Can you use the new Dark theme as the base for a custom theme?

IntelliJ Platform
1

Hi,

I was wondering if it’s possible to use the new JetBrains Dark theme as the base for a custom theme.

Based on the docs here, the base theme for a custom theme is set using the dark Boolean in the theme.json file, with true setting the base theme to Dracula and false setting the base theme to Light. I would really like to be able to set the base theme to the new JetBrains Dark theme that has been the standard for a couple of years for JetBrains products.

To take this question a step further, is there any plan to enable themes to be base on the new One Island and Many Islands themes announced here?

2

Hello! Since 2025.3, we recommend to inherit your custom theme from the Islands Dark / Light themes. Please see the guidelines for how to do this: Supporting Islands Theme | IntelliJ Platform Plugin SDK

If you’d still like to inherit from the pre-2025.3 look, use ExperimentalDark or ExperimentalLight as the parentTheme.