How to write a VIM color scheme?

Question

I have been looking around for VIM color schemes and found some great ones out there (esp. by using http://code.google.com/p/vimcolorschemetest/), but I always want to change a

Answer 1

Launch vim, say ":help syntax", it has quick start etc.

For the complete templates look at your installation:

colorschemes are in /usr/share/vim/vimcurrent/colors/

languages syntax in /usr/share/vim/vimcurrent/syntax/

Answer 2

I didn't watch the "Creating colorschemes for Vim" episode of VIMcasts, but the others are really good.

Answer 3

colorschemes are actually vim scripts. You use the hi command for coloring, which works like hi TextType guifg=#hexforegroundcolor guibg=#hexbgcolor gui=bold/italic/underlined/undercurled (assumed you use gvim). If you type :hionly, you get a complete list of text types with their current highlighting
see also http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/syntax.html#:colorscheme

Answer 4

Vivify lets you interactively create vim colorschemes with color pickers and previews your scheme using several code samples.

Answer 5

May be you can find this colorscheme template useful: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=106

The original description is

"The philosophy here is to provide a ready-to-uncomment list of highlight commands for all the important groups. Then you can deviate from the default until you come up with one you like."