colors.nvim

A Neovim plugin for color management, palette generation, and color highlighting. Generate color palettes from 500+ predefined colors, manage palettes, and highlight colors in your code with ease.

Features

• 🎨 Color Palette Generation: Generate palettes from 500+ predefined colors using various methods
• 📋 Palette Management: Save, load, rename, delete, and export palettes
• 🌈 Color Highlighting: Highlight colors in your buffers with a name hint
• 🔍 Color Pickers: Both telescope and grid-based color selection interfaces
• 📊 Palette Statistics: Get insights about your saved palettes
• 🎯 Intelligent Interface: Easy-to-use floating windows with keyboard shortcuts
• ♿ Accessibility Analysis: WCAG compliance checking for color contrast
• 💾 Persistent Storage: Palettes saved to file for future sessions
• 💡 Completion: Easy integration with nvim-cmp plugin.

Integrations & Compatibility

Integration	Status	Description
	✅ Supported	Color name completion
	✅ Supported	Fuzzy color picker

Installation

Using lazy.nvim

{
  "llawn/colors.nvim",
  dependencies = {
    "nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim", -- optional, for telescope picker
  },
  config = function()
    require("colors").setup({
      -- your configuration here
    })
  end
}

Using vim.pack (Neovim 0.12+)

local gh = function(x) return 'https://github.com/' .. x end

vim.pack.add(gh('llawn/colors.nvim'))
vim.pack.add(gh('nvim-telescope/telescope.nvim')) -- optional, for telescope picker

require("colors").setup({
  -- your configuration here
})

Configuration

Default Configuration

{
  highlighting = {
    enabled = true,
    max_lines = 5000, -- Maximum lines to process for performance
    enable_virtual_text = true,
    enable_background_highlights = true,
  },

  -- Palette file settings
  palette = {
    file_path = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/palettes.lua",
  },

  -- Key mappings
  keymaps = {
    toggle_highlight = "<leader>ct",
    palette_list = "<leader>cl",
    palette_stats = "<leader>cs",
    hex_colors = "<leader>cc",
    grid_picker = "<leader>cC",
  },

  -- Autocommand settings
  autocmds = {
    events = { "BufEnter", "BufRead", "TextChanged", "TextChangedI" },
    pattern = "*",
  },
}

Custom Configuration Example

require("colors").setup({
  highlighting = {
    enabled = true,
    max_lines = 3000,
    enable_virtual_text = false,
  },
  keymaps = {
    toggle_highlight = "<leader>th",
    palette_list = "<leader>pl",
    hex_colors = "<leader>hc",
  }
})

Or see Example for colors.nvim

Configuration Options

Highlighting Settings

• enabled (boolean): Enable/disable color highlighting
• max_lines (number): Maximum lines to process per buffer (performance)
• enable_virtual_text (boolean): Show color name hints
• enable_background_highlights (boolean): Apply background colors

Key Mappings

• toggle_highlight (string): Toggle color highlighting
• palette_list (string): Open palette list
• palette_stats (string): Show palette statistics
• hex_colors (string): Open telescope color picker
• grid_picker (string): Open grid color picker

Palette Settings

• file_path (string): Path to palette storage file

Autocommand Settings

• events (table): Events that trigger highlighting
• pattern (string): File pattern for autocommands

Usage

User Commands

Command	Description
:PaletteGenerate [color] [method] [count]	Generate and display a color palette
:PaletteList	List and manage saved palettes
:PaletteStats	Show palette collection statistics
:ColorToggle	Toggle hex color highlighting
:HexColors	Open telescope color picker
:ColorPick2D	Open 2D grid color picker

Palette Generation

:PaletteGenerate red monochromatic 5
:PaletteGenerate blue equally 4
:PaletteGenerate purple analogous 8
:PaletteGenerate "carbon black" monochromatic 5
:PaletteGenerate "electric blue" analogous 6

• Monochromatic: Variations of a single color (variation of hue)
• Analogous: Colors adjacent on the color wheel (variation of lightness)
• Equally: Colors evenly spaced on the color wheel (variation of hue)

Color names with spaces must be enclosed in quotes

Palette List Management

• Open palette list: <leader>cl or :PaletteList
• In palette list:
  • l - Load selected palette
  • e - Export palette to clipboard (Lua Format)
  • r - Rename palette
  • d - Delete palette
  • q - Close list

Palette View Controls

When viewing a palette:

• l - Back to palette list
• e - Export palette to clipboard (Lua format)
• d - Delete current palette
• r - Rename current palette
• a - Check accessibility (WCAG compliance)
• q - Quit menu

Color Highlighting

Toggle Highlighting

:ColorToggle
" or with keymap: <leader>ct

Refresh Highlighting

:lua require("colors.api").refresh_highlight()

Color Pickers

Telescope Color Picker

:HexColors
" or with keymap: <leader>cc

Grid Color Picker

:ColorPick2D
" or with keymap: <leader>cC

Palette Statistics

:PaletteStats
" or with keymap: <leader>cs

nvim-cmp Integration

colors.nvim provides an nvim-cmp source for color name completion with documentation and hex values.

Setup

Add the colors source to your nvim-cmp configuration:

-- Add in your nvim-cmp config
require("colors.cmp_colors").setup()

cmp.setup({
  sources = cmp.config.sources({
    { name = "colors" },
  }),
  formatting = {
    format = function(entry, vim_item)
      vim_item = cmp_colors.format(entry, vim_item)
      return vim_item
    end,
  },
})

cmp.setup.cmdline(":", {
  sources = cmp.config.sources({
    { name = "palette_colors" },
  }),
})

See Example for a complete examples.

Palette Storage

Palettes are stored in Lua format at vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/palettes.lua" by default. Each palette includes:

{
  colors = { 0xFF0000, 0x00FF00, 0x0000FF, ... }, -- Color values
  metadata = {
    method = "complementary",
    base_color = "red",
    options = {},
    created_at = "2026-01-01 12:00:00",
    color_count = 5
  }
}

License

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