How to Choose and Apply Themes

Overview

Control terminal colors using built-in themes.

Getting Started

Use the Set Theme command in your tape file:

tape

Output demo.gif
  
Set Theme "Dracula"     # Dark theme with purple accents
Set Cols 100
Set Rows 30
  
Type "echo 'Hello, World!'"
Enter
Wait

List all available themes:

bash

vcr themes

This prints a table of all 10 built-in themes with each theme's name and its background/foreground hex colors.

Built-in Themes

VCR# includes 10 themes. Use the exact name in Set Theme and --set Theme=. Theme names are case-insensitive, but every value passed to Set must be quoted — including single-word names (Set Theme "Dracula").

Each preview below was generated by running samples/docs/themes-gallery.tape with --set Theme=<name>:

Default — VS Code Dark+ (used when no theme is set)

Dracula — Dark purple theme

Monokai — Dark warm colors

Nord — Arctic blue-tinted dark theme

Gruvbox Dark — Retro warm dark theme

Solarized Dark — Precision dark theme

Solarized Light — Light variant of Solarized

One Dark — Atom's dark theme

Tokyo Night — Dark with purple/blue accents

Catppuccin Mocha — Pastel dark theme

Choose Your Theme

Use Case	Recommended Themes	Why
Documentation	Default, Solarized Light	Readable on light or dark page backgrounds
Presentations	Nord, Solarized Dark	Professional, calm colors
Social Media	Tokyo Night, Catppuccin Mocha	Vibrant, eye-catching
Brand Colors	Closest match	Override with CLI as needed

Testing Themes with CLI Overrides

Change the theme without editing the tape file:

bash

vcr demo.tape --set Theme=Dracula -o dracula.gif
vcr demo.tape --set Theme=Monokai -o monokai.gif

Generate multiple themed versions in a loop:

bash

for theme in Dracula Monokai Nord "Gruvbox Dark"
do
  vcr demo.tape --set Theme="$theme" -o "demo-$theme.gif"
done

CLI overrides take precedence over tape file settings.

What Themes Control

Themes set:

Foreground - Main text color
Background - Terminal background color
ANSI colors - 16 standard terminal colors (black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, and bright variants)

All other visual settings (font size, padding, border radius) are independent of themes.

Transparent Backgrounds

Remove the background color while keeping text colors from the theme:

tape

Set TransparentBackground true
Set Theme "Dracula"

Use cases:

Embedding recordings in web pages with custom CSS backgrounds
Creating videos with custom backgrounds
Compositing multiple recordings together

Example: Match Presentation Background

tape

# For light backgrounds (Google Slides, PowerPoint with light theme)
Set Theme "Solarized Light"
  
# For dark backgrounds (Dark mode presentations)
Set Theme "Dracula"