I built a Mint Green Light Theme for IDEAs (still beta)
Source: Dev.to
Introduction
Let’s kick off the new year with a fresh green theme designed to please your eyes and lift your spirit! Mint Green Light Theme for IDEA is still in beta (but better than never released). See known issues below.
When I heard that the color of the year 2026 might be in the greenish spectrum, I decided to revive, finalize, and release my theme, which had been lurking on GitHub as an unfinished working draft (intellij-mint-green-light-theme) for about two years.
Reviewing my notes, pictures, and screenshot collages, I found inspiration from notebooks, Google’s mint‑green Pixel phone, Linux Mint desktop themes, and the few existing green themes for my IDE.
Moodboard & Naming
Names and moodboard collages can be misleading. Trend colors for fashion, interior design, and glossy print magazines often don’t feel the same when reused with their official hex codes in a web app or website. Small swatch albums of thumbnail color samples are hard to distinguish in miniature but make a great difference when painted on a wall or used as a full‑screen background.
I said goodbye to strict trend color codes while still being inspired by the feeling invoked by those beautiful names. I created working‑draft CSS names such as pistachio yellowish green, neon grass, faded footer, and light console.
I hope the theme reflects my moodboard’s spirit and can become another favorite editor theme, alongside:
- Cute Pink Light Theme (inspired by a VSCode theme)
- Orange Rain Light Theme (my own creation)
- Dark Purple (by JetBrains)
I often switch between Dark Purple at night or on winter evenings and Cute Pink Light in bright daylight, while Orange Rain Light is a comforting all‑rounder that has replaced my previous Sepia favorites.
Development Philosophy
I admire the serene flow of existing greenish and yellowish themes. The Light Green and Love Your Eyes themes felt a little too cold, while the Espresso and Sepia themes were not green enough. I also avoid editor fonts with ligatures that render sequences like !== as a single character, as they feel jarring while coding.
Every working theme deserves its place in a selection; the more diversity, the better. I have also produced themes I wouldn’t use daily, such as Mocha Mouse, a mock contribution to last year’s alleged trend color of the year by Pantone. Although Mocha Mouse was downloaded more than 1 000 times, I don’t consider it a serious showcase.
For comparison:
- Orange Rain Light – 2 600 downloads
- Cute Pink Light – 87 296 total downloads (earliest public release, adapted from a VSCode theme)
Design Process
My green light theme has a dark pre‑release history; it used to break the IDE, and I wasn’t happy with the first palette. I examined the stable Orange Rain Light theme as a base, noting its subtle details—thin hairlines colored in vivid, contrasting blue tones (thanks to JetBrains’ UI layout).
By placing the colour palettes side by side, I applied the visual rhythm of the orange theme to the newly designed green theme.
Version 1.1.1 (January 2026)
Screenshot placeholder – show the theme as released.
Known Issues
-
UI Breakage: Occasionally the theme breaks the UI, making the main menu inaccessible in PhpStorm 2024.2.5 on Linux Mint.
Work‑around: Use the context menu and open Settings via the top‑right gear icon, then disable the theme.
Solution: TBD. -
Some areas lack contrast, and I’m not 100 % satisfied with the overall look and feel.
I’m disappointed that version 1.1.1 feels unlike the stable orange theme it was meant to follow. Since the Mint Green Light Theme is still fresh, feel free to comment, open GitHub issues, or suggest shade adjustments. You’re also welcome to fork the code or adapt the theme to other editors (VSCode, Emacs, etc.) or colorize other software (Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.).
Try It Out
You can try the latest version here: