Customizing NvChad theme Catppuccin black bg

[enoren5]

The original Catppuccin project has 3 dark themes: Mocha, Frappe, Macciato. The collection of color themes for NvChad includes one of those themes - - Mocha. I understand that having different Catppuccin dark themes isn't really necessary in the NvChad collection because the only real difference between Mocha and Frappe is a different shade of background colour - - black and a little bit less black.

Here is the source code for the NvChad implementation of Catppuccin. Notice line 6 says:

  black = "#1E1D2D", --  nvim bg

I believe this is the property I need to change. Altering that specific line isn't best practices. Best practices instead would involve writing a customization line inside chadrc.lua. That would make more sense, am I right?

To that end I resolved to changing my chadrc.lua. Below is a Put of its contents in whole. Take note that I am pretty sure the right property I wish to change is black but for the sake of redundancy and trial and error, I experimented with other background properties. Whether commenting those lines in/out (or in any combination), when I reload nvim, the background color remains the dark default.

How do I lighten the black property to "#32324d"?

-- This file needs to have same structure as nvconfig.lua 
-- https://github.com/NvChad/ui/blob/v3.0/lua/nvconfig.lua
-- Please read that file to know all available options :( 

---@type ChadrcConfig
local M = {}

M.base46 = {
	theme = "catppuccin",
  

  changed_themes = {
      catppuccin = {
         base_30 = {
           
           -- darker_black = "#32324d",
           black = "#32324d",
           -- black2 = "#32324d",
           
           -- one_bg = "#32324d",
           -- one_bg2 = "#32324d",
           -- one_bg3 = "#32324d",
        },
      },
    },
	-- hl_override = {
	-- 	Comment = { italic = true },
	-- 	["@comment"] = { italic = true },
	-- },
}

return M

Below is a screenshot of my terminal showing NvChad and my chadrc.lua. Take note that while the Catppuccin theme is loaded, you can see that the Neovim background is the darker "Mocha" color black compared to the edges of my kitty terminal emulator which is themed according to Cappuccin "Frappe" and is the lighter black that I am aiming to integrate here.

[siduck]

you cant lighten from the changed_themes table. use minty color picker to do so as that table expects hex colors only, unlike hl_override/add

[enoren5]

Hello @siduck . Thank you for your reply. As you suggested, I installed Minty the color picker. I can load the plugin and change hex colors but I can't identify where the base46 source code is for the catppuccin theme on my local system. I see the lua script in the GitHub repo here. What (I think) I need to do is identify that file locally and change line 6 using Minty. Is that correct? I've used grep and find but still can't locate catppuccin.lua.

I saw your video on YouTube. That YT video doesn't have any audio or vocal instructions. At some sections you move with the cursor and navigate nvim so rapidly that I get lost too easily and can't follow along.

Any further direction you can provide to fill my knowledge gap here in how to modify the base46 catppuccin.lua source code locally with Minty is welcome.

I appreciate the effort you've made to support the community by building Minty. The NvChad docs are great. And you are so quick to reply to issues, PR's, and discussion topics with answers. You are a great maintainer. So thank you again, my friend.

edit: grammar + sp

[siduck]

@enoren5 use changed_themes feature, pls read :h nvui

[enoren5]

Thank you for your response @siduck. You explain:

use changed_themes feature, pls read :h nvui

There may be a miscommunication or misunderstanding here. You are now directing me to base46.changed_themes at :h nvui. I believe this is the relevant part of that doc that you are referring to:

Is that the relevant passage of :h nvui that you had in mind? If so, I already saw that in my previous reading of the doc and experimented with editing those configurations. To quote my own comment I made originally, here is the screenshot where I already entered those changes:

When I shared that screenshot you followed up stating that:

you cant lighten from the changed_themes table. use minty color picker to do so

So you first tell me I can't lighten from the changed_themes table and now you are saying I can.

Can you kindly clarify a little more?

[siduck]

you can lighten colors of changed_themes, but with external tools like minty etc, cuz that table values is just hex colors. but for the hl_override or hl_add, u can lighten or mix colors in it by special syntax, minty isnt needed there

[enoren5]

Hi @siduck. You clarified:

you can lighten colors of changed_themes, but with external tools like minty etc

My chadrc.lua now looks like this:

local M = {}

M.base46 = {
	theme = "catppuccin",
  

  changed_themes = {
     catppuccin = {
        base_30 = {
           
        black = "#242459",
           
       },
     },
   },
}
return M

For the black property, I move the cursor over the hex color value and then I pass the command: :Shades. This triggers the Minty dialog box to appear. I then choose any new color (I've tried a few variations). I write the change. I reload neovim. The Catppuccin background color remains unchanged. Something still isn't right.

I am fairly certain this is the CSS property value I am trying to override:

base46/lua/base46/themes/catppuccin.lua

Line 6 in 5956688

black = "#1E1D2D", -- nvim bg

[siduck]

@enoren5 oh my bad, base00 is for bg too, add that

[enoren5]

Eureka! It works. Thank you @siduck.

For the record for anyone else who this may help but also for me to refer back to at some point, here is my final working chadrc.lua:

local M = {}

M.base46 = {
	theme = "catppuccin",
  
  changed_themes = {
     catppuccin = {        
       base_16 = { base00 ="#303446"},
       base_30 = { black = "#303446"},
    },
   },
}

return M