Vim: Changing colorscheme in normal mode

Question

I would like to have a different colorscheme when i'm in normal mode/visual mode and switch to my default colorscheme when i'm in my insertion mode. Is it possible ?

This can help you http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14013294/vim-how-to-detect-the-mode-in-which-the-user-is-in-for-statusline — Ôrel, Jun 08 '15 at 02:24

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 09 '15 at 16:22

Instead of overriding the (built-in) commands, you can also hook into the InsertEnter / InsertLeave autocommands:

autocmd InsertLeave * highlight Normal guibg=grey8
autocmd InsertEnter * highlight Normal guibg=black

This will also cover custom (plugin) mappings that change modes, and it avoids the remapping of <Esc>, which can be problematic.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 09 '15 at 07:36

Thanks but it's for the status line. I found a solution like this in my vimrc :

noremap i :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>i
noremap o :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>o
noremap s :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>s
noremap a :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>a
noremap I :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>I
noremap O :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>O
noremap S :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>S
noremap A :highlight Normal guibg=grey8<cr>A

"You need the next line to change the color back when you hit escape.
inoremap <Esc> <Esc>:highlight Normal guibg=black<cr>

Vim: Changing colorscheme in normal mode

2 Answers2