vim hlsearch text isn't readable with Solarized Light theme?

[deviantintegral]

hlsearch in vim highlights the search term in the currently open file. However, when using Solarized Light obtained from kitty +kitten themes, the text isn't readable. Here's iTerm2 on the left, and Kitty on the right. Note how the search term "kitty" is using the same foreground and background color.

I know I can modify the theme or vim settings, but is there a reason this doesn't work out of the box?

My kitty configuration is all defaults (except changing the font). Here's my current .vimrc, which matches what's in the Kitty docs except adding set hlsearch.

" Mouse support
set mouse=a
set ttymouse=sgr
set balloonevalterm
" Styled and colored underline support
let &t_AU = "\e[58:5:%dm"
let &t_8u = "\e[58:2:%lu:%lu:%lum"
let &t_Us = "\e[4:2m"
let &t_Cs = "\e[4:3m"
let &t_ds = "\e[4:4m"
let &t_Ds = "\e[4:5m"
let &t_Ce = "\e[4:0m"
" Strikethrough
let &t_Ts = "\e[9m"
let &t_Te = "\e[29m"
" Truecolor support
let &t_8f = "\e[38:2:%lu:%lu:%lum"
let &t_8b = "\e[48:2:%lu:%lu:%lum"
let &t_RF = "\e]10;?\e\\"
let &t_RB = "\e]11;?\e\\"
" Bracketed paste
let &t_BE = "\e[?2004h"
let &t_BD = "\e[?2004l"
let &t_PS = "\e[200~"
let &t_PE = "\e[201~"
" Cursor control
let &t_RC = "\e[?12$p"
let &t_SH = "\e[%d q"
let &t_RS = "\eP$q q\e\\"
let &t_SI = "\e[5 q"
let &t_SR = "\e[3 q"
let &t_EI = "\e[1 q"
let &t_VS = "\e[?12l"
" Focus tracking
let &t_fe = "\e[?1004h"
let &t_fd = "\e[?1004l"
execute "set <FocusGained>=\<Esc>[I"
execute "set <FocusLost>=\<Esc>[O"
" Window title
let &t_ST = "\e[22;2t"
let &t_RT = "\e[23;2t"

" vim hardcodes background color erase even if the terminfo file does
" not contain bce. This causes incorrect background rendering when
" using a color theme with a background color in terminals such as
" kitty that do not support background color erase.
let &t_ut=''

set hlsearch

[kovidgoyal]

I dont test every theme against every program. You are welcome to submit a PR with a fix to the theme in my kitty-themes repo. If you think there is a bug in the theme. Although more likelt its just a mismatch in color choices between vim and the theme. You should really use a solarized theme for vim itself in addition to ensure the colors are correct. Terminal themes are not a good match for editor themes the kinds of colors needed are very different.

[deviantintegral]

You should really use a solarized theme for vim itself in addition to ensure the colors are correct.

That's reasonable. I think I'd originally set things up this way with iTerm because the colours worked well and it properly supported switching vim when macOS flips to dark mode via the "automatic" setting.

It looks like https://github.com/vimpostor/vim-lumen/ now exists, and works well by listening to events instead of polling the defaults command which doesn't work for the Automatic setting.

I will file a PR updating the FAQ to include your recommendation of using a vim theme instead of relying on the terminal theme. Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

Just FYI the next release of nvim supports auto switching between light/dark out of the box.

[leiserfg]

Something like this, for reference:

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("TermResponse", {
  callback = function(args)
    if vim.go.background == "light" then
      vim.cmd.colorscheme("dayfox")
    else
      vim.cmd.colorscheme("carbonfox")
    end
  end,
})