:

make test

Screenshots