A plugin for Sublime Text 2/3 for highlighting text with pretty colours.

• The easiest way is through Package Control (Shift+Ctrl+P > Install Package > Synesthesia).
• Alternatively, clone this repository into Packages/synesthesia.

• Open the Command Palette (Shift+Ctrl+P) and select New Highlighting Scheme. A JSON file containing a list of keywords and associated colours will be created for you.
• Save the file as Hello World.json.
• Select Compile Highlighting Scheme from the Command Palette.
• Click on the bottom-right corner of the window to change the syntax for the current view; Hello World will appear in the list. Click on it to select it. (You can also choose Set Syntax: Hello World from the Command Palette).
• Voila!
• If you want to make changes to the keywords and/or colours, simply compile again and Sublime Text will automatically reload it.

Most of the plugin's functionality is based on 'highlighting schemes' - JSON files with a list of keywords and the colours to highlight them with. The first step is to create such a file. Select Sample Highlighting Scheme from the Command Palette for an example that uses most of the plugin's features. You may also wish to browse the examples in synesthesia/include.

Once you're satisfied with your scheme, compile it. Synesthesia will generate the configuration files necessary for Sublime Text to highlight everything.

Keyword colours are specified as RGB in hexadecimal form (#rrggbb). You can also use colour names, like blue or red; a list of these can be found (and were taken from) here.

'keywords': {
	'hello': '#0CBDE8',
	'world': 'dodgerblue'
}

A map of options can be specified instead of a colour name or value:

'a keyword': {
	'colour': 'plum',
	'background': 'blue',
	'bold': true,
	'italics': true,
	'whole-word': true,
	'case-insensitive': true
}

• All fields are optional, including colour.
• background controls the background colour of highlighted keywords. It's used the same way colour is.
• whole-word will make sure only whole occurrences of keywords are matched. If set to true, the 'fun' in 'funeral' won't be coloured.

Keywords are specified using Oniguruma regular expressions. Don't worry if you aren't familiar with regexes: all alphanumeric strings are valid regexes, so you don't strictly need them to use this plugin.

It can be cumbersome to manage a huge list of regexes and hexadecimal colours. Highlighting schemes can be mixed into others with the include option, so you can easily separate and combine them:

{
	'include': ['LightMarkdown'],
	'keywords': {...}
}

This will cause the keywords and colours in LightMarkdown.json to be copied into the current scheme.

• The folder that the current scheme is in will first be checked for the mixins specified.
• If a mixin can't be found there, Packages/synesthesia/include will be checked next.
• Dependencies will be resolved recursively. Circular depedenceies are guarded against.
• Dependencies are loaded depth-first, in the order they are specified. If a keyword has appeared before, it won't be overridden should it appear again in a later-loaded dependency.

You can specify file extensions for your highlighting schemes under the extensions key. This is so they apply automatically when files of the type are opened.

{
	'extensions': ['txt', 'etc'],
	'keywords': {...}
}

txt will be used by default if you don't specify anything.

{
	'autocompletion': true,
	'keywords': {...}
}

If set to true, Sublime Text's autocompletion will be enabled for your highlighting scheme.

To remove schemes, select Delete Highlighting Scheme from the Command Palette, then enter the name of the unwanted scheme.

Don't delete them manually. Sublime Text will complain about that, and you might have to reinstall the package to fix the resulting errors.

• Ad-hoc highlighting of text. I personally appreciate the visual cues provided by syntax highlighting of code very much and wanted to bring the concept to text editing in general. This plugin is a lightweight and unobtrusive way to draw attention to important articles in your text, such as key terms, characters, or locations. I hope this makes writing more fun for you!
• Highlighting simple markup languages. You can see an example of this in LightMarkdown.json. It's not perfect, but it shows how you can easily define a colour theme for a regular language.
• This plugin is not an easier way to specify syntax highlighting for a programming language. That's the niche AAAPackageDev fills.

Compiling a highlighting scheme generates three files:

• A syntax definition
• A colour theme
• A settings file

The first two work in tandem, specifying a mini-language consisting of the user's keywords, along with a colour theme designed specifically for that mini-language. The settings file glues them together, causing Sublime Text to associate the theme with the mini-language. All this is done via Sublime Text's built-in mechanisms for syntax highlighting, so it's robust and stable.

Other plugins for highlighting arbitrary words do so either via named regions or by mutating the current colour theme.

• The first method doesn't interact well with live editing and is limited to only changing the background colour of text.
• The second provides a high level of flexibility but involves messing with colour theme files.

The method used in this plugin, while slightly static, is great for live editing and is much simpler to manage. I see it as the middle ground between all these approaches.

MIT