Despite the rise of JavaScript, Java is not dead. Instead, it has thrived and grown significantly over the past decade, gaining a foothold in the device application development space while JavaScript has been taking over the web. IntelliJ is an IDE that’s been with Java developers for the ride and rise and has a highly active plugins marketplace..
A plugin, of course, is an extension that can help supercharge your productivity, output capacity, and general code robustness. Here are the top and best IntelliJ plugins you need to know about for 2022.
When it comes to API and backend development, understanding how your database is structured and interconnected can shave days and weeks off your code creation time. Database Navigator is a tool that lets you work in SQL, provides advanced database connection, supports script execution, database object browsing, and data compilation operations. With the help of Database Navigator, you can perform SQL and database-related operations inside IntelliJ and integrate parts of your productive code process directly with it.
Keyboard shortcuts and key cords are a programmer’s way of coding faster and cutting down the number of keyboard strokes required. However, the task of learning them can be cumbersome. Key Promoter X is a “Bootcamp for your hands” – or in a nutshell, a keyboard shortcut trainer that teaches how to maximize your keyboard and cut down on the dead travel time that builds up when you switch between keyboard and your mouse.
Tabnine is an AI Assistant for Developers & Teams that learns your coding patterns and suggests best practices based on the code in your repo. The major difference between Tabnine and other IntelliSense plugins is that it is AI-driven with shared knowledge across everyone that uses it. Your code remains private and safe, and only the generalized language features, patterns, and implementations are shared. This means that you have access to more than a million users’ worth of combined knowledge to help you code faster and better.
Tabnine for Enterprise provides a secure coding environment that allows teams and organizations to host and train their own AI models. This feature facilitates collaborative autocompletion across IDEs and enhances code security by keeping the codebase and AI model on secure corporate servers. With Tabnine for Enterprise, your development team can enjoy the benefits of powerful AI code assistance, which promotes more productive and error-free coding, all while ensuring the confidentiality and protection of your company’s data.
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Bash is a command language used extensively across all software development projects in some form. BashSupport lets us execute bash commands from within IntelliJ’s IDE, which means no more context switching between applications and tracking which window is which. Although support has since been retired, the plugin is still functional and good for your productivity.
The act of taking your fingers off the keyboard can result in lost time. The more you switch between your mouse and keys, the slower and more interrupted your code flow state becomes. AceJump makes navigating to different parts of code on your screen faster and more efficient. Rather than using your mouse, your arrow keys to manually navigate, or the search functionality in IntelliJ IDE, you just need to hit ctrl+; as a keycord and type in whatever you’re looking for. IntelliJ will highlight the relevant matching parts and help you jump to the exact spot based on which code item you want.
Env file support is an environment parameter completion tool. An env file, or “dot” env, is the text configuration file required for your app’s environments’ constants. It’s part of keeping your local, staging, and production environments separated. Env files support ensures that your environment variables are valid and connected to the right places.
Git is synonymous with software development. It is also a cornerstone software versioning tool for processes such as GitOps and DevOps. Featured in the Productivity Bundle and Go bundle, GitToolBox integrates git into your IntelliJ IDE and allows for status displays, auto fetching, inline annotations, commit dialog, and other helpful git processes you might need to complete your work.
Prettier for IntelliJ is a plugin that lets you employ the perks of an opinionated code formatter. Prettier is also one of the most used formatting and linting tools supported across a majority of editors such as Atom, VS Code, Visual Studio, Vim, and Sublime. This means that it can keep your code standardized, no matter what your team uses as their editor.
Let’s be honest – if there’s data involved, there will also be CSV included in some form. CSV is a plugin that lets you view CSV, TSV, and PSC files in a visually easy-to-digest table format. It also comes with syntax validation, highlighting, custom colors, and inspections. This means that you can easily process, view, and deal with CSV-related data on the fly rather than deal with it in its raw format.
SonarLint is an excellent plugin to have in conjunction with Prettier. While Prettier works on formatting and cleaning up your code, SonarLint helps you fix bugs, reveals vulnerabilities and code smells during the coding process. SonarLint doesn’t just support Java but also includes C, C++, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, C+, Kotlin, Ruby, HTML, and PHP.
Lightrun is a service that lets developers observe their platforms via logs, metrics, and traces in various environments from your IDE or CLI. Lightrun aims to help developers cut down on debugging time by offering real-time debugging data. The plugin for IntelliJ lets you see the full content of stacks and user journeys without stopping the running process. It also enables you to investigate the death of data workers and the context of the thrown exception.
We use brackets to create scopes and restrict parts of code most of the time. Rainbow brackets make identifying bracket pairs much easier through color coordination. It can help developers keep track of where code begins and end and identify scopes and where leaks can potentially occur. When coding, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of brackets, and Rainbow is an excellent and handy tool for debugging syntax.
Maven is a software management tool that keeps your project structured and helps with the build process. However, it’s easy for Maven to grow in size, resulting in potential conflicting dependencies or bugs in test files. Maven Helper is a plugin that helps you navigate Maven files easier and run specific tasks against it to check for conflicts, open the terminal based on the current maven module path, and run debugs against files or root modules.
Orchestrating Kubernetes can be a complex process. The Kubernetes plugin for IntelliJ provides a framework for browsing cluster objects, extracting their configs, viewing and downloading pod logs, and applying YAML configs — all from the comfort of your IntelliJ editor. No more context switching and navigating between your console, jumping between namespaces, and using multiple instances to tap into the API schema. The Kubernetes plugin for IntelliJ has you covered in one space.
If you’re not working with Kubernetes, then there is a high chance that you’ll be working with Docker instead. The Docker plugin for IntelliJ IDE lets you download and build Docker images, create and run containers, along with the ability to create Docker compositions. In short, the Docker plugin lets you integrate directly with Docker in whatever format or requirement for your project.
Kotlin is the newest kid on the block and has replaced Java as the primary supported language by Android. While Kotlin is its stand-alone language, it is also compatible with Java. The Kotlin plugin lets you use your IntelliJ IDEA as a Kotlin editor, providing support for Kotlin specific language features.
While IntelliJ is predominantly known as a Java editor, it also can support Node.js applications through the Node.js plugin. This means that you can develop a Java application in conjunction with Node.js without the need to run multiple instances or consoles. The Node.js plugin also has an attached debugger and lets you debug Mocha test units right in the IDE.
Coderpillr is a perfect five-star rated dark theme for IntelliJ, with almost 30k downloads against its name. It is a dark theme inspired by Visual Studio Code’s Material Palenight and JetBrains’ Dark Purple theme. This means that Coderpillr takes the best of both themes and merges them into one supersonic color scheme that’s balanced and aesthetically productive.
An excellent dark theme can keep you from eye strain and help maintain focus through a series of marginal aesthetic gains. One Dark Theme is a color scheme that works well to achieve this through a color combination that takes muted tones and presents them with just enough contrast to make a visual impact, but not so much that it screams at you.
Dracula theme is another dark theme that comes highly recommended and is popular with developers. It is partly because the theme is supported on almost every software creation tool – including IntelliJ. Using the Dracula theme means that you can visually sync your applications with the same color scheme, reducing the mental load of context switching.
Visual novelty is a thing that can help increase your productivity. Grandianto is a dark theme that comes as a ‘pack,’ meaning that you have access to a selection of available palettes to color your IntelliJ IDE. Perks include added bold error highlight and fixed scrollbar colors. The pack comes with a range of dark themes that include shades of purple and dark green.
IntelliJ on its own is good. IntelliJ with the right plugins installed is better. When you configure your workspace for maximum productivity, your code quality increases. From productivity-enhancing tools like Database Navigator, Tabnine, and AceJump, to versioning, collaboration, and linting tools – IntelliJ has everything that you might need. All you need to do is figure out the tasks that take up multiple seconds and minutes during your code sessions – because those seconds and minutes can easily add themselves into hours over a period. Plugins help to reduce this, making you more productive overall.
Using keyboard shortcuts in Intellij IDEA can save you a lot of time, increase your productivity and help keep your wrists healthy. We’ve collected the top 21 must-know shortcuts and keystroke combinations to take your Intellij mastery to the next level.
Being productive while coding is not just about avoiding social media and other annoying distractions. When you remove all the external noise, it’s just you, your IDE of choice, your keyboard, mouse, and a caffeinated beverage. One of these is usually unnecessary – the mouse.
It’s not that we have anything against pointing devices, but let’s face it – those are the tools of graphic designers. And even graphic designers use (usually one-handed) keyboard shortcuts in their work. When you’re in that lightning-speed code-typing mode, looking for menu items is nothing but a distraction, even when you know exactly what you are looking for.
For a developer to waste precious time moving their hand from the keyboard to the mouse and back is simply ineffective. All those little seconds really do add up in damaging the overall efficiency of your work. In addition, it can cause fatigue and pain in the wrist and arm from the frequent switching between input devices.
Now that you installed some plugins, you’re fully convinced of the value of memorizing and using keyboard shortcuts instead of clicking on menus, we have some great news! Intellij IDEA can do pretty much all you need it to without you even touching the computer mouse of trackpad to execute a command.
That said, there’s really no reason for you to memorize the full Intellij IDEA default keymap sheet, though you might want to print the page applicable to your OS of choice and hang it somewhere you can easily see around your workstation.
So which of the 100+ shortcuts should you memorize? We picked the top 21 in boosting productivity, and sorted them into categories according to use. Note that we used the default OS and Intellij keymap, and the key combinations assume a Windows OS. If you use a Mac or run Linux, you can easily “convert” the shortcuts using the official Intellij IDEA keymap sheet.
One of the main challenges in “quitting the mouse” with Intellij IDEA is learning to navigate between files, tabs and sections of code using keyboard shortcuts. It’s actually more effective than using a mouse and guess what? No leaning on the up and down keys is involved!
1. Go to declaration / implementation – Ctrl + B / Ctrl + Alt + B
When you need to find the declaration of a method, all you need to do is select the method and press Ctrl+B on your keyboard. Need the implementation section instead? Press Ctrl + Alt + B to jump to the method implementation.
2. Navigate to last edit location – Ctrl + Shift + Backspace
“Wait, so where was I typing last?” will never be a question you ask yourself when going back to work after lunch. Simply press Ctrl + Shift + Backspace and you’ll be taken to the last edit location in the file.
3. Switch between tabs – Ctrl + Tab
Everyone knows how useful the Alt + Tab key combination is, especially when switching between, let’s say, Google (or your social media account) and the IDE. Now, you can also switch quickly and easily between open files in the same way with Ctrl + Tab.
4. View recent files – Ctrl + E
Want to open a recent file? Pressing Ctrl + E will let you navigate the list of recent files and pick the one you wish to open in a tab.
5. Go to line – Ctrl + G
When a coworker yells across the room “Check line 732!” you don’t need to go on a scrolling marathon. Simply press Ctrl + G and go directly to the line in question.
6. Navigate to test – Ctrl + Shift + T
Jumping between implementation and testing classes is a breeze with this handy key combination. Added bonus – if your implementation class doesn’t have a test class, Ctrl + Shift + T will automatically create one for you using your default testing framework.
Finding what you need in thousands of lines of code across multiple documents is no easy task when done manually and is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack of code. Fortunately, there are several search functions (with keyboard shortcuts) in Intellij IDEA to help you locate the code segments, classes, methods or other resources you’re looking for as quickly as possible.
7. Comprehensive search – Double Shift
Look for anything anywhere with this handy double-press. Using TAB switches the resulting cluster, left arrow key will show history, right arrow key will move forward, and the most recent files are shown by default.
8. Find class – Ctrl + N
Looking for something classy? To find the class you seek simply press Ctrl + N and type the name. You don’t even need to write the full name, and you can use asterisks (*) as wildcards.
9. Find resource – Ctrl + Shift + N
When you’re not looking for classes but rather for text or configuration files, Ctrl + Shift + N will do just in a fashion similar to that for finding classes.
10. Show usages – Ctrl + Alt + F7
Ever looked at a component in the code and ask yourself “Wait, what does this do?” before going on a long quest to answer that question? Never again! Ctrl + Alt + F7 shows all usages of the current method, class or variable in a popup where you can easily navigate between locations where it was used.
As a coder, what you usually do is write and edit code. Those important keystrokes of genius that make the words in the IDE turn into working applications. Some keystrokes are unnecessary and repetitive. These shortcuts will help eliminate those so every one of your keystrokes counts.
11. Expand / shrink selection – Ctrl + W / Ctrl + Shift + W
Selecting code sections with a mouse is a drag. Aside from being a pun, it’s also a great way to miss important bits which we would rather not miss. Instead, you can use Ctrl + W to expand the selection intelligently and Ctrl + Shift + W to shrink it.
12. Basic code completion – Ctrl + Space
“Type less, do more,” is the main idea behind this keyboard shortcut (and the two that follow it). This important shortcut will autocomplete your code, but much like the default autocomplete on your mobile, is not perfect. It is, however, very widely used.
13. Smart code completion – Ctrl + Shift + Space
Smart code completion is much more effective as it will only display the autocomplete options relevant to context by filtering the list of suggestions to show only classes, variables, fields and methods of the type that can be expected.
14. Complete statement – Ctrl + Shift + Enter
The bane of any and every developer from day one of the job are those missing characters in statements like parentheses and semicolons. This keyboard shortcut helps eliminate those and can be a lifesaver on long nights of coding.
15. Show intention actions and quick-fixes – Alt + Enter
Another helpful keyboard shortcut to improve your code is Alt + Enter that will automatically fix highlighted errors or warnings, then improve or optimize the selected code construct.
16. Duplicate line – Ctrl + D
Anyone who’s ever written code will tell you no key combination is more useful than good old Ctrl + C and Ctrl +V. In Intellij IDEA you can duplicate lines by pressing Ctrl + D. Note that you can also do this with whole sections of code.
17. Comment line – Ctrl + /
Deleting code is rare. More often than not, you will comment out lines of code for testing purposes or various reasons. Commenting out lines is made quick and easy by then pressing Ctrl + / no matter where you are in the line.
One of the main strengths of Intellij IDEA is its refactoring functions and opportunities. The most used ones have shortcuts you’ll probably memorize pretty quickly if you refactor your code a lot.
18. Extract method – Ctrl + Alt + M
To extract code to a new method or lambda expression simply select it and press Ctrl + Alt + M.
19. Rename – Shift + F6
Renaming in Intellij requires some setting up before using. If you don’t adjust renaming options (double-pressing Shift + F6), you might find that it will also rename occurrences in text. Pressing Shift + F6 once will rename the selected element across your entire codebase.
The last two keyboard shortcuts need no explanation as they map to two of the most commonly used functions of an IDE – making projects, debugging and running them.
20. Make project – Ctrl + F9
21. Run / debug – Shift + F10 / F9
Those are just our favorite shortcuts, and only 21 of them. Which are yours? Tell us in the comments.
Any discussion comparing IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse for Java development can be tricky because it’s sticky. The IDE I mean. An IDE is what we in marketing call a sticky product. Once someone starts using it they stick to it and rarely switch. IDE users turn into something evolutionary anthropologists refer to as “fanboys”. IntelliJ loyalists scoff at Eclipse fanboys, Eclipse fanboys get mad, and once everyone starts naming eclipse plugins and waving software licenses around? All hell breaks loose.
It’s no wonder beginners find themselves confused when deciding what IDE to install as their default, after moving up from the world of lightweight student development environments. Should they pick the one used in most tutorials or preferred by their teacher and colleagues? The one with more positive reviews online or with the most users?
To settle this once and for all, we need to look at both IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse from the perspective of a confused (but objective) junior Java developer with a new laptop.
Considering the subscription costs of the Ultimate edition of IntelliJ (sometimes dubbed “the Cadillac of Java development”), we’re going to assume our junior developer is not looking to spend cash on an IDE subscription license at this point. So in this comparison, we’ll be talking (mostly) about the free version of IntelliJ offered: IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition.
Let’s meet our lovely contestants.
IntelliJ IDEA was released in 2001 by JetBrains, an established company known previously for its Resharper plugin for Visual Studio. The Community Edition, available for free and aimed mostly at Java and Android application developers, offers support of a number of languages including Java (obviously), Kotlin (which was developed by JetBrains), Groovy, Clojure, Scala and others. IntelliJ IDEA includes features like advanced forecasting, code analysis, and smart code completion as well as a selection of plug-ins and extensions to customize the IDE to your needs if you’re not satisfied with its out-of-the-box feature-set.
Released by IBM in 2001, the open source IDE Eclipse was initially created to eclipse Microsoft’s Visual Studio. Since then, Eclipse has become a major platform used in both open source and commercial projects. Highly versatile and flexible, Eclipse was designed to serve the needs of complex enterprise projects and embedded system application development. It offers support for a variety of programming languages in addition to Java, as well as popular frameworks. With a plethora of plugins, thorough documentation and a large developer community, Eclipse has rightfully gained a loyal following.
At a glance, IDEs are like apples and oranges, if apples and oranges were the base and home for all your future development work. So let’s set some basic criteria, still assuming we’re a Java junior fresh out of programming course diapers.
Both IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse IDE are free to download and use, with IntelliJ offering a paid version for additional functionality (the “Ultimate Edition”) that we mentioned above. Being a junior developer, free is the perfect price-tag, though it’s important to remember there are other non-monetary costs to “free”. But we’ll get to that later.
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition is open core, rather than open source, and is covered by the Apache 2.0 license. While this means that you can use the IDE freely for any type of project, it also reflects on the plugin ecosystem as the license does somewhat limit the development of plugins and extensions. However, as a commercial project, IntelliJ IDEA has the advantages of a corporation with a budget behind it, rather than a community-driven non-profit.
Eclipse IDE is fully open source under the Eclipse Public License (EPL) v2 and the code is maintained by a non-profit – The Eclipse Foundation. While having very little implications on the development experience, the open source license of the IDE allows for a more extensive plugin ecosystem, and makes open source supporters feel warm inside knowing they use software developed by the community for the community.
IntelliJ IDEA can be installed on Windows, MacOS and Linux with the following hardware:
Eclipse IDE can run on anything that supports JVM including Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris. The hardware it demands is very basic:
It’s easy to see that the minimum requirements for Eclipse are more modest. Since we’re not planning to run an IDE on our smartwatch, it’s safe to assume that even the cheapest computer from the past few years can run both smoothly without breaking a sweat. However, if performance is what you’re looking for, the same hardware might not give you the same results on both IDEs.
Waiting for a build to finish or for a particularly complex piece of code to compile can be a drag. So unless you like to use this time for other fun activities, you probably want your IDE to be as fast and efficient and possible.
Tests performed show that Eclipse IDE is by far more efficient than IntelliJ IDEA in its memory management. However, if you look at the popular Java forums like r/java/ on Reddit you may find contradicting arguments.
While we are comparing IDEs for Java development, it makes sense to take a look at what other languages are supported by your IDE of choice. You never know when you might be forced to edit JavaScript code or debug COBOL (hopefully never).
IntelliJ Community Edition supports Groovy, Java, Kotlin, and XML/XSL straight out of the box. You can download and install plugins to allow you to program in: Clojure, CloudSlang, Dart, Elm, Erlang, Go, Gosu, Haskell, Haxe, Julia, Lua, Perl, Python, Rust and Scala. The frameworks supported are Android, Ant, Gradle, JUnit, JavaFX, Maven, Python, SBT and TestNG.
If you require support for HTML/XHTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL or other languages or app development frameworks, you will be forced to splurge on an Ultimate edition to develop in IntelliJ.
Eclipse is written in Java, so the tools and SDK for Java development are part of the basic installation. However, thanks to it being open source, Eclipse IDE has an immense ecosystem of plugins that will let you program with pretty much every language and framework out-there in one IDE. Currently, with the plugins available on the Eclipse marketplace, it can support over 100 programming languages and almost 200 application development frameworks.
At this time, the Intellij plugins marketplace offers a total of 3,374 plugins, with some of them available exclusively to subscribers to the Ultimate Edition, and the Eclipse marketplace includes 1,668 solutions and extensions for the IDE.
Having gained popularity at an amazing pace, the Community Edition of IntelliJ led to similarly accelerated growth of its plugin ecosystem in the past two years. In addition, with Eclipse plugin interoperability isn’t always promised – your mileage may vary, as it is with many other open source solutions. With IntelliJ IDEA, plugins are better vetted by JetBrains and are less likely to clash with one another.
To an individual developer the selection wouldn’t necessarily depend on the number of downloadable plugins but rather the availability of specific components needed by the developer to be featured in the IDE of their choice.
When it comes to ease of use, it gets super-hard to judge. No two users are the same, and preference can come down to things like UI customization options or tweakable code completion. Most developers we’ve asked confirm the opinions on the Internet – IntelliJ IDEA is friendlier to beginners thanks to its ease of code completion and inspection.
Another advantage IntelliJ has over Eclipse is that many define Eclipse as more of a collection of plugins than an IDE on its own. So on one hand, IntelliJ gives you what you need out of the box. On the other, if you want to spend some time customizing an environment to your specific needs and tinker with the source, Eclipse is the way to go.
It’s worth noting that many developers claim that the ease of use and intelligent coding support offered by IntelliJ is actually a hindrance in learning and understanding the intricacies of Java programming. Then again, some of these developers recommend unassisted coding in a text processor and compilation in the terminal to force newbies to really know what they’re doing before they lean on automation and AI to do some of the work for them. Bottom line, “good” coding isn’t about right or wrong it’s about realizing that coding languages, and Java specifically, is a living and breathing thing that changes over time.
Therefore, remaining a “purist” will most likely end up leaving you behind the curve. Embracing new trends and best practices will keep you on top of your coding game. Sure, as a beginner you need to learn to crawl before you walk but what is necessary to “crawl” changes continuously. That’s why Tabnine’s AI based code completions pulls in code snippets from millions of Java programs and delivers code suggestions right in your IDE, Eclipse or IntelliJ :).
The popularity of one IDE over another should not be your only criteria for choice. However, the size of the community and number of fans among Java developers can have impact on productivity and ease-of-use.
As previously mentioned, Intellij IDEA has had a growing fandom since JetBrains released the Community Edition in 2001 and overtook Eclipse in popularity in 2016. According to stackshare, Intellij IDEA now has more fans, more points on Reddit, but far fewer questions on Stack Overflow.
At the end of the day, what matters is not only personal user preference, but also the needs of the project (or projects) our junior Java developer plans to work on in the near future. Though there’s no doubt that IntelliJ IDEA currently has more vocal supporters online, and is gradually overtaking Eclipse in popularity among both new and experienced Java developers, our suggestion to the beginner Java developers is to give them both a try, and see which feels like home.
When you first start to code, having pretty colors in your editor and terminal is not the first thing on your list of priorities. As you spend more and more time staring at code editors and terminal outputs, you’ll realize that having an IntelliJ color theme that is comfortable for your eyes can make all the difference. It’s simply much easier to get more work done without strained eyes and a splitting headache.
This post features the top five IntelliJ themes recommended by developers who spend most of their waking hours coding, and important tips for selecting the perfect theme to boost your productivity.
Selecting the perfect IntelliJ theme for you is not about comparing theme ratings online or going for the most maintained theme plugin package out there. Before you scroll down to our list of recommended IntelliJ themes, there are a few things to consider.
Look Yourself In The Eyes – Your Unique Needs
No two people have the same eyes. Yours might be lighter in color and thus more sensitive to light, or you might be fully (or partially) color blind. Most likely, you can get some relevant information from your optometrist, after she’s done frowning at the fact you spend so many hours in front of a computer screen. There’s also no shortage of online and offline tests for color blindness.
However, knowing the unique preferences of your eyes doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll know right off the bat what the color scheme of your development environment should be. Since your eyes are unique, some experimentation will be necessary, as well as adjustment of (or to) your coding environment.
Look Around You – Ambient Lighting, Hardware, and Multitasking
The light around you has direct impact on how your eyes react to what is in front of them. This is one of the reasons your phone automatically changes brightness to make it easier for you to see the screen taking photos at a picnic, while not being blinded by it in a dark room.
When coding in a brightly lit environment like the beach in summer (which might not be an ideal place to work as a rule) using a dark scheme would strain your eyes. On the other hand, when coding in the office (or your bedroom) in the middle of the night, a light theme will feel like it’s scratching your cornea.
It’s not only ambient lighting conditions that you should consider, but also the windows and content you see when switching between tasks on your desktop. For example, if you tend to switch between Google Docs in your browser and your IDE, the difference between the brightness of the default Google Docs view and a dark IDE theme will be torture on your eyes.
If you’re the type to care about your sleep as much as your eyes, you most likely run some kind of app or software to increase the color temperature and reduce brightness of your display according to the time of day. When trying out IntelliJ themes, be sure to test them at different times and locations (when applicable) and adjust screen or app settings accordingly.
This eternal battle between the powers of light and the powers of dark isn’t just the main storyline of the Star Wars universe, but also an ongoing argument among developers when it comes to the color schemes of their working environment.
However, since the intensity of light around your workspace might change, you should adjust. Some themes actually offer a light and dark flavor of the same scheme as to not confuse your brain with too many color changes when switching between your light and dark themes of choice at different locations or times of day.
With only one of our five recommended themes for IntelliJ being package with the installation file, it’s important you know how to import the theme of your choice.
Windows and Linux: File > Settings > Editor > Color Scheme
macOS: IntelliJ IDEA > Preferences > Editor > Color Scheme
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Now that you know how to choose, the only thing we can do to help is narrow the list of theme plugins for you to download and test to just five options. One of these is sure to cover all your needs.
Tomorrow is the day everything gets done, and nothing makes you code faster than a deadline that is tomorrow. This may or may not be the origin of the name of this multi-variant package of IntelliJ color themes, that remains very popular even after its maintainer has moved onto a different theme (base16).
Tomorrow’s theme embraces warm pastel colors with sensible syntax highlighting across its five variants: Tomorrow, Tomorrow Night, Tomorrow Eighties, Tomorrow Blue and Tomorrow Night Bright.
[DOWNLOAD]
With dark, light and even blue color schemes in the same theme, you can easily switch between “modes” to adjust the contrast and brightness to your desktop environment and ambient lighting.
Another reason for the popularity of Tomorrow is its broad support of text editors and platforms. Even if one of your apps of choice doesn’t have a downloadable package, the hex values of all the colors used are listed in the repository.
If you’re looking for a retro look with a reddish tint for those late-night coding sessions, Gruvbox is an IntelliJ theme you should absolutely check out. While minimalistic, Gruvbox comes very close to providing that perfect balance between easily distinguishable colors with sufficient contrast and eye comfort.
Available in both light and dark flavors, Gruvbox also offers three modes of contrast for both, making it particularly easy to switch between light / dark and then adjust to ambient lighting or color-correction software.
[DOWNLOAD]
Another theme package with both light and dark variants that has rightfully earned its massive popularity is Solarized. With the designer behind it clearly showing a deep understanding of color theory, this is possibly the most professionally compiled theme out-there.
Solarized does an amazing job at maintaining legibility and color consistency between dark and light themes, making it a perfect choice for users working in different lighting conditions with the same machine.
In addition to the IntelliJ package, there is an abundance of plug-ins for other terminal software, code editors and other apps.
[DOWNLOAD]
One of the most popular dark themes for IntelliJ is Monokai. It draws heavily from the original Monokai theme designed in 2006 by Wimer Hazenberg for the Sublime Text editor and by now adopted by most text editors.
Offering superb contrast while still being easy on the eyes with a not-quite-black background, Monokai is one of the IntelliJ themes of choice for developers and users with color-blindness.
[DOWNLOAD]
For most users, Darcula is the out-of-the-box IntelliJ theme but that doesn’t mean it’s no good. This classic dark theme features cheerful pastels on a bluish dark grey background.
Choosing a theme for your IDE is probably not as big a decision as deciding the Titanic didn’t need a test drive before its maiden voyage. But, still, it is your main work surface and you should feel comfortable and productive when you work. If I left out your favorite theme or there’s a new one out please let me know in the comments.
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