Readit Newsmonokai_nl commented on 15 Years of Shader Minification ctrl-alt-test.fr/2025/15-... · Posted by u/laurentlb
Thank you for making this tool. I'm calling it in a custom webpack plugin so it transforms GLSL code into a single minified string on every build / watch event. I used this setup for my latest artwork: https://monokai.com/work/origin
Working on the Monokai Pro website for my color theme for code editors, and the Monokai Pro plugin for JetBrains, which has just been released. Working out some optimizations, which will be pushed in the next update.
Monokai Pro has been running for more than 5 years now for VSCode and Sublime Text, and the original Monokai almost 20 years.
monokai_nl commented on Ask HN: Who are your favorite photography and generative coding artists? · Posted by u/PirxThePilot
Photography and algorithmic art are exactly my thing. In the past few years, I’ve been deeply exploring generative art, though I prefer calling it "Algorithmic Art" since "generative" is often linked to AI now.
Some of my works can even be drawn with a pen plotter.
Take a look: https://monokai.com
monokai_nl commented on Material Theme has been pulled from VS Code's marketplace github.com/material-theme... · Posted by u/Inityx
Nobody is gonna pay for a VSCode theme.
That's untrue. I've created https://monokai.pro, to my knowledge the first commercial theme. It's been going strong for years now.
People are willing to pay for nice things. Especially if it takes longer to create it yourself.
A theme is more than a list of colors. Monokai Pro contains custom designed icons and color filters too, and some code logic to sync it all up. It needs continued updates, as editors keep evolving with new UX/UI elements.
monokai_nl commented on I still like Sublime Text ohdoylerules.com/workflow... · Posted by u/james2doyle
This is the one app I use every day. I practically live in it. Most editors are slower and more visually cluttered, or pack so much functionality that I often get lost. Sublime strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and functionality. Probably Emacs or Vim are even more expressive, but I've never bothered to learn those, Sublime just packs enough power for me. The LSP plugins are a good addition to give Sublime the same code completion / AI functionality of other editors.
This is certainly my ignorance; but I am curious. What kinds of work are required to keep a theme up-to-date?
And, I guess it's also worth asking: would it be reasonable / possible to offer update packs / update prices for people fixing it? Or do you think there'd be even less return on that?
Re: keeping up-to-date: color themes depend on underlying syntax definitions. Every now and then these are updated and break the colors in subtle ways. Aslo, custom icon requests for files / languages, editors that update and provide new theme entry points to be colorized. These are the most common points to keep up to date.
Re: People fixing the theme: I don't disclose the source so that won't work I guess.
Thanks, I didn't know someone was to be credited for what is probably, the most common theme around.
I've ran many IDEs and text editors, I don't think any of them doesn't have a monokai named theme, exact match or not.
That said I find it difficult to derive a wage from a theme this popular and this widespread already. Or even for a theme alone. That said, I'm sure you'll find some customers.
I couldn't find at first glance what "pro" features were worth my hard earned money? Was it because the IDE shell itself would follow the theme?
The original Monokai was created in 2006, and I created Monokai Pro in 2017 to be more balanced, include a custom icon set and color filters. Here's more information about the history of Monokai: https://monokai.pro/history
The neat part about this project is that someone is choosing to see if they can make a subscription model for an attractive style viable.
The market, of course, and not the initially and loud naysayers will decide. So many things that we never thought would take off eventually did.
When you create a product, there are many different sorts of ways to make income:
* just give it away (no income)
* donations (I hear this has low income rates)
* one time fee (usually relatively high price and cost-of-entry for the buyer)
* subscription (lower cost of entry for the buyer, recurring income, easy-to-forget, facilitating continued revenue stream)
* free + money-making-gimmick / loot boxes / season pass / pay-per-key / horse armor (free cost of entry for the buyer, gamble for the developer, potentially source of HUGE returns, see: Fortnite, League of Legends, and so on)
Should be interesting to see the results. Will you be sharing those in the coming future, maybe, to see how this experiment goes?
I don't think I'll share the details in the future, but it's an experiment for sure. I've seen success by selling one-off licenses of Monokai Pro for Sublime Text and VSCode, where I used the same mechanism: everything is free to use, except you get a pop-up message every now and then. People that want to get rid of the popup or offer support can then opt to pay for a license.
I understand it's uncommon practice to ask a fee for a set of colors. The reality is that making a theme and keeping it up to date is not trivial. A color theme, custom icon graphics and IDE config, along with code to glue it all together when you switch filters does take some time to make. And the codebase is different for each editor (Sublime: Python, VSCode: JavaScript, Jetbrains: Kotlin). I think it's not unfair to ask for a small fee for this work.
You're literally selling a theme. A common one at that. No sale.
The common theme was created by me. I've tried my best to make a polished theme for Jetbrains so that all colors in the IDE and the syntax highlighting harmonize better.