The solarized theme
The official home is:
http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized
Take a look. It looks promising. So, First add the .Xresource file:
.Xdefaults/.Xresources
Given that I'm never sure which one is used, I have a symlink from one to the other...
!! drop in Solarized colorscheme for Xresources
!!
!! ## Installation
!! 1) Write to $HOME/.Xresources
!! 2) If not using Xsession, you must add the line `xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources`
!! to `.xinitrc`. See http://manpages.ubuntu.com/Xsession for more details.
!!
!!SOLARIZED HEX 16/8 TERMCOL XTERM/HEX L*A*B RGB HSB
!!--------- ------- ---- ------- ----------- ---------- ----------- -----------
!!base03 #002b36 8/4 brblack 234 #1c1c1c 15 -12 -12 0 43 54 193 100 21
!!base02 #073642 0/4 black 235 #262626 20 -12 -12 7 54 66 192 90 26
!!base01 #586e75 10/7 brgreen 240 #585858 45 -07 -07 88 110 117 194 25 46
!!base00 #657b83 11/7 bryellow 241 #626262 50 -07 -07 101 123 131 195 23 51
!!base0 #839496 12/6 brblue 244 #808080 60 -06 -03 131 148 150 186 13 59
!!base1 #93a1a1 14/4 brcyan 245 #8a8a8a 65 -05 -02 147 161 161 180 9 63
!!base2 #eee8d5 7/7 white 254 #e4e4e4 92 -00 10 238 232 213 44 11 93
!!base3 #fdf6e3 15/7 brwhite 230 #ffffd7 97 00 10 253 246 227 44 10 99
!!yellow #b58900 3/3 yellow 136 #af8700 60 10 65 181 137 0 45 100 71
!!orange #cb4b16 9/3 brred 166 #d75f00 50 50 55 203 75 22 18 89 80
!!red #dc322f 1/1 red 160 #d70000 50 65 45 220 50 47 1 79 86
!!magenta #d33682 5/5 magenta 125 #af005f 50 65 -05 211 54 130 331 74 83
!!violet #6c71c4 13/5 brmagenta 61 #5f5faf 50 15 -45 108 113 196 237 45 77
!!blue #268bd2 4/4 blue 33 #0087ff 55 -10 -45 38 139 210 205 82 82
!!cyan #2aa198 6/6 cyan 37 #00afaf 60 -35 -05 42 161 152 175 74 63
!!green #859900 2/2 green 64 #5f8700 60 -20 65 133 153 0 68 100 60
#define S_base03 #002b36
#define S_base02 #073642
#define S_base01 #586e75
#define S_base00 #657b83
#define S_base0 #839496
#define S_base1 #93a1a1
#define S_base2 #eee8d5
#define S_base3 #fdf6e3
#define S_yellow #b58900
#define S_orange #cb4b16
#define S_red #dc322f
#define S_magenta #d33682
#define S_violet #6c71c4
#define S_blue #268bd2
#define S_cyan #2aa198
#define S_green #859900
*background: S_base03
*foreground: S_base0
! *fading: 40
*fadeColor: S_base03
*cursorColor: S_base1
*pointerColorBackground:S_base01
*pointerColorForeground:S_base1
!! black dark/light
*color0: S_base02
*color8: S_base03
!! red dark/light
*color1: S_red
*color9: S_orange
!! green dark/light
*color2: S_green
*color10: S_base01
!! yellow dark/light
*color3: S_yellow
*color11: S_base00
!! blue dark/light
*color4: S_blue
*color12: S_base0
!! magenta dark/light
*color5: S_magenta
*color13: S_violet
!! cyan dark/light
*color6: S_cyan
*color14: S_base1
!! white dark/light
*color7: S_base2
*color15: S_base3
!urxvt.font: -xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-160-72-72-c-80-iso10646-1
urxvt.font: xft:Dejavu Sans Mono-11
! urxvt.font: 9x15
urxvt.geometry: 80x24
urxvt*cutchars: '`"()\'*<>[]{|}'
UXTerm*metaSendsEscape: true
UXTerm*termName: xterm-256color
UXTerm*geometry: 84x40
UXTerm*charClass: 33:48,37:48,45-47:48,38:48,58:48
URxvt*secondaryScroll: false
URxvt*scrollBar: false
URxvt*termName: rxvt-256color
URxvt*iso14755: false
URxvt*iso14755_52: false
URxvt.searchable-scrollback: C-M-1
Emacs.Geometry: 82x40
Emacs.ToolBar: 0
Emacs.MenuBar: off
Emacs.menuBarLines: 0
emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
! emacs.pane.menubar.font: -xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-160-72-72-c-80-iso10646-1
emacs.*.font: -xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-160-72-72-c-80-iso10646-1
!emacs.dialog*.font: -xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-160-72-72-c-80-iso10646-1
! emacs.font: -xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-160-72-72-c-80-iso10646-1
emacs.font: Dejavu Sans Mono-11
the bash prompt (in .bashrc/.bash_profile)
PS1='[$(date +%H:%M)] \[\033[00;32m\]\u\[\033[00m\]@\[\033[00;34m\]\h\[\033[00m\]:\w\$ '
dircolors
Then the ~/.dircolors file (I can't recall where I found it). If you
don't add it, the colors in the ls output will look like shit,
you're warned...
# Exact Solarized color theme for the color GNU ls utility. # Designed for dircolors (GNU coreutils) 5.97 # # This simple theme was simultaneously designed for these terminal color schemes: # - Solarized dark (best) # - Solarized light (best) # - default dark # - default light # # How the colors were selected: # - Terminal emulators often have an option typically enabled by default that makes # bold a different color. It is important to leave this option enabled so that # you can access the entire 16-color Solarized palette, and not just 8 colors. # - We favor universality over a greater number of colors. So we limit the number # of colors so that this theme will work out of the box in all terminals, # Solarized or not, dark or light. # - We choose to have the following category of files: # NORMAL & FILE, DIR, LINK, EXEC and # editable text including source, unimportant text, binary docs & multimedia source # files, viewable multimedia, archived/compressed, and unimportant non-text # - For uniqueness, we stay away from the Solarized foreground colors are -- either # base00 (brightyellow) or base0 (brighblue). However, they can be used if # you know what the bg/fg colors of your terminal are, in order to optimize the display. # - 3 different options are provided: universal, solarized dark, and solarized light. # The only difference between the universal scheme and one that's optimized for # dark/light is the color of "unimportant" files, which should blend more with the # background # - We note that blue is the hardest color to see on dark bg and yellow is the hardest # color to see on light bg (with blue being particularly bad). So we choose yellow # for multimedia files which are usually accessed in a GUI folder browser anyway. # And blue is kept for custom use of this scheme's user. # - See table below to see the assignments. # Insatllation instructions: # This file goes in the /etc directory, and must be world readable. # You can copy this file to .dir_colors in your $HOME directory to override # the system defaults. # COLOR needs one of these arguments: 'tty' colorizes output to ttys, but not # pipes. 'all' adds color characters to all output. 'none' shuts colorization # off. COLOR tty # Below, there should be one TERM entry for each termtype that is colorizable TERM ansi TERM color_xterm TERM color-xterm TERM con132x25 TERM con132x30 TERM con132x43 TERM con132x60 TERM con80x25 TERM con80x28 TERM con80x30 TERM con80x43 TERM con80x50 TERM con80x60 TERM cons25 TERM console TERM cygwin TERM dtterm TERM Eterm TERM eterm-color TERM gnome TERM gnome-256color TERM jfbterm TERM konsole TERM kterm TERM linux TERM linux-c TERM mach-color TERM mlterm TERM nxterm TERM putty TERM rxvt TERM rxvt-256color TERM rxvt-cygwin TERM rxvt-cygwin-native TERM rxvt-unicode TERM rxvt-unicode256 TERM rxvt-unicode-256color TERM screen TERM screen-256color TERM screen-256color-bce TERM screen-bce TERM screen.linux TERM screen-w TERM vt100 TERM xterm TERM xterm-16color TERM xterm-256color TERM xterm-88color TERM xterm-color TERM xterm-debian # EIGHTBIT, followed by '1' for on, '0' for off. (8-bit output) EIGHTBIT 1 ############################################################################# # Below are the color init strings for the basic file types. A color init # string consists of one or more of the following numeric codes: # # Attribute codes: # 00=none 01=bold 04=underscore 05=blink 07=reverse 08=concealed # Text color codes: # 30=black 31=red 32=green 33=yellow 34=blue 35=magenta 36=cyan 37=white # Background color codes: # 40=black 41=red 42=green 43=yellow 44=blue 45=magenta 46=cyan 47=white # # NOTES: # - See http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wdnut/excerpt/color_names.html # - Color combinations # ANSI Color code Solarized Notes Universal SolDark SolLight # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ # 00 none NORMAL, FILE# 30 black base02 # 01;30 bright black base03 bg of SolDark # 31 red red docs & mm src # 01;31 bright red orange EXEC # 32 green green editable text # 01;32 bright green base01 unimportant text # 33 yellow yellow unclear in light bg multimedia # 01;33 bright yellow base00 fg of SolLight unimportant non-text # 34 blue blue unclear in dark bg user customized # 01;34 bright blue base0 fg in SolDark unimportant text # 35 magenta magenta LINK # 01;35 bright magenta violet archive/compressed # 36 cyan cyan DIR # 01;36 bright cyan base1 unimportant non-text # 37 white base2 # 01;37 bright white base3 bg in SolLight # 05;37;41 unclear in Putty dark ### By file type # global default NORMAL 00 # normal file FILE 00 # directory DIR 36 # symbolic link LINK 35 # pipe, socket, block device, character device (blue bg) FIFO 30;44 SOCK 35;44 DOOR 35;44 # Solaris 2.5 and later BLK 33;44 CHR 37;44 ############################################################################# ### By file attributes # Orphaned symlinks (blinking white on red) # Blink may or may not work (works on iTerm dark or light, and Putty dark) ORPHAN 05;37;41 # ... and the files that orphaned symlinks point to (blinking white on red) MISSING 05;37;41 # files with execute permission EXEC 01;31 # Unix .cmd 01;31 # Win .exe 01;31 # Win .com 01;31 # Win .bat 01;31 # Win .reg 01;31 # Win .app 01;31 # OSX ############################################################################# ### By extension # List any file extensions like '.gz' or '.tar' that you would like ls # to colorize below. Put the extension, a space, and the color init string. # (and any comments you want to add after a '#') ### Text formats # Text that we can edit with a regular editor .txt 32 .org 32 .md 32 .mkd 32 # Source text .h 32 .c 32 .C 32 .cc 32 .cxx 32 .objc 32 .sh 32 .csh 32 .zsh 32 .el 32 .vim 32 .java 32 .pl 32 .pm 32 .py 32 .rb 32 .hs 32 .php 32 .htm 32 .html 32 .shtml 32 .xml 32 .rdf 32 .css 32 .js 32 .man 32 .0 32 .1 32 .2 32 .3 32 .4 32 .5 32 .6 32 .7 32 .8 32 .9 32 .l 32 .n 32 .p 32 .pod 32 .tex 32 ### Multimedia formats # Image .bmp 33 .cgm 33 .dl 33 .dvi 33 .emf 33 .eps 33 .gif 33 .jpeg 33 .jpg 33 .JPG 33 .mng 33 .pbm 33 .pcx 33 .pdf 33 .pgm 33 .png 33 .ppm 33 .pps 33 .ppsx 33 .ps 33 .svg 33 .svgz 33 .tga 33 .tif 33 .tiff 33 .xbm 33 .xcf 33 .xpm 33 .xwd 33 .xwd 33 .yuv 33 # Audio .aac 33 .au 33 .flac 33 .mid 33 .midi 33 .mka 33 .mp3 33 .mpa 33 .mpeg 33 .mpg 33 .ogg 33 .ra 33 .wav 33 # Video .anx 33 .asf 33 .avi 33 .axv 33 .flc 33 .fli 33 .flv 33 .gl 33 .m2v 33 .m4v 33 .mkv 33 .mov 33 .mp4 33 .mp4v 33 .mpeg 33 .mpg 33 .nuv 33 .ogm 33 .ogv 33 .ogx 33 .qt 33 .rm 33 .rmvb 33 .swf 33 .vob 33 .wmv 33 ### Misc # Binary document formats and multimedia source .doc 31 .docx 31 .rtf 31 .dot 31 .dotx 31 .xls 31 .xlsx 31 .ppt 31 .pptx 31 .fla 31 .psd 31 # Archives, compressed .7z 1;35 .apk 1;35 .arj 1;35 .bin 1;35 .bz 1;35 .bz2 1;35 .cab 1;35 # Win .deb 1;35 .dmg 1;35 # OSX .gem 1;35 .gz 1;35 .iso 1;35 .jar 1;35 .msi 1;35 # Win .rar 1;35 .rpm 1;35 .tar 1;35 .tbz 1;35 .tbz2 1;35 .tgz 1;35 .tx 1;35 .war 1;35 .xpi 1;35 .xz 1;35 .z 1;35 .Z 1;35 .zip 1;35 # For testing .ANSI-30-black 30 .ANSI-01;30-brblack 01;30 .ANSI-31-red 31 .ANSI-01;31-brred 01;31 .ANSI-32-green 32 .ANSI-01;32-brgreen 01;32 .ANSI-33-yellow 33 .ANSI-01;33-bryellow 01;33 .ANSI-34-blue 34 .ANSI-01;34-brblue 01;34 .ANSI-35-magenta 35 .ANSI-01;35-brmagenta 01;35 .ANSI-36-cyan 36 .ANSI-01;36-brcyan 01;36 .ANSI-37-white 37 .ANSI-01;37-brwhite 01;37 ############################################################################# # Your customizations # Unimportant text files # For universal scheme, use brightgreen 01;32 # For optimal on light bg (but too prominent on dark bg), use white 01;34 .log 01;32 *~ 01;32 *# 01;32 #.log 01;34 #*~ 01;34 #*# 01;34 # Unimportant non-text files # For universal scheme, use brightcyan 01;36 # For optimal on dark bg (but too prominent on light bg), change to 01;33 .bak 01;36 .BAK 01;36 .old 01;36 .OLD 01;36 .org_archive 01;36 .off 01;36 .OFF 01;36 .dist 01;36 .DIST 01;36 .orig 01;36 .ORIG 01;36 .swp 01;36 .swo 01;36 *,v 01;36 #.bak 01;33 #.BAK 01;33 #.old 01;33 #.OLD 01;33 #.org_archive 01;33 #.off 01;33 #.OFF 01;33 #.dist 01;33 #.DIST 01;33 #.orig 01;33 #.ORIG 01;33 #.swp 01;33 #.swo 01;33 #*,v 01;33 # The brightmagenta (Solarized: purple) color is free for you to use for your # custom file type .gpg 34 .gpg 34 .pgp 34 .asc 34 .3des 34 .aes 34 .enc 34
zsh
If you use zsh, be sure to add this to zshrc:
eval `dircolors $HOME/.dircolors`
MOC
My MOC theme to use with the solarized palette:
background = white black frame = white black bold window_title = green black directory = yellow black selected_directory = yellow black reverse playlist = cyan black selected_playlist = white black reverse file = white black selected_file = white black reverse marked_file = red black bold marked_selected_file = magenta black reverse info = white black selected_info = white black marked_info = white black marked_selected_info = white black reverse status = white black title = green black state = white black current_time = white black time_left = white black total_time = white black time_total_frames = white black sound_parameters = white black bold legend = white black disabled = black black bold enabled = white black empty_mixer_bar = white black filled_mixer_bar = black cyan empty_time_bar = white black filled_time_bar = black cyan entry = white black entry_title = black cyan error = red black bold message = yellow black plist_time = white black
Emacs
The emacs color theme to use with solarized is https://github.com/melmothx/emacs-color-theme-solarized, but I'm going to tweak it for gnus, because I'm not liking it...
My fork is at: https://github.com/melmothx/emacs-color-theme-solarized
It gives to gnus a bit of life 
Putty
Simple registry files to add new solarized color schemes to putty, both for new and pre-existent profiles - read instructions.
https://github.com/altercation/solarized/tree/master/putty-colors-solarized